Is Jared Sullinger a poor defender or is it his team mates?

robbie84 · Post #1 » by **robbie84** » Tue Oct 6, 2015 2:49 pm

What would be the best way to work this out?

He seemed to do pretty well back when he was playing next to Garnett, and we have been discussing it on the celtics forum.

He seems pretty bad/slow but okay with his post defense.

What would be the best way to answer this question with some proof?
Has it been his defensively terrible team mates in the paint since KG left Boston? (Kelly Olynyk and Brandon Bass last year).
Or is he just a lazy, poor defender?

Thanks for your help.

Post #2 » by **bondom34** » Tue Oct 6, 2015 2:56 pm

My answer is he's completely average. He ranks 51 of 93 PFs in DRPM:
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/6

Slightly below average in rim protection among PFs:
http://nyloncalculus.com/stats/rim-protection/

And for his career a slight positive in on/off defensively, but for last year a negative. Per NBA.com's play type stats, he's in the 42nd percentile in PnR roll man defense, and 71st percentile in post up defense.

He's not good, but there are worse.

Jbcorner3 · Post #3 » by **Jbcorner3** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:09 am

bondom34 wrote:My answer is he's completely average. He ranks 51 of 93 PFs in DRPM:
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/6

Slightly below average in rim protection among PFs:
http://nyloncalculus.com/stats/rim-protection/

And for his career a slight positive in on/off defensively, but for last year a negative. Per NBA.com's play type stats, he's in the 42nd percentile in PnR roll man defense, and 71st percentile in post up defense.

He's not good, but there are worse.

Think you nailed it