Bruce Bowen - Defensive Specialist

[beau_boy04]

He's the defensive shutdown specialist on the San Antonio Spurs. He could shut down any players playing the 1, 2 and 3 spot. He is the man. He might never lead the league in steals but his defense is superb!
He was named to the All-Nba Defensive Team this year, not sure about last year. But yeah I shut down Kobe Bryant during the regular season, last year finals, and he is always guarding the best perimeter guy from the opposing team. And so far he's done an excellent job on Richard Hamilton. There's like a demon inside of him. He's so good that only few players are capable to have great games having him guarding them.

I think he's even better than Ron Artest.

What do you guys think? because what I see in Bowen is the best perimeter defensive guy in history mmm maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit because Scottie Pippen was really good too.

Oh well any opinions?

[MaD_hAND1e]

......But yeah I shut down Kobe Bryant during the regular season, last year finals......
Oh well any opinions?

wow!!!? You shut down Kobe Bryant? Which team do you play for? Whats your jersey number?

I think Bruce Bowen has been on a few all defensive teams. I dunno whether he is better than Pippen, but he sure does get under the attackers skin and frustrate them. btw, anyone see that story on bowen during half time on ESPN?

[baller status]

i like how it has to take the nba finals for him to be noticed as an excellent defender...


Hes not intimidated by great offensive players and gets under their skin just enough to make the opposing player be too aggressive on offense-which in most cases results in turnovers and bad shots. Some good players have come to strongly dislike Bowen because of his tenacious defensive. People criticize him saying that he plays dirty by slapping, kicking, and pushing the offesive player sometimes.

[MaD_hAND1e]

i like how it has to take the nba finals for him to be noticed as an excellent defender...


Hes not intimidated by great offensive players and gets under their skin just enough to make the opposing player be too aggressive on offense-which in most cases results in turnovers and bad shots. Some good players have come to strongly dislike Bowen because of his tenacious defensive. People criticize him saying that he plays dirty by slapping, kicking, and pushing the offesive player sometimes.

hmm.. I wonder how Jordan in his prime would play Bowen? Since Jordan is known as one of the most mentally tough guys and a trash talker, maybe Jordan could get under Bowen's skin instead?

[allamerican08]

its a general rule in basketball "an agressive offender will always beat agrassive defender"!

By the way, it took for Bowen to reach the finals for pple to notice his D because in the playoffs and finals is where the best get their name!
eg. would u rather have on ur team:
Prince or Melo
Francis or Nash
T-mac or Kidd

etc... some players can play under pressure better than anyone! that why Detroit picked to keep Prince over drafting Melo!

[_marsal]

He's a great defender, but i don't think he's better than Ronnie...

[Fenix]

Artest is bigger, stronger, can also defend PFs if necessary and is also better overall defender (IMHO).

[Boyk]

ive always been a fan of Bruce Bowen, hes a lockdown defender who does it without the stats, stays in front of his man, and well i guess you could say plays awesome fundamental D


Bruce and Tim are the only guys i like out of San Antonio lol

[#12]

hmm.. I wonder how Jordan in his prime would play Bowen? Since Jordan is known as one of the most mentally tough guys and a trash talker, maybe Jordan could get under Bowen's skin instead?

Jordan would probably use off ball screens to get past Bowen. Also in the series, Bowen guards Prince, and not Hamilton so I think Bowen isn't a good off the ball defender as Ginobili.

[Riot]

I can't wait for the Timberwolves to be in the Finals so people can realize how great of a defender Trenton Hassell really is.

Anyways, back on topic.

[Jackal]

I knew Bowen was one of the best defensive stoppers awhile back now, the only reason SA beat Phoenix was because Bowen clamped down so hard on Marion. Marion's numbers were awful.

Btw, I know Hassell's a good defender too because of the LA vs T'Wolves series. Hassell did a great job of guarding Kobe but he tends to get frustrated, his constant jabbing attempts gets him fouls. His long arms help on the defensive end. He's not better than Bowen, but he's good.

The thing is, Bowen doesn't seem to tire chasing Hamilton around. That was Kobe's task last year but he didn't have enough energy to keep trying to drive the ball on the offensive end AND put up with Prince managing to stay ahead of him and to top that off chase Hamilton behind screen after screen. Since Bowen doesn't have the pressure of having to score, he can reserve energy for the defensive end.

Which reminds me, Prince is a great defender because he manages to A) stay in front of you and B) his long arms are always in your face if and when you settle for the jumper. It's logical you'll settle for the jumper because after a numerous times of trying to get to the basket and not being able to lose Prince to get to the basket (and maybe even being called for a couple of charges due to frustration), you'll eventually settle for the shot and then there he is again, with his long ass arms right in your face.

