OKC Thunder Past, Present Dish on Mysterious Modern NBA Defense

Defense is one of the hardest ends of the floor to evaluate from an outside perspective, here is what those inside the NBA think is the most misunderstood part of that end of the floor.

Jan 20, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) drives / Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

With each passing day, the National Basketball Association shifts more and more in favor of the offensive end of the floor. Firework dunks, 3-pointers that fall from the sky like pelts of confetti, dazzling passes and enough points lighting up the scoreboards like lasers at a Pink Floyd concert.

As scoring booms in the NBA, it is not from a lack of defense despite what certain family members might spout at every family gathering.

No matter the fact that every talking head will spit out hot takes, reflect glowingly of a mythical bygone defensive era and criticize the new-aged millennial millionaire players as lacking effort, the real issue lies with us.

Those quick to lambast elder athletes and coaches with the signature "the game has passed them by," tagline fail to realize they are the ones who have been passed up in the scoring age of the NBA.

It is easy to break down and stand in awe of a monster jam that puts a player on a lock screen (since we are not making posters anymore), but not so easy to opine about a solid defensive rotation in the midst of game 45 in Charlotte that led to the dismantling of an entire possession.

We are the ones who have failed the game with a lack of understanding of the most complex, convoluted, mysterious and veiled portion of the game.

Part of the reason is simplicity and predictability. It is far easier to guess what the mission was on a single offensive play than to be certain who had what assignment defensively. From zone, cross-matching, switching and the lack of hearing audibles on the fly, sometimes a busted defensive play gets pinned on the wrong player or the open shot from player X was actually by design.

The other factor is how good offensive threats have gotten, nearly able to score at will even against perfect defense. In addition, our own expectations have not shifted along with the game. This is not your grandfather's peach basket game.

That is before you factor in the various ways an offensive player can get an added bonus or bailed out with a waltz to the free throw line.

"There are so many different ways offensive to draw fouls... there is an art to getting fouls, there is like a sell aspect to it," OKC Thunder forward Jalen Williams explained "You are playing so hard and you are trying to gauge how physical you can be, and you have to see how the game is being officiated. That has been my biggest hurdle and something any defender would say."

Not only do the zebras change their stripes night-to-night but on a player-by-player bias, "Certain guys get certain calls," Williams' Thunder teammate Chet Holmgren interjected before adding: "You have to always be competing throughout a game [and every] single play,"

For those scoring at home, offensive players are bigger, stronger, faster and more polished than they have ever been with no consistent rules of what you are legally allowed to do to defend them.

Of the top ten defensive teams by defensive rating, six of them rank in the top half of the league in limiting personal fouls. However, the four remaining outliers sit at 17, 19, 23 and a jaw-dropping 28.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said the most miss understood part about the defensive end of the floor is that "most of defense is invisible, a lot of times the things that get overlooked are the things that are not happening because of the presence of defense or a defender."

Seeing is believing, and while you never miss a bucket going in the basket, what is often missed, especially in real-time viewing, is the amount of times offenses have to change their strategy because they are not allowed to drive on a certain rim protector or can't shake free from the shackles of a pesky defensive ace on the perimeter.

The NBA has been building to this point for a long time. In 2007-08, the league scoring average was 99.9 points per game, with the nightly total sitting at 114.3 in the 2023-24 campaign.

NBA Legend Kevin Durant has seen that scoring boom firsthand since his rookie season, taking part and facing off against both good and bad defenses in that span.

"It is a five-man game, you can have a great defender and four mediocre defenders around him and you will be a bad defense. You can have four great defenders and he can mask one guy that is a bad defender. It is a team effort, a team concept. You can not build a great defense without everybody on the same page and understanding one another," Durant explained.

While there is not an advanced metric for defensive switches called out per minute, it is clearly a valuable part of that end of the floor.

On top of being an elite athlete, adjusting to an on-the-fly rule book and attempting to guess a scripted display of poetry, you also have to be a masterful communicator to even have a chance at merely slowing down the biggest revolutionary offensive attack since the battle of Waterloo.

Though, while this can all seem overwhelming and near impossible, a lot of the problems get taken care of with a simple assignment, which is the most important ingredient: Play hard.

"If you just do simple things, you can be an impactful defense. Playing hard is something everybody talks about, but there is no way you are a good defense if you do not have people that play hard," Kameron Woods, G League head coach and the All-Time Blocks leader in Butler University history explained "You have to pursue through screens, make plays at the rim, rebound, there is no technique or skill I can teach you to make you do that better. It is all about effort."

"I think there are a lot of clouds around making a good defense, and it is like, if you have [effort and communication] alone before we even talk about what coverages to play in pick-and-rolls, you will be decent," Woods declared.

It should be obvious that NBA defenses have not gotten dramatically worse. We have fallen behind the times on how to evaluate the game. You no longer go to a convenience store expecting to purchase an R.C. Cola and a Moon Pie for a quarter. You should no longer expect NBA defenses to hold offenses to the sub-100-point games of yesteryear.

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