This year’s award ballots have been hotly debated, and for pretty good reason. For multiple awards, the “best player†may not win over a player with the "correct" or "better" narrative. April 15, 2015
In general, each of these all-in-one defensive statistics have their flaws –- both DWS and DBPM both just use available common statistics. So if blocks, steals, and defensive rebounds aren’t enough to measure defensive impact (they aren’t), then those two advanced stats are going to be skewed. ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus incorporates more things, but we’re still learning how to interpret those numbers and they aren’t available for prior years.
Even still, these are the best we have historically and while flawed, they’re flawed for everyone. We’re trying to figure out historical precedence here, so we should look at historically available stats, regardless of how good or bad they might be.
Ok, moving onto this year’s candidates.
| Minutes | DRB% | STL% | BLK% | DWS | DBPM | DRtg | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeAndre Jordan | 2820 | 32.4 | 1.5 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 3.2 | 98 |
| Draymond Green | 2470 | 22.4 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 4.1 | 97 |
| Marc Gasol | 2649 | 21.8 | 1.3 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 3.5 | 100 |
| Tim Duncan | 2193 | 26.6 | 1.4 | 5.1 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 97 |
| Kawhi Leonard | 1995 | 20.5 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 4.4 | 3.5 | 96 |
| Rudy Gobert | 2134 | 27.1 | 1.6 | 7.0 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 98 |
| Andrew Bogut | 1566 | 26.5 | 1.2 | 5.3 | 3.4 | 5.5 | 96 |
As you can see, every candidate has something with their resume that bucks historical trends. Regarding playing time,
This shows that, historically, Doc Rivers is probably right that DeAndre Jordan should be the DPOY frontrunner. And if SportVU cameras hadn’t been invented and we didn’t have rim protection statistics like we do now, Jordan would definitely win the award.
As such, the basketball community is as smart as ever. We know that defense isn’t all about steal and block stats. We know that how you fit into a defensive scheme matters and that guarding specific players can make your stats fluctuate. Therefore, Green will likely win the award, and he probably even deserves it. All the cases made for him about being the most important piece in the league’s best defense are true.
However, historically, Green shouldn’t win. Jordan should.
We’re definitely in a different time of evaluating and valuing defensive players.