The Trail Blazers have undergone a qualitative change in defense. How much have they changed?

This season, the NBA is using full-court pressure defense frequently. Almost all teams in the league are moving their first-line defense forward. Among them, the Trail Blazers have become the team with the highest defensive line for two consecutive seasons.

In this season, the Trail Blazers have used full-court pressure extensively, and the frequency is much higher than the other 29 teams in the league.

Relying on this defensive thinking, the Trail Blazers produced the most steals in the league. So far, the Trail Blazers are averaging 11.6 steals per game, ranking first in the league, and their high-pressure defense has even forced opponents to commit a turnover rate as high as 19.6%.

What is the level of this data?

The last team to create a higher turnover rate than the Trail Blazers this season was the Celtics in the 1997-98 season.

In addition, other data can also reflect this advantage:

The team's average of 23.6 interference shots per game ranks third in the league, and the defensive end's average moving distance per game ranks first in the league. It creates a large number of turnovers and creates offensive and defensive transitions, which also allows the team's rhythm to reach the second level in the league.

Although most teams this season have adopted more aggressive full-court man-to-man marking than before, the Trail Blazers have been particularly thorough and even a little extreme. Basically, as long as a goal is scored and the opponent starts serving from the baseline, the Blazers will use full-court pressure. And this seems to have become the main tone of the Trail Blazers' game. As long as they face the Trail Blazers, all teams need to face 48 minutes of full-court marking.

The Blazers certainly had their reasons for choosing this defensive strategy. In addition to former coach Billups' emphasis on defense, most of the team members are young and athletic. They can run and jump and have good physical fitness. Naturally, they will not be too bad at performing defensive tasks. But more importantly, the team collected a large number of ball-holding defenders, which gave the Blazers sufficient rotation resources to execute full-court press tactics without interruption for 48 minutes.

Looking at the general direction of the team, whether starting or substituting, the main defender will be deployed to continuously perform personal defense against the opponent's main players for 48 minutes. The Trail Blazers will press the opponent's ball carrier and try to cause the opponent to violate the 8-second violation. Even after the opponent safely dribbles the ball past half court, once the ball is dribbled to the sideline, the Trail Blazers will immediately set up a double-team trap to cause a mistake.

This defensive tactic is somewhat similar to Pippen's decapitation tactic to pressure the opponent's main point during the Bulls dynasty: pressuring the core of the command to interfere with the opponent's possession of the ball, disrupting his command of the team's offensive movement, forcing the opponent's ace to hand over the ball, thereby reducing the team's offensive threat.

This defensive strategy is more effective for teams where the ball is concentrated on a single ball-holding core, because other ball-holders in the team cannot produce the same efficient offensive production to achieve the purpose of team defense.

Among them, Holiday, Kamara, and Thybulle, three outside defenders who have been selected as the best defense, are particularly critical. As the core of the team's pressure defense, the three defensive locks have excellent game concepts and top defensive abilities. Each has different characteristics, allowing the team to continuously adjust and adapt when facing different opponents.

Before the team implemented a large number of full-court pressure defense, Kamara was already the team's best defensive player. His advantage lies in his ability to make quick judgments between defense changes and his ability to draw offensive fouls from his opponents.

After Kamara, there is Holiday, the league's veteran defensive lock. Relying on game experience and strong size, he can have an advantage against most ball handlers. Although he has declined slightly due to age, his excellent game experience happens to be the most valuable experience that the young Blazers team lacks. Then there's Thybulle. Although he was hampered by injuries after joining the Trail Blazers, he is still the team's best offensive and defensive transition maker.

If these three people stay healthy throughout the whole process, the Trail Blazers can maintain a lineup with at least two top defenders on the court. Together with the hard-working Saburo Wesley and the long-armed Lupert, the Blazers' group of defenders have their own defensive characteristics, but the common point is to try to put the opponent's ball handler under pressure. As long as the opponent's luck control is slightly short, it is not a simple matter to dribble the ball past the Trail Blazers' half.

