Flip Saunders’ Zone Defenses: Enjoyed by the Modern NBA

Flip Saunders has a tough job.

That job became infinitely more difficult when first Ricky Rubio and then Nikola Pekoivc went down with injuries. To make matters worse, third-string center Ronny Turiaf has missed all but two games this year with a sore hip. There have been other injuries and absences affecting starters Kevin Martin and Thaddeus Young, but the lack of depth at the center position is the biggest ongoing issue.

Gorgui Dieng has been up-and-down but overall good for the Wolves in Pekovic’s absence, but has played 30.3 minutes per game. The other nearly 18 minutes of play at the 5-spot each game have been occupied by non-centers such as Robbie Hummel, Anthony Bennett, and even Thaddeus Young, forcing Saunders to get creative with his defensive schemes. After all, Anthony Davis, Tim Duncan, DeMarcus Cousins, Larry Sanders, Robin Lopez, DeAndre Jordan and others won’t be slowed down by Hummel or Bennett in a one-on-one post situation.

So Saunders has often turned to a series of different defensive zones. And while it’s important to give the offense different looks and keep them guessing as much as possible, especially with a dearth of size in the paint, throwing some kind of 1-3-1 (or 3-1-1?) zone at modern-day, efficient NBA offenses like Houston, Portland, and the Clippers simply isn’t going to be very effective.

Case in point was the opening few possessions of Monday night’s debacle at Staples Center. J.J. Redick went off for 12 of the home team’s first 18 points, including this wide-open three-ball. (Apologies for the poor quality on some of these images. Slow internet…)

That sure looks a lot like a 3-1-1 zone, doesn’t it? It probably wasn’t supposed to be, but it took on that appearance. And what/whom is Andrew Wiggins guarding on the right elbow? There’s literally nobody with 18 feet of Redick, who’s standing all along in the corner.

It’s unlikely that Saunders is unaware that the corner three-point shot is widely understood (and correctly, I might add) to be the most efficient shot in basketball, but I won’t rule it out after watching the Clippers sprint out to an easy early lead.

While it’s probably unfair to pull a few possessions out of a game and claim that Saunders’ defensive schemes are horrible, it’s a bit hard to believe that anyone would think that a zone would work against the Clippers, who have made the second-most three-pointers in the NBA so far this season. Or the Trail Blazers on Sunday evening, who currently sit third in the league in made threes.

There’s no harm in trying something to see if it works, right? Sure, but playing a zone, especially a 3-1-1-, against the likes of the Rockets, Blazers, and Clippers is like walking directly into a fire expecting not to get burned.

Let’s look at the third quarter of Monday’s loss to L.A. The Wolves weren’t in that horrendous zone anymore, but it didn’t matter.

Check out Matt Barnes, waving his hand, all along in the corner by the Clippers’ bench. That’s an example of defenders simply not paying attention to the level of help that they’re actually giving. Help defense is important, but you cannot leave an entire third of the floor uncovered. It starts by allowing easy penetration into the paint, but now Shabazz Muhammad and Young are each effectively guarding nobody.

The result? This wide, wide open shot.

Oh, and the pick-and-roll defense? Absolutely atrocious in the absence of Ricky Rubio. Let’s watch a pair of Wolves practically run into each other while successfully managing to guard neither the ball-handler or the roller.

Yep, that’s two Wolves congregating at the right elbow while Chris Paul dumps the ball to Blake Griffin with nobody within five feet of him, or between him and the basket. Not exactly a clinic on how to defend the pick-and-roll.

The Wolves are generally a mess in all aspects of the game right now, of course. And they’re young and missing three starters, so it’s not completely unexpected. But a lack of effort or understanding of match-ups and/or scheme is unacceptable.

To Saunders’ credit, he mostly moved away from a zone after a handful of easy baskets for the Clippers, but it was a tenuous idea to begin with. As long as the Wolves are shorthanded and undersized, they’ll be playing catch-up in trying to guard the opposition.

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