Synergy's top 5 worst defenders in the NBA

[RipCity71252]

Batum is overrated on D for sure. He makes some highlight reel blocks and has some defensive versatility with his length, but he plays soft on D most of the time, doesn't have great foot speed, and gets caught out of position a lot.

With that said, he far from bottom five worst. These stats don't take into account who the person is guarding and Nic takes on the toughest wing match-up most of the time.

This is true.

dont lots of teams have a guy that takes on the toughest wing matchup?

I'm just saying that he isn't as bad as what the stat portrays him to be. I'm not using it as to excuse his defense totally. He is average at best right now defensively.

[KF10]

Also, lol at Batum as one of the league's worst defenders. That's one example of Synergy's drawbacks of calculating defense.

[RipCity71252]

As much I like using Synergy, there are errors concerning ranking defense for players. They don't take account help defense from the team.

Lets say if you have Rondo defending Paul, and Paul blows right by him and settles for a 15 ft jumper, a guy like Garnett or Perkins most likely will contest the shot for Rondo. If Paul's shot is missed, Synergy counts 0/1 for Paul due to Rondo's "defense". Sometimes you get something bizarre like if a player dribbles the ball off their leg due to their incompetence, the player that's defending him gets the credit.

Also, there are several errors within the Synergy database that are completely laughable. For example, they list some videos as "xxxx defense" but it isn't "xxxx defense" it's "xx defense." You see a guy playing off the dribble but that counts for post offense. lol I also encountered videos of different players playing defense/offense. I literally saw a video on Casspi shooting a jumpshot BUT I was looking at Beno's offense vids. I was sitting there and said "this isn't Beno, it's Casspi shooting the J! I came here to see Beno shooting the jumper NOT Casspi!"

But for the most part, Synergy is an excellent source for an in-depth look at players. I mean, the best you can do is to use Synergy AND other type of sources: i.e. hoopdata, 82games, etc when you are analyzing players. Using JUST Synergy will not be enough to derive a definite conclusion on a player.

+1 Have you accessed your account lately? With me the application loads and the stats are there but no video is working...

[koolguy]

probably haven't seen a raptors game

[KF10]

As much I like using Synergy, there are errors concerning ranking defense for players. They don't take account help defense from the team.

Lets say if you have Rondo defending Paul, and Paul blows right by him and settles for a 15 ft jumper, a guy like Garnett or Perkins most likely will contest the shot for Rondo. If Paul's shot is missed, Synergy counts 0/1 for Paul due to Rondo's "defense". Sometimes you get something bizarre like if a player dribbles the ball off their leg due to their incompetence, the player that's defending him gets the credit.

Also, there are several errors within the Synergy database that are completely laughable. For example, they list some videos as "xxxx defense" but it isn't "xxxx defense" it's "xx defense." You see a guy playing off the dribble but that counts for post offense. lol I also encountered videos of different players playing defense/offense. I literally saw a video on Casspi shooting a jumpshot BUT I was looking at Beno's offense vids. I was sitting there and said "this isn't Beno, it's Casspi shooting the J! I came here to see Beno shooting the jumper NOT Casspi!"

But for the most part, Synergy is an excellent source for an in-depth look at players. I mean, the best you can do is to use Synergy AND other type of sources: i.e. hoopdata, 82games, etc when you are analyzing players. Using JUST Synergy will not be enough to derive a definite conclusion on a player.

+1 Have you accessed your account lately? With me the application loads and the stats are there but no video is working...

It seems to work for me. Sometimes Synergy is bit clunky so you should try to access it another time if you are having difficulty. If that does not work for you, I would email them or whatever to tell them what's happening...

[Tave]

No. I've charted man to man defensive stats and they are pretty accurate.

Tell me what's wrong with LeBron's defensive in this clip:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7De26SiEzI[/youtube]


Kobe scored, so LeBron must have played bad defense, right?

[mid-post]

A friend of mine who has Synergy has told me he has some of the exact same problems. I guess he's submitted a few complaints.
It kind of makes me wonder how reliable their statistics are. Also it's not cheap; you have really glaring problems but you're shelling out a pretty good amount of money.

[Kabookalu]

Hey Portland, mind swapping Batum for Kleiza for defensive reasons?

I know every fanbase has a player they like to cite as the worst in the league, but I'm also a fan of the worst defensive team in the league and although Bargnani is synonymous with Toronto's defense, Calderon is the worst culprit . He probably doesn't look as bad on his stats as he should because most of the time he actually avoids playing defense and leaves it to our big men (one of them being Bargnani) to try and clean up his mess.

[rjvir]

No. I've charted man to man defensive stats and they are pretty accurate.

