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OKC are elite defensively with him & one of the worst defensive teams in the League without him. 3 game losing streak since he went down & are 4-8 overall in games he's missed.

One of the most underrated players in the League & OKC's Draymond. People that claim he shouldn't be in the League because he can't shoot Free Throws should hang their head in shame.

Paul George is better imo. He's taller, longer and more athletic. And by virtue of being able to anchor an entire defense vs defending on the perimeter in a league built for perimeter oriented players to thrive (no hand checking, 3 in the key, zone/help allowed) a elite defensive big will simply be more impactful than an elite defensive perimeter player. Who are the greatest defenders ever? Guys like Hakeem, Ben Wallace, Bill Russell, DRob ect...

He's definitely in the argument and its nearly impossible to rule out that he is.

He was incredible this year especially

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He's elite

MrBigShot wrote:Paul George is better imo. He's taller, longer and more athletic. And by virtue of being able to anchor an entire defense vs defending on the perimeter in a league built for perimeter oriented players to thrive (no hand checking, 3 in the key, zone/help allowed) a elite defensive big will simply be more impactful than an elite defensive perimeter player. Who are the greatest defenders ever? Guys like Hakeem, Ben Wallace, Bill Russell, DRob ect...

No. No, he's not.

Yes, and this season I don't even think its been close. The fact a perimeter player, under 6'8 was putting up a 4.2 DRPM is quite staggering. He'd only be the 2nd player under 6'8 to have a DRPM over 4.0, Iggy in 2014 was the only other guy in the first season of RPM.

Not that RPM is everