Thomas Robinson’s defense still a work in progress
By David MacKay
Considering the Trail Blazers’ other options at backup power forward, Thomas Robinson will be a huge part of their bench defense this year. Joel Freeland is big, but not fast; Victor Claver is fast but not big; and Meyers Leonard is big and fast, but not skilled. Robinson is the perfect combination of size (6’9”|240 lbs), speed, and ability to defend NBA fours, but he needs to play a little smarter this year in order to live up to his potential. At 23 years old, his eventual strengths are in a malleable state.
Right now, we are seeing some good things from him, but control has been an issue. As a “hustle” player, his energy is one of his most valuable traits. However; it does not always translate into quality play. For instance, in last night’s preseason game against the Utah Jazz, Robinson relentlessly dogged Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors with positive results, but only until his over-exuberance got him in foul trouble. Racking up two personals in under a minute, his effectiveness disappeared with his effort in the second quarter.
Robinson needs to find a balance between 0 and 60. Because he plays so few minutes behind All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge in the regular season, his fouling was not enough to keep him off the court last year, but it is still a detriment at times. In the 2013-14 season, he fouled at the highest rate (5.4 per 36 minutes) of any Trail Blazer that played in more than half of the 82 games.
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For the most part, this has been due to late rotation. Robinson does not usually pick up fouls for reaching on the drive or swiping when his man puts the ball on the floor. That’s more Leonard’s modus operandi. Instead, Robinson gets whistled for attempting to contest at the rim when he is behind the play. Like in this unfortunate highlight from last night’s aforementioned game.
via the
Footwork, positioning, and help defense have been a priority for Robinson in the offseason, so hopefully we won’t see him make this kind of mistake as often moving forward (in this case, guarding Mike Harris too high up and ball watching, resulting in a late read on the Alec Burks curl and no chance to cut it off). Before preseason began, Robinson had this to say about how he approached defensive improvement:
"“It was pretty much studying. It came more down to the mental side and watching tape. I did little things like got all my fouls on tape to see when I messed up or when I was late to help defense. Things like that. Just basically studying and trying to get smarter because that’s pretty much all it is really. If you’re in the right place most of the time then you save yourself.”"
It is evident that Robinson still has room to improve, but encouraging that he is aware of his shortcomings and working on them. He is arguably the second unit’s best individual defender when he plays within himself, so some focus on better team defense will be good for him and the Trail Blazers as a whole. Calculating his physicality and raising his court awareness will be the first steps in the right direction. He is just small adjustments away from big results.