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alex8762

Is help defense dying in the modern NBA?

It seems like teams who play 4-5 out with 3 tall athletic wings who can knock down catch and shoot 3s, and an elite shot creator seem to routinely destroy teams who's defensive schemes revolve a lot around help defense.

This is purely anecdotal, but whenever I see teams that play a lot of help(warriors, hornets, suns) against Hawks, Timberwolves, Cavs, Nuggets Raptors, Clippers, Heat(teams with the above description) they always give up a lot of points due to leaving spot up shooters wide open, unless the team that helps has incredibly athletic defenders able to switch and close out quickly(thunder).

Now the above teams I mentioned that play a lot of help defense are undersized, so it feels like help D is more of an emergency crutch than an routinely effective strategy, implying that the team wouldn't need it if they had big switchable athletic defensive wings, i.e the necessary defensive personnel needed in the modern game.

Help D in the modern NBA seems more like a desperation play, essentially gambling for a turnover or hoping that the open shooters who the driver kicks out to won't get hot.

It feels like ideally, an modern nba teams roster should be built so that all rotation players are big, strong and athletic enough able to guard at least 1-4 positions 1 on 1, so no wing or guard has an open shot.

Bam Adebayo, Thomas Bryant, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, Aaron Gordon, Lou Dort, Julius Randle, and Onyeka Okongwu seem like players that other teams commonly gamble that they won't get hot from 3, and most times I see them play they seem to hit 50% of their 3s.

Examples; The warriors gambled that Aaron Gordon wouldn't get hot the 1st game they played the nuggets, and he ended up having a 90% 3p shooting night. Their 2nd game vs the nuggets, they let Valanciunas hit 2 open 3s in a row, though that was probably very bad luck. The suns in one of their games vs the heat gambled that Bam Adebayo would miss spot up 3s, but he ended up hitting 3-4 in a row in clutch time.

Posted Mar 8, 2026, 8:01 PM UTC

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