SoTD: Bargnani's defensive breakdown (updated)

[supersub15]

I just signed up to Synergy Sports, and let me tell you it's worth every penny. The breakdown is fantastic, with every play catalogued and linked to a video where you can see what happens.

Here's a breakdown of Bargnani's defence on every type of play with his rank, etc. This is a simple copy-paste and 100% accurate, since every defensive play is accounted for and linked to a video. The only issue here is that it only catalogues the plays where Bargnani's man is the assignment, i.e. it does not account for rotations to other players on the court (weak side, switches, etc.), unless I find a way to get that from somewhere on the site. I'll keep digging.

Play ends in FGA, TO or FTA

Code: Select all

           Plays  PPP   FGM  FGA   FG%   3FGM  3FGA  %SF
Overall     748   0.92  269  630  0.427   52    111  6.4%

PPP = Points Per Possession
%SF = % Shooting Foul

There's a further breakdown for the following types of plays (won't get into that for now):
Isolation, Post-Up, P&R Roll Man, Spot-Up, Off Screen, Hand-off

His best defence is on the P&R Roll Man, with the opponent having a PPP of 0.7 (22 of 67). His worst is on hand-offs (small sample size) where he gets burned at a 1.33 PPP (6 of 10) rate. There are other goodies there, but this will do for now.

Ranking-wise: Overall, he's ranked 236 among all NBA players. Here are all the current centers in the league (overall ranking among ALL NBA players in parentheses).

Joel Przybilla - 0.75 (14)
Al Horford - 0.76 (18)
Andrew Bynum - 0.82 (39)
Nene Hilario - 0.82 (39)
Kendrick Perkins - 0.82 (40)
Dwight Howard - 0.82 (40)
Tim Duncan - 0.83 (51)
Mehmet Okur - 0.83 (51)
Joel Anthony - 0.83 (51)
Brendan Haywood - 0.83 (52)
Marcus Camby - 0.84 (61)
Robin Lopez - 0.84 (61)
Jermaine O'Neal - 0.84 (62)
Marcin Gortat - 0.85 (86)
Pau Gasol - 0.86 (100)
Nenad Krstic - 0.86 (100)
Brook Lopez - 0.86 (101)
Tyson Chandler - 0.86 (101)
Ben Wallace - 0.87 (120)
Andrew Bogut - 0.87 (121)
Samuel Dalembert - 0.87 (121)
Marc Gasol - 0.88 (133)
Greg Oden - 0.89 (160)
Channing Frye - 0.89 (160)
DeAndre Jordan - 0.89 (160)
Joakim Noah - 0.89 (162)
Chuck Hayes - 0.90 (183)
Serge Ibaka - 0.90 (183)
Andris Biedrins - 0.90 (183)
Anderson Varejao - 0.90 (184)
Chris Andersen - 0.91 (210)
Emeka Okafor - 0.91 (210)
Erick Dampier - 0.91 (210)
Nazr Mohammed - 0.91 (210)
Spencer Hawes - 0.92 (235)
Andrea Bargnani - 0.92 (236)
Al Jefferson - 0.93 (255)
Chris Kaman - 0.94 (277)
Roy Hibbert - 0.94 (278)
Hasheem Thabeet - 0.96 (308)
Anthony Tolliver - 0.98 (336)
David Lee - 0.98 (337)
Darko Milicic - 1.04 (398)

Keep in mind that this only measures the defence on a player's own man, not the weakside rotations.

I will get into more details about other players later in the summer...

[Dr Positivity]

Any stat that ranks Bogut, Noah, Varejao that low has real issues

[Indeed]

Meh, another Bargnani one.
I am more interested in Weems, and wonder if he can be a lock down in the future.

[supersub15]

Any stat that ranks Bogut, Noah, Varejao that low has real issues

This is not a stat. This is basically a running count of all plays by all players. There's no way to fudge this.

[Scott Carefoot]

Any stat that ranks Bogut, Noah, Varejao that low has real issues

It doesn't account for help defence, which is the primary value of all three of those players.

[Tommy Gun]

story checks out ...
This doesnt acount for help D which is where Bogut, Varejao, Noah shine.
God is David Lee bad on D...his help D is even worse than man D if thats possible

[Lionel Messi]

Any stat that ranks Bogut, Noah, Varejao that low has real issues

Noah's man to man defence isn't all that great. He's pesky, and matches up well with a guy like Bosh, but he's still pretty thin down low and can get backed down pretty easily.
Same with Varejao.
Both Varejao and Noah are one of the best P&R defenders in the league, and in a league that runs as many P&R's as the NBA does, they become really useful.
Bogut's more of a floor leader, he is a solid man defender but his real strength is help defence. He's 2nd in blocked shots and is in he top 5 in charges drawn iirc. Those aren't usually "man to man" defensive plays.

