Derrick Favors was the best defender in the league last season...

[r_u_s_t_b_u_c_k_e_t]

according to this:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-way-to-evaluate-nba-defense/

Maybe we will miss him more than we think.

And now I'll brace myself to get flamed by all the triggered anti-advanced-stats people here.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

according to this:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-way-to-evaluate-nba-defense/

Maybe we will miss him more than we think.

And now I'll brace myself to get flamed by all the triggered anti-advanced-stats people here.

Interesting... we will miss him on defense no doubt. He did some great things out there.

I'm not sure that this is a better way to measure defense. I'm just not sure there is a catch all metric that will ever tell you how good a defender is... based on the results the Draymond method produced I don't think I believe in it. Shabazz Napier was better than Draymond this year? yeah nah.

I think there are some good metrics that can be used as indicators... but a lot of good defense will be subjective and needs the expert eye test.

 

[Qman]

The real question is Favors D vs. Ed Davis' D. Is that gap bigger than the Bogdonavic's offense vs. Favors Offense. My guts says we are going to come out ahead.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The real question is Favors D vs. Ed Davis' D.

I'm sure there are many here that would like to see that head to head matchup.

 

[r_u_s_t_b_u_c_k_e_t]

The real question is Favors D vs. Ed Davis' D. Is that gap bigger than the Bogdonavic's offense vs. Favors Offense. My guts says we are going to come out ahead.

Good question! Ed shows up as a plus-defender, but pretty far down both lists (5-season and last-season). Bojan is a minus-defender on both, about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down. If Bojan is sniping like we think he can, we may come out ahead. Or maybe our system will help Bojan get his number up.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I think defense is tough to measure... My general stance is if you have an anchor and no absolute sieves then you are likely solid as a team. The guys that anchor the defenses should get the most credit for being good defenders. Rudy, Dray, Embiid, to a lesser extent Turner. The other guys just have to be competent and solid to have a good defense. I think Jeff Green and Bojan are good enough on that end that it won't sink the defense. Ed is smart and his on/off numbers last year were bananas... not sure he is that good, but he is good enough.

Perimeter guys like Danny Green are tough to measure as well.

One thing that will help the defense this year... Mike Conley's offense. He is a low turnover guy... Ricky was a high turnover guy... Those turnovers often turned into transition points because the defense isn't set. I also think having Mike run more PnR instead of Joe will help limit the team's turnovers. I think we slide a touch on defense, but that the offense is so much better that no one will complain.

 

[TheStormofWar]

according to this:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-way-to-evaluate-nba-defense/

Maybe we will miss him more than we think.

And now I'll brace myself to get flamed by all the triggered anti-advanced-stats people here.

FWIW, defense is hard to measure (as mentioned before). Favors will be missed on that end, no doubt what so ever. But some of it is simply eyetest, opinion, and conjecture. Rudy just won the Locksmith Award from the NBPA for the 2nd year in a row. Given this was voted by his peers who play with and against him, that has some merit too. Love 538 though, at least they explain their methodology.

 

[LifeOnaPlate]

I'm sure there are many here that would like to see that head to head matchup.

oh stop it :O

 

[colton]

according to this:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-way-to-evaluate-nba-defense/

Maybe we will miss him more than we think.

And now I'll brace myself to get flamed by all the triggered anti-advanced-stats people here.

I like fivethirtyeight.com a lot. They have an interesting mix of political and sports stuff.

 

[idestroyedthetoilet]

according to this:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-way-to-evaluate-nba-defense/

Maybe we will miss him more than we think.

And now I'll brace myself to get flamed by all the triggered anti-advanced-stats people here.

I'm not shocked that Rubio ended up damn near the bottom. Glad that guy is gone, on both ends.

 

[idiot]

Two (related) things I found interesting from this article (aside from looking at Jazz players' scores):

1) Nate Silver claims that defensive RAPM

(not his new DRAYMOND) ​

is the best statistic to evaluate defense, though RAPM only works well over long (perhaps multiple-year) periods.

2) His new DRAYMOND and raw defensive BPM are about equally good/bad at predicting long-term RAPM (though I wish he would have told us how good/bad), but they are not especially closely correlated with one another. In other words, you need both BPM and DRAYMOND to better predict long-term RAPM. (btw, Rubio ends up pretty high with the more comprehensive view).

 

[Ron Mexico]

Favors was really good on defense last year and will be missed at times. But we are upgraded as a team. Plus that stat is equally bad as the rest of individual stats. So many bad rankings of players on it.