Since the reconstruction in 2023, the Trail Blazers have accumulated a large number of defensive sharpshooters, and half of the players in the team are capable of marking the ball holder. Three top outside defenders, Kamara, Thybulle, and Holiday, were all traded to the team.

Last season, the Trail Blazers were the team with the highest average height in the league. They were superior in size and stature at every position, and they had a clear advantage in the matchup.

Among them, the forward lineup has the most obvious advantage. The forward lineup, dominated by Avdija, Kamara, and Grant, gives the team top-level switching resistance. It is not a problem when facing outside or inside players. It also allows the Blazers this season to frequently abandon the center at the final moment and form a mobile five-small lineup.

Coupled with the fact that Klingen is on the inside, the team has a complete three-line defensive system:

The first line is mainly man-marking, and after the breakthrough, the forwards assist in defense, and the final inside position also has a gate in the penalty area to protect the frame.

Based on the excellent athletic ability of the entire team's lineup, the team's first-line defenders can press their opponents more unscrupulously. Even if they are out of position, they can use their athletic ability and defensive awareness to make up for it. In addition, unlike other teams with excellent external defense, the Trail Blazers did not choose to make up for their lack of internal defense with external defense. Klingen and Lowe are excellent shot-blockers. Even if the outside is breached, the team's last line of defense is still trustworthy. This is the key reason why the Blazers can crazily oppress the opponent's ball-handler at any cost.

Of course, high pressure brings not only defensive value, but also improves the Blazers' offense. This season, the offensive and defensive transition average is 28.4 rounds per game, ranking first in the league.. When the team successfully steals the ball, the team's offensive and defensive transition advantage also begins to take effect. Avdija will accelerate the ball and launch a counterattack, or let Sharp, who has excellent athletic ability, directly attack the basket.

Taken together, high pressure throughout the court is not only the current main defensive line of the Trail Blazers, but also the starting point of the team's offense.

Looking at the team as a whole, the Blazers' pressing defense is certainly strong, but this defense is not a master key. The team ranks at the bottom of the league in limiting the opponent's effective field goal percentage, and its defensive rebound protection is not very good. Due to the large amount of contact caused by high-pressure defense, the Blazers are also at the bottom of the league in preventing opponents from getting free throws.

This means that in the Trail Blazers' defensive system, although several statistics are at the top, most are still in the second half of the league, and the team's defensive end still has considerable room for improvement.

The reason for this situation is not difficult to understand, and it mainly lies in defensive choices.

The team chooses to use high pressure to target the ball holder, which in turn causes the team's defensive resources to be too concentrated and shrunk. Often, after the opponent successfully passes the ball, it is easy to expose the outside gaps. Opponent's corner three-point shooting percentage is 43.2%, the third highest in the league.

In addition, they also prefer to shoot mid-range shots. Even because of the high frequency of early pressure from outside defenders, vacuum areas are easily exposed in the mid-range position. This also allows opponents to have the league's highest mid-range shooting rate of 50.6% when facing the Trail Blazers, and the average mid-range score per game is also the highest in the league. Even though the Trail Blazers only interfered with shots 34.9 times per game, ranking in the bottom half of the league.

In addition, the high-intensity defensive rounds coupled with the ultra-fast pace of the game seem to have caused a greater burden on the players. Less than ten games into the season, the Trail Blazers have been reporting injuries one after another, mostly to backcourt players.

To sum up, although the Trail Blazers' defense has shortcomings, its defensive momentum is strong enough, and it does not rely solely on hard work. When other teams encounter the Trail Blazers, they will inevitably need to stay focused and even formulate a safety strategy in advance to carry the ball through the half court. But considering that the Blazers can maintain multiple main defenders on the field at any time, it is difficult for opponents to use the same strategy against the Blazers.

So the question also arises. Relying on the advantage of full-court pressure, can the Trail Blazers become the best defensive team?

It is not yet certain, but what is certain is that the Trail Blazers in the new season are the most entertaining team on the defensive end.