First To The Floor: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Oct 7, 2026 · 42 min · 10 segments
Is aggressive defense centred around swiping at the ball, gambling in passing lanes, and helping on drives conducive to the "possession maxing" concept? In other words, how do players such as Paul…
Jake IssenbergHost
Wayne SpooneyHost
But what do we want to see from the preseason? So I think it's four preseason games.
will we see any evidence of the increased emphasis on forcing turnovers? Like I'm like, are we going to see any of the philosophical identity stuff? That's kind of what I want to see from the preseason.
It's like, okay, are we playing the way that we expect them to play? Are there some chain in differences in the way that we expect them to play and what are they?
And I definitely will be interested to see how we defend because honestly I stevens udoka and joe have all had a pretty similar defensive philosophy of like keep everything in front of you eliminate corners and eliminate the rim and if people are going to shoot from above the break threes or shoot mid-range jumpers like and they make them we'll live with it and that's fine and it's led to basically top five defenses for their entire run um So that would be like if we start playing more aggressively to force turnovers, it will be a significant change and it will be obvious.
So I feel like at the beginning of last season, maybe we had a couple games where it seemed like we were trapping more.
poorly done help and like we were over helping a ton that over helping is when you try to force turnovers and do a very bad job of timing your help that is often what is a you know looks like or is over helping so there's ways to be a more turnover heavy defense trapping pick and roll ball handlers you know Doubling post-ups or doubling big men anytime they get the ball, just really attacking their handle or trying to blow up handoffs by getting in between the handoff guy and the dude who's receiving the handoff.
All of that stuff is fairly high risk, though, right? Which is anathema to how we play defense for a very long time now.
But also, if you want to possession max, turnovers, especially live ball turnovers, are basically... maybe the most valuable thing in basketball because they almost always are four point swing.
They turn a defensive possession into the easiest bucket, which is a transition bucket in basketball.
So it is worth some risk to increase our turnover percentage as a defense, but, if we do it correctly and I'll, I'm going to be really, I'm going to be tracking like, what are we doing to pick and roll ball handlers? Especially when, you know, some of the young crazy wings are out there.
Like, are we trapping? Are we just like soft switching? Are we in drop? Like what's going on with that? Cause I think that will be sort of the bell weather for, has our defense changed at all?
Yeah, I'm just trying to remember where we were last season in turnover percentage.
But what do we want to see from the preseason? So I think it's four preseason games.
will we see any evidence of the increased emphasis on forcing turnovers? Like I'm like, are we going to see any of the philosophical identity stuff? That's kind of what I want to see from the preseason.
It's like, okay, are we playing the way that we expect them to play? Are there some chain in differences in the way that we expect them to play and what are they?
And I definitely will be interested to see how we defend because honestly I stevens udoka and joe have all had a pretty similar defensive philosophy of like keep everything in front of you eliminate corners and eliminate the rim and if people are going to shoot from above the break threes or shoot mid-range jumpers like and they make them we'll live with it and that's fine and it's led to basically top five defenses for their entire run um So that would be like if we start playing more aggressively to force turnovers, it will be a significant change and it will be obvious.
So I feel like at the beginning of last season, maybe we had a couple games where it seemed like we were trapping more.
poorly done help and like we were over helping a ton that over helping is when you try to force turnovers and do a very bad job of timing your help that is often what is a you know looks like or is over helping so there's ways to be a more turnover heavy defense trapping pick and roll ball handlers you know Doubling post-ups or doubling big men anytime they get the ball, just really attacking their handle or trying to blow up handoffs by getting in between the handoff guy and the dude who's receiving the handoff.
All of that stuff is fairly high risk, though, right? Which is anathema to how we play defense for a very long time now.
But also, if you want to possession max, turnovers, especially live ball turnovers, are basically... maybe the most valuable thing in basketball because they almost always are four point swing.
They turn a defensive possession into the easiest bucket, which is a transition bucket in basketball.
So it is worth some risk to increase our turnover percentage as a defense, but, if we do it correctly and I'll, I'm going to be really, I'm going to be tracking like, what are we doing to pick and roll ball handlers? Especially when, you know, some of the young crazy wings are out there.
Like, are we trapping? Are we just like soft switching? Are we in drop? Like what's going on with that? Cause I think that will be sort of the bell weather for, has our defense changed at all?
Yeah, I'm just trying to remember where we were last season in turnover percentage.
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