Teams measure all kinds of stuff in sophisticated ways, and then they measure which of that stuff correlates most with winning games. There are three or four attributes that trump everything else in driving wins, according to team personnel across the league, and one of them is top-level rim protection. Roy Hibbert earns about $14.5 million per season on a max-level contract, and just about every even mildly analytics-oriented person I know says, matter-of-factly, that Hibbert is underpaid given his on-court value — perhaps grossly so. Some folks have pegged his value in the $25 million–$30 million range. Remember: This is a big man who shoots below 50 percent and seems to look ordinary on offense, even awkward, against every team but Miami.
Do you think this is accurate? Do you this would hold equally true of this year Hibbert's as last years?
What defensive analytic models do you think make the best case for Hibbert?
The reason I say all this is that I have a tremendous amount of respect for Zach Lowe. Not only is he extremely well connected, but he actually understands whats going on. That being said, as someone relatively familiar with analytics, I really have no idea of anything that makes Hibbert out to be a 30million dollar per year player.
I don't necessarily have a specific question, I was just hoping to discuss the value of defensive centres, the case of Roy Hobbert and measuring defence through stats.