Had them somewhat switched around. Transitions is the main secondary for defending against the opponent improving position, def grappling still helps with it though. So if you had such solid knowledge of this it might have helped had you said what part I was wrong about rather than just saying "Your wrong".
And Mike's quote actually does imply that you only need transitions if you're attempting to improve your own position. Probably wasn't the intention though, but it is what it is.