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
| Boards | Steals | Blocks | Charges | Total Stops | ||
| 1 | Joel Embiid | 279 | 12 | 49 | 0 | 340 |
| 2 | Rudy Gobert | 224 | 23 | 50 | 0 | 297 |
| 3 | Anthony Davis | 199 | 34 | 57 | 2 | 292 |
| 4 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 223 | 32 | 28 | 0 | 283 |
| 5 | Hassan Whiteside | 203 | 13 | 61 | 0 | 277 |
| 6 | Andre Drummond | 205 | 29 | 37 | 0 | 271 |
| 7 | Karl-Anthony Towns | 209 | 22 | 37 | 1 | 269 |
| 8 | DeAndre Jordan | 230 | 13 | 22 | 1 | 266 |
| 9 | Marc Gasol | 180 | 36 | 31 | 7 | 254 |
| 10 | Nikola Vucevic | 201 | 24 | 25 | 0 | 250 |
| 11 | Kevin Durant | 181 | 23 | 27 | 1 | 232 |
| 12 | Clint Capela | 161 | 10 | 50 | 1 | 222 |
| 13 | Ben Simmons | 165 | 33 | 18 | 0 | 216 |
| 13 | Nikola Jokic | 166 | 31 | 17 | 2 | 216 |
| 13 | Nikola Mirotic | 181 | 19 | 15 | 1 | 216 |
| 16 | Paul George | 143 | 48 | 18 | 1 | 210 |
| 17 | Deandre Ayton | 177 | 13 | 19 | 0 | 209 |
| 18 | Enes Kanter | 185 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 208 |
| 19 | Robert Covington | 116 | 52 | 34 | 1 | 203 |
| 20 | Tobias Harris | 176 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 199 |
Top Five Guards
| Boards | Steals | Blocks | Charges | Total Stops | ||
| 1 | Ben Simmons | 165 | 33 | 18 | 0 | 216 |
| 2 | James Harden | 100 | 45 | 12 | 0 | 157 |
| 3 | Justin Holiday | 98 | 42 | 13 | 0 | 153 |
| 4 | Jrue Holiday | 84 | 41 | 19 | 2 | 146 |
| 5 | Kyle Lowry | 92 | 32 | 9 | 10 | 143 |
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