The NBA Stopper Rankings: February 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	6	Andre Drummond	550	92	96	1	739
2	1	Joel Embiid	594	32	105	1	732
3	7	Giannis Antetokounmpo	569	77	80	1	727
4	4	Rudy Gobert	538	53	128	1	720
5	5	DeAndre Jordan	593	36	63	2	694
6	8	Nikola Vucevic	562	58	69	0	689
7	6	Karl-Anthony Towns	494	53	101	2	650
8	10	Russell Westbrook	500	111	23	3	637
9	2	Anthony Davis	441	74	115	3	633
10	13	Hassan Whiteside	445	38	110	0	593
11	16	Nikola Jokic	459	83	37	3	582
12	9	Marc Gasol	422	65	67	18	572
13	17	Paul George	389	129	26	3	547
14	11	Jusuf Nurkic	396	58	88	0	542
15	15	Ben Simmons	400	76	43	0	519
16	20	Tobias Harris	438	42	28	0	508
17	18	Kevin Durant	379	46	71	3	499
18	14	Deandre Ayton	404	44	50	0	498
19	NR	Jarrett Allen	363	34	94	0	491
20	NR	Myles Turner	300	39	145	0	484

Top Five Guards

Rank	Last		Boards	Steals	Blocks	Charges	Total Stops
1	1	Russell Westbrook	500	111	23	3	637
2	2	Ben Simmons	400	76	43	0	519
3	3	James Harden	313	118	42	2	475
4	NR	Luka Doncic	334	57	15	6	412
5	5	Jrue Holiday	236	99	52	2	389

 

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