Tell me what's wrong with LeBron's defensive in this clip:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7De26SiEzI[/youtube]


Kobe scored, so LeBron must have played bad defense, right?

Lebron was clearly guarding Kobe's left, stopping him from taking it inside the key. Kobe's signature shot, however, is that turnaround right handed fadeaway jumper, which he was able to take easily with Lebron's defense.

[xRapHeadx]

I'm seriously surprised Steph Curry and David Lee aren't on this list. Most times I wonder why they bother coming down on that end anyway.

[John Doe [MIN]]

How many more defensive possessions does Jonny Flynn need before he'll qualify? Actually, he may have found a loophole to the system by frequently being so far away from the man he was supposed to be guarding that Synergy wouldn't register the scorer as being guarded by Jonny Flynn.

[actrived]

meh I cant trust this.

Ive seen Boobie Gibson, JR Smith and Batum defend .. theyre far from the worst...id even say theyre above average.

I'm shocked that JR Smith knows what defense is. I love his offensive ability (minus the often ridiculous shot taking), but he is a lacking defender at best. His energy on the defensive end makes Carlos Boozer's defensive effort look Ginobili-esque.

[bobcatsinfour]

But isn't Batum the next Pippen, but better?

[Triumph36]

Thats my starting backcourt! WTFF!!!

yay cavs

[elbowthrower]

meh I cant trust this.

Ive seen Boobie Gibson, JR Smith and Batum defend .. theyre far from the worst...id even say theyre above average.

I'm shocked that JR Smith knows what defense is. I love his offensive ability (minus the often ridiculous shot taking), but he is a lacking defender at best. His energy on the defensive end makes Carlos Boozer's defensive effort look Ginobili-esque.

If you had said that about JR 3, maybe even 2 years ago I'd agree. But not lately. In fact JR's one of the few Nuggets that's been playing hard on both ends of the floor this year.

[Tommy Sneakers]

I dont really trust defensive stats. Defense is something that is hard to quantify. As a Blazer fan I guess I will comment on the Batum mention. He is a bit over-rated as a defender and he has seemed to be worse this year compared to past years, but he is certainly not bottom 5 in the league. He is a very versatile defender and almost always guards the oppenent's best perimeter player (pg-sg-sf-sometimes pf). Synergy's data likely doesn't include difficulty of the defensive assignment.

Two more things about Batum. Nobody called him the next Pippen. He has been called similar to Pippen (mostly due to body type), the first person to do that was Michael Jordan. Also the Rose thing was a misquote. He did not call him a bad defender. He said that the strategy was to make him work on D so that he is tired on the other end.

[mike-]

No. I've charted man to man defensive stats and they are pretty accurate.

Tell me what's wrong with LeBron's defensive in this clip:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7De26SiEzI[/youtube]


Kobe scored, so LeBron must have played bad defense, right?

I don't know if I would say Lebron played BAD defense, but he did make a pretty big mistake here. He had help coming from the middle, so he probably should have been sitting on kobe's other shoulder directing him towards the help. He's so athletic he was still able to contest the shot but he wasn't in great position in the first place. It also doesn't help that there was a very ineffective double and clevelands players were not on the same page defensively.

Anyways, that's a silly example. You don't draw a conclusion about a players defense from one play. When you are looking at synergy's numbers the assumption is that with a large enough sample you can minimize the effect of possessions where good defense is played despite the opposition scoring.

[thegreatblaze]

But isn't Batum the next Pippen, but better?

No one said Batum was going to be the next Pippen, let alone better, we said he had similar length and a playing style. Jeez will people let that go already, even Michael freaking Jordan compared Batum to Pippen.

[Chrome]

Derrick Rose had a good laugh at this list.

[Tave]

Lebron was clearly guarding Kobe's left, stopping him from taking it inside the key. Kobe's signature shot, however, is that turnaround right handed fadeaway jumper, which he was able to take easily with Lebron's defense.

I don't know if I would say Lebron played BAD defense, but he did make a pretty big mistake here. He had help coming from the middle, so he probably should have been sitting on kobe's other shoulder directing him towards the help. He's so athletic he was still able to contest the shot but he wasn't in great position in the first place. It also doesn't help that there was a very ineffective double and clevelands players were not on the same page defensively.

Guys, he played PERFECT defense; he had position on him the whole time. That shot was literally unguardable. If someone is going to take it, you can't stop it. The only way you can defend a shot like that is by having the shooter miss it.

When you are looking at synergy's numbers the assumption is that with a large enough sample you can minimize the effect of possessions where good defense is played despite the opposition scoring.

You can't "minimize" it because it happens all the time. It's the nature of the game. There's truth to the statement, "good offense beats good defense." How else do you think teams score 100 points against other teams who are intent on stopping them?