Magic Giannison wrote:Mickey8 wrote:Giannis is playing on the team that is loaded with the defensive minded players which helps him a lot, he has as many blocks as Jokic for the season average.
Blocks? are we gonna do a Hassan Widesie discussion this year as well ?
Giannis is still #1 even without brook at the rim, in fact Giannis makes anyone he defends shooting worse on average by 7% ( anywhere on the court)
People shoot 16% against Giannis at the rim...
There is a reason why Bucks are way ahead in defense.
There are multiple individual metrics that showcases Giannis as the best defender in the league much less on the Bucks
I find it hilarious anyone trying to downplay Giannis defense when he has been elite anchor since 2016 at the age of 20
Giannis is elite defensively, no question about that
but ur oversimplifying things, the schemes that Bud can employ that tunnel certain players \ plays \ spots to a position where the offense is uncomfortable with or the defense is very comfortable with has alot to do with having Elite defensive talent around him
How would a Giannis led team fair defensviely with say...Morris + Barton + Campazzo?
Now for some facts;
the Bucks according to BBREF have a defensive rating of 110.1 which is good for 2nd in the league
Statmuse has the Bucks defensive rating with Giannis at 110.3 and in the 12 games without him - 112.6
112.6 would be good for 4th in the league
small sample size, yeah I know but try to wrap your head around it anyway:
The Bucks without Giannis have been the 4th best defense in the league
I think that tells you everything you need to know, no?
there is no reliable way to seperate individual defense - did a player shoot poorly because of the defense Giannis played on him, or was it the defense on the perimeter that forced the offense into a bad shot late in the shot clock or funneled the shooter to where they knew Giannis is lying in wait?
in reality - it's usually a combination of those things and in elite defensive teams like the Bucks - it's mostly a team effort
btw, Statsmuse counts those two games where Giannis played just a few mins as games "with him"
in reality he played 6 mins vs the Heat at home, a game where the Bucks went on to win and held Miami to 99 pts
the same goes for the Bulls game before it, where he played 9 mins and the Bulls scored a 100 pts
counting those differently will make the gap between the Bucks with\without Giannis even narrower
now again, it's very hard to seperate the individual defense from the team defense as we all know
but we can use common sense and assume, that since the Bucks have played elite defenders almost across the board (with and without Giannis) - Jrue and Lopez are the obvious ones but i'll add Jevon Carter to that list
playing him and Allen basically in place of Portis (whose more offensive minded) has helped as well, he has a DBPM of +1.9 which is elite for a guard and other advanced metrics tell a similar story about him defense
so we can assume that maybe just maybe, having all these guys play with Giannis is helping Giannis defense as well?
it's a two-way street
no1 is doubting that Giannis is the best and most impactful defender on the Bucks, that's plain to see and also supported by stats as well, he is posting the best DBPM and defensive rating on the team and we can look up a 100 stats like that one that was posted about the FG% at the rim etc
but the Bucks defense if far from being just Giannis and as good a defensive anchor as he is (and he is
) - you can't just brush aside how good the Bucks have been defensively without himright?
