Special_Puppy wrote:Sane wrote:ESPN has made NBA fans forget that defense is half of all possessions, all minutes and half of the entire game of basketball. The best defensive player in the NBA is as statistically impactful as the best offensive player in the NBA. It's mathematically impossible for that not to be the case. Sure in any random year the best offensive player can be better or worse, but in general it's roughly the same. You can't play more offense than defense, do you get it?
This is untrue according to the vast majority of data. Offense is roughly 50-60% more important than defense in player valuations.
That's not the data. That data just shows the teams invest more in offense, and that can for example be attributed to wanting more sales.
In all of NBA history except for a few exceptions, teams have had to be top 10 defense and top 10 offense. That's a statistically stunning outcome. There's no reason it shouldn't be top 12 and top 8 or top 5 and top 13.
There's no reason this wouldn't change while the league gears the rules towards easier offense for 3 straight decades. You would think that with the explosion of offense, this would slip towards offense. Hasn't slipped an inch.
This thing is the backbone of basketball. You can't change it for as long as the total number of offensive possessions are equal to the defensive possessions and all 5 players on a team can be attacked.
Defense is exactly equal to offense. Your data shows that teams invest more in offense, and that's exactly why smart teams tend to invest more in the undervalued asset called defense.