The NBA Stopper Rankings: March Update

It seems like every other day a new stat comes out to try to help us all understand the game of basketball a little better than we did the day before.  So, in that vein, The Hoops Manifesto introduces it’s NBA Stopper Rankings – a different sort of defensive ranking system for NBA players.

When you boil it right down to its essence, what is the goal of an NBA team on defense?  It’s to prevent the opponent from scoring.  And the ways that a team can achieve that goal is by: rebounding an opponent’s errant shot, blocking an opponent’s shot attempt, stealing the ball from the opponent, or drawing an offensive foul from the opponent.  That is what The Hoops Manifesto’s NBA Stopper Rankings are all about – discovering which players in the league are best at ending an opponent’s offensive possession.
(Since big men have more opportunities to rack up many of the stats we are tracking, we’ve also including a Top Five Guard ranking)

 

Overall Top 20

Rank	Last		Boards	Steals	Blocks	Charges	Total Stops
1	1	Andre Drummond	726	117	121	1	965
2	4	Rudy Gobert	687	62	171	4	924
3	3	Giannis Antetokounmpo	714	90	101	1	906
4	6	Nikola Vucevic	702	77	86	0	865
5	2	Joel Embiid	692	44	116	1	853
6	7	Karl-Anthony Towns	651	64	118	2	835
7	8	Russell Westbrook	637	134	32	5	808
8	5	DeAndre Jordan	677	42	73	2	794
9	11	Nikola Jokic	587	96	52	5	740
10	9	Anthony Davis	498	88	135	6	727
11	12	Marc Gasol	511	79	84	26	700
12	13	Paul George	491	154	32	5	682
13	10	Hassan Whiteside	512	43	125	0	680
14	14	Jusuf Nurkic	505	71	103	0	679
15	15	Ben Simmons	491	102	54	0	647
16	20	Myles Turner	400	55	188	1	644
17	NR	Clint Capela	494	41	93	4	632
18	16	Tobias Harris	540	51	35	0	626
19	18	Deandre Ayton	496	61	66	0	623
20	NR	James Harden	403	153	56	4	616

Top Five Guards

Rank	Last		Boards	Steals	Blocks	Charges	Total Stops
1	1	Russell Westbrook	637	134	32	5	808
2	2	Ben Simmons	491	102	54	0	647
3	3	James Harden	403	153	56	4	616
4	4	Luka Doncic	456	74	24	8	562
5	NR	Bradley Beal	307	116	56	12	491

 

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