(1) As others have already mentioned above, we often leave midfield players free in the centre of the ground when the ball is either on the wing or on our forward flank. But even worse, I think, is what appears to be an instruction to leave opposition half-forward players free. When the game was basically over yesterday, I watched Mitch Brown a bit in the 3rd quarter. He's probably a smart guy, because all he kept doing was looking for pockets of space that our defenders consistently gave him. The bombers kicked well yesterday and you just can't afford to allow a forward such space seemingly intentionally. Is this simply zone defending and a hope that our midfield can pressure the ball carrier sufficiently to make opposition kicks into forward 50 imperfect? If so, surely when an opposition midfield gets on top, we have to revert back to tighter defending down back.
I reckon something's up with our defensive structure and there's a massive disconnect between the lines, to use a soccer term. That's (most likely) on the defensive coach, because ultimately he's responsible for the team defence. I didn't touch on it in the post because it requires some time and full ground vision to do, but everything's so out of whack it makes it easy for opponents to look more well-drilled and find the holes.
(2) (arising out of a twitter comment you made): Do you think White & Murray can effectively play in the same backcourt? It feels like I have more doubt than most. A 6-4 & 6-5 guy (short in the NBA these days) who both prefer to handle the ball doesn't usually make for a great tandem. I think 1 of them will have to turn into a heavier scorer (which is I think what Pop hoped for out of Bryn Forbes) for this to work.
If Murray just gets his outside shot to something that defences have to respect (32-33% from 3 maybe?) that'll unlock everything. I'm a massive nuffie for White though and I reckon he could be anything, so there's every chance that's colouring my vision!
Who would have guessed the Spurs' season would be alive in 2019 for longer than North's...