If you haven't done so yet, check out Henry Abbott's interview with Terry Porter at TrueHoop. The two cover just about everything, from how the team tried to cover Kevin Garnett during Wednesday's Celtics game, the development of the young players off the bench and Porter's future head coaching plans. (Well, Henry tried to ask about Porter's head coaching aspirations, but Porter artfully re-directed the attention back to Detroit's goals this year. The guy's a pro, I tell you.)
As an assistant coach, Porter doesn't get any of the attention or credit from the media that he probably deserves, so it's cool to see such a long (and it's definitely long) interview with him. This is one of those articles that I kind of want to blockquote the whole thing, but instead I'll just arbitrarily pick a couple of questions. But really, just read it all.
When Cleveland is playing defense, certainly LeBron seems like at times he's a very effective defender. Who does he guard when you guys play each other? Does he guard Tayshaun?
They move him around, really. They put him on Tayshaun some games based on last year's matchup we had with him. They put him on Chauncey at times. So again, they moved him to different they moved him to different, you know, people on our roster at times. So again, I think their philosophy is similar to our philosophy that you've just got to throw different looks at players that can really hurt you and not give him a steady diet of one thing.
Guys are too good in this league that you just cannot draw on the same type of defense night in and night out, especially in a series, best of seven. Guys are too good and coaches make too good of adjustments game after game that you have to throw different looks at them.
If LeBron were guarding Chauncey, does that mean you would be more likely to give the ball to Chauncey to make LeBron work?
Oh, yeah, you would obviously run Chauncey through a lot of screens, make LeBron have to go through a lot of screens, run some pick and rolls and make him be work in that regard, as opposed to having him stay on the weak side and not be a part of the play.So you have to keep those guys working at the defensive end as much as you possibly can by movement and that's either by pick and rolls or multiple screens or flares or things of that nature, just always have him thinking at that end, as opposed to just have him on the weak side able to lock in and zero in on an opponent and the ball.
The Playbook: Pistons Assistant Terry Porter / TrueHoop