What's sad is that we ALL know Bargs' help D is terrible, but now we're finding out that he is one of the worst man to man defenders as well?

This list was pretty accurate for me too. Other than Dalembert there's no one that looks really out of place. I would have expected Dalembert to be lower.

[RapsFanInVA]

Well I hope this opens some eyes because the consensus here has been that Bargs is a good man to man defender and a poor help defender. Turns out Bargs is a poor man to man defender and an awful help defender.

But I'm sure people will rush to his defense, trying to explain that this stat is garbage even though EVERY SINGLE DEFENSIVE PLAY from the season is catalogued.

I'm really excited to read the arguments. I'm thinking "He's still learning!" and "Hey at least he's better than Lee!" will lead the way.

[J-Roc]

Meh, another Bargnani one.
I am more interested in Weems, and wonder if he can be a lock down in the future.

Yeah how about some positivity? Is Weems any good. Did DeMar get better or worse over the course of the season? Was Antoine Wright any good, since I was hoping DeMar could take his place on D?

[ATLTimekeeper]

Noah is overrated as a defender, and I'm glad there are some stats to back up this long-standing opinion of mine.

I didn't expect Bargnani would be high up, his man D is overrated here and his help D is brutal. People will praise him for the three stops he'll get on Duncan, but they'll forget that he then relents and gives up three scores. He doesn't have the tenacity to defend the post.

[supersub15]

Meh, another Bargnani one.
I am more interested in Weems, and wonder if he can be a lock down in the future.

Yeah how about some positivity? Is Weems any good. Did DeMar get better or worse over the course of the season? Was Antoine Wright any good, since I was hoping DeMar could take his place on D?

In time. I'm going to be writing some material over the summer, so it'll give me some ammo for the other players. Just wanted to get Bargs out of the way, since that's the first player I checked out after I signed on.

[Tommy Gun]

Well I hope this opens some eyes because the consensus here has been that Bargs is a good man to man defender and a poor help defender. Turns out Bargs is a poor man to man defender and an awful help defender.

But I'm sure people will rush to his defense, trying to explain that this stat is garbage even though EVERY SINGLE DEFENSIVE PLAY from the season is catalogued.

I'm really excited to read the arguments. I'm thinking "He's still learning!" and "Hey at least he's better than Lee!" will lead the way.

I think at this point, realistically, there is no one that still disputes that Bargs is an abortion defensively at the C position. The weakness of the team D magnifies his weaknesses even more.

Look, if he's going to be the starting 4 (assuming Bosh is gone) then you need a dominant eraser at the 5 (like Oden) with very good man defenders on the perimeter who can also hit the glass. It's that simple

[supersub15]

Noah is overrated as a defender, and I'm glad there are some stats to back up this long-standing opinion of mine.

I didn't expect Bargnani would be high up, his man D is overrated here and his help D is brutal. People will praise him for the three stops he'll get on Duncan, but they'll forget that he then relents and gives up three scores. He doesn't have the tenacity to defend the post.

Actually, on pure post-ups, he's pretty good. His PPP is only 0.80, which ranks him 85th among all NBA players.

[J-Roc]

^^
Thanks. How about the JJ vs Jose debate? Amir vs Reggie? Can we afford to lose a guy like Rasho? Seems whenever the other team has a player who can't be stopped, we stop him by pulling Rasho off the bench. Is Belli really terrible on D or is he actually pretty good?

[Eating a Book]

Ahaha! Supersub, you've opened the floodgates. You are the gatekeeper now. Withhold the information until they do your bidding.

[disoblige]

typo

[supersub15]

Ahaha! Supersub, you've opened the floodgates. You are the gatekeeper now. Withhold the information until they do your bidding.

Let me tell you, I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Just an amazing tool.

Apparently, 26 of the 30 NBA teams pay to use this website. Obviously, they get access to even more detailed info. But for me, this is manna from heaven...

[RapsFanInVA]

Ahaha! Supersub, you've opened the floodgates. You are the gatekeeper now. Withhold the information until they do your bidding.

Let me tell you, I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Just an amazing tool.

Apparently, 26 of the 30 NBA teams pay to use this website. Obviously, they get access to even more detailed info. But for me, this is manna from heaven...

I'd wager we are 1 of those 4 teams who don't use this site.

[Eating a Book]

Good on you for sharing. I'd be holding it over the peasants' heads like a baker at a bread line.

Dance, posters. Dance!

[Vorticity]

Meh, another Bargnani one.
I am more interested in Weems, and wonder if he can be a lock down in the future.

Yeah how about some positivity? Is Weems any good. Did DeMar get better or worse over the course of the season? Was Antoine Wright any good, since I was hoping DeMar could take his place on D?

In time. I'm going to be writing some material over the summer, so it'll give me some ammo for the other players. Just wanted to get Bargs out of the way, since that's the first player I checked out after I signed on.

Yay, can't wait to read them and at rushing to see Barg's numbers.