Ginobili's a solid defender too, he's got the stamina and he's a fiesty little motherfucker.

[galvatron3000]

How often does Artest guard the best perimeter player on the opposing team, let alone shut them down?

[Indy]

How often does Artest guard the best perimeter player on the opposing team, let alone shut them down?

Pretty much... all the time.

He completely owns Paul Pierce. The amount of nightmares PP has had about Ron Artest are probably in the millions.

Ronnie does a great job against 2s, 3s, and 4s. He can guard so many different kinds of players and his intimidation factor is absolutly amazing. When he is guarding you, you don't want the ball.

Ron is the best defender in the L hands down.

[Jackal]

Funny how no one realised that when he was with Chicago. In the few games I got to watch, Artest completely bamboozled Bryant.

Now a lot of Pacer fans suddenly see him as the best defender in the league.

[cyanide]

He completely owns Paul Pierce. The amount of nightmares PP has had about Ron Artest are probably in the millions.

Ronnie does a great job against 2s, 3s, and 4s. He can guard so many different kinds of players and his intimidation factor is absolutly amazing. When he is guarding you, you don't want the ball.

Ron is the best defender in the L hands down.

Oh yeah, he definitely frustrates Paul Pierce. One time, I saw Pierce posting up Artest, and then spun around to take a jumper, and Artest actually blocked Pierce without hardly jumping! That's impressive.

Artest was regarded as the best defensive player even when Bowen was still around, and because Artest's not playing, and Bowen's in the Finals, of course you're going to hear more about Bowen. Don't get me wrong though, Bowen does play tenacious D, and he can really frustrate his opponents (See: Vince, Allen)

[j.23]

bowen's defense is tenacious but you gotta realize that he doesn't exert that much (if any) energy on offense unlike the duncan's, garnett's, artest's, pippen's and jordan's in the world. he exerts all his energy on the defensive end

[maes]

Hassling Rip isn't the biggest defensive feat in history, i like Rip but this isn't MJ or Bird we're talking about here. Rip overachieves basically every night he plays, so let's take this into perspective.

Stick Artest or even Kirilenko on Rip and you'd see Rip going goose-egg.

[Maaarf]

Rip overachieves basically every night he plays

Do you even know how ignorant that just sounded? I bet it sounded better in your head.

[cyanide]

maes: You got a point about the Rip-Bowen matchup. Who actually frustrated Bird when he was playing? One player comes to mind, and that's Michael Cooper.

Maybe Sauru could help me out on that one.

[Sauru]

michael cooper definetly got on birds nerves but i would say that the pistons as a hole did it better. where cooper would play top notch legit defense the pistons would just constantly beat up on bird, kinda how the knicks played jordan.

like someone said about bowen in this thread, cooper didnt have to worry about offense so he could put forth all his energy on defense. rodman was the same way and it was why he was such a good defender/rebounder. if all you do is shoot 3's and play defense you can basicly play non stop all night long without ever getting tired.

[maes]

Rip overachieves basically every night he plays

Do you even know how ignorant that just sounded? I bet it sounded better in your head.

No...did it sound bad? Lol.

I mean in basketball certain guys are considered overachievers, all the time because they don't have the physical gifts of guys like LeBron or Shaq, they play with a lot of heart and hustle. Guys like Jerome Williams, Reggie Evans.

I consider Rip not physically gifted compared to Kobe, LeBron, Tracy, but he scores right up there with them. I mean Vince Carter can "slack" his way to 24 points a game, Rip works hard for his 24.

[air gordon]

bowen is an above average defender who greatly benefits from having perennial all nba defender tim duncan behind him.. and now nazr mohammed

comparing him to the all time greatest defenders is just wrong

actually rip gives artest some problems. artest's strength is on-ball defense/position defense, not chasing a guy around screens

[Matt]

^^exactly, Artest hasnt done a great job on RIP. Bowen on the other hand has gotten RIP frustrated for whatever reasons.

it's odd how Bowen is a tough defender even though he doesnt have any defensive physical qualities. No athleticism, no speed, no height.

a once great on the ball defender was Eric Snow, man he used to play some tough defence always picking up the other teams best guard because Iverson couldn't.

[Boyk]

^^ yes matt, so true.

i recall Kobe even admitting that Eric Snow was his toughest opponent defensively.

[Riot]

KG called Clifford Robinson the best defensive big man that has ever guarded him.