Just thought this article would make for interesting reading for a lot of people here. Here is a snippet- the whole thing is worth reading.
The Nuggets have built their defense in unorthodox fashion. As observed by Dan Rosenbaum in an interesting recent Boston Globe story on the NBA's improved tracking of statistics, the Nuggets have few players known for their defense beyond Camby. Nonetheless, Denver leads the league in both steals (9.and blocks (6.
On top of that, the Nuggets also have the even more unusual ability to get steals and blocks without committing fouls in the process. The propensity to take risks and foul to generate a steal or block a shot is a big reason why those two stats aren't always positive defensive indicators (though at the player level, as apparently at the team level, the combination of both steals and blocks is very often a good sign of an impact defender).
Denver gets steals, per-possession, at a rate that is 19.9% better than league average. Dating back to 1977-78, there have been 34 NBA teams that have stolen the ball at least that well relative to their league. Just eight of them were above-average in terms of keeping opponents off the free-throw line, which the Nuggets do 5.2% better than league average. Surprisingly, a strong majority of the 72 teams that have blocked shots more frequently than the Nuggets do relative to league average (28.0% better) have been above-average at avoiding free throws, but nobody has combined all three skills quite like Denver has this year. What the Nuggets are doing on defense, then, can be said to be relatively unprecedented.
