Golden State Warriors Defense: “Killer” Defenders Don’t Want You To Forget Klay Thompson (Photo: AP Photo/Darren Abate)
According to ESPN.com’s Ethan Strauss, there’s a new defensive rating thought up by the folks at the “Sports Leader” that more accurately measures an individual player’s defense: Real Plus-Minus (acronym: RPM).
@ANTH88NY on Twitter pointed out something that heretofore the naked eye would have deemed obvious, that Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green are among the NBA’s top defensive stoppers:
ESPN's RPM has Andrew Bogut (#4), Andre Igoudala (#6) and Draymond Green (#15) in the top 20 DRPM @warriorsworld @SAnalyticsBlog
— Ant (@ANTH88NY) April 7, 2014
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As Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group reported after the Warriors demolished the Utah Jazz with those three players in the starting lineup:
Asked Andrew Bogut about the Bogut/Iguodala/Draymond front line. "Oh yeah, that's our killer line-up," Bogut said.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 7, 2014
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However, one player lost in the conversation was Klay Thompson, who has had game-saving or otherwise game-altering blocked shots against both Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving this season.
“Anytime you’re on the court, you’re gonna get something wrong, but we don’t miss too much. You’re not gonna get to much past the three of us,” Green said yesterday after practice, “That lineup is getting a lot of attention for us, but yet you got Klay who’s probably the best the defensive two-guard in the NBA, who’s just kind of floating under the radar.”
“He was good last year too. His on-ball defense, in my opinion, has always been good,” said Bogut, who is often the “free safety” on defense, as the last line of defense, able to see the entire court, “He gives the effort, he contests he doesn’t quit on plays. He’s kind of a bigger body on shooting guards, so he’s harder to screen.”
ESPN’s RPM chart currently has Thompson ranked 200th in the NBA. Another benchmark: David Lee is ranked 140th.
“I don’t need numbers to tell me how great defenders Andre is or Draymond is,” Warriors head coach Mark Jackson said yesterday after practice, “Also I don’t know what the numbers say about Klay Thompson, but if they don’t give him credit for the defender that he is, then I don’t believe in those numbers.”
Iguodala isn’t necessarily a fan of analytics, either.
“Sometimes numbers lie,” Iguodala said “They say numbers never lie, but I’m the opposite of that. I think numbers always lie. In some cases it can be true, so I guess it will help me in a negotiating deal or something like that, but I’m more concerned with wins and losses.”
Bogut feels the same way about analytics, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group recently tweeted:
Andrew Bogut mused about analytics: "What it does is it employs more people and gives more people things to read." http://t.co/DEeRR46cqa
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) March 4, 2014
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Green also mentioned Stephen Curry, who, incidentally, is ranked ___ on ESPN’s RPM chart.
“With that lineup, I think Steph — you know, everybody always says Steph can’t defend,” Green said, “Certain people are gifted in certain things, but Steph competes at a high level on the defensive end. He gets deflections. He gets steals.”
“He may not be the best guard, trying to take him into the post,” Green added, “Obviously, that’s not him, but you’re not just going to go around him or run circles around him. I think Steph is a very underrated defender.”
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