do we have the personnel to be a good defensive team or do we have to make trades?

we are younger and we are more athletic but i would say that outside of maybe two players, we have nobody that takes pride in playing defense. (btw, those two guys are rookies and i'm not counting the old dogs). is this a situation where we hope lb can channel the athleticism from our players into a viable team defense or are our players just too offensive minded to change and become effective defensively?

watching them now, i mean, we have seen almost zero improvements defensively over the course of the season. lb is drilling them and he has a track record. so i think it lies on the players. and no matter how gifted we are offensively, our philosphy is not to outscore the opponents (like the suns). therefore we will probably never sustain a long period of winning and at best, be around the .500 mark for the rest of the year (which is better than 7-21 but i think that has more to do with our comfortability on the offensive end).

what do you guys think?

DJ... one phase at a time. The defense comes in waves.. the back to backs, are taking there toll. Realistically, though..1> we will be better as these young guys get older and 2> draft players who have demonstrated in college the will to play defensively. I'd expect when Eddie is in shape.. after the all-star break we'll be more consistent.

I think we'll be more of a .600 team after the break.

The perimeter lacks height, and stregnth and can't keep anyone in front of them. The interior lacks lateral movement, are poor help defenders and don't block any shots. This is a bad combo.

With the new rules, its really hard to keep guys in front of you because you basically can't touch the offensive player anymore. So, its important to align your team with good help (weakside) defenders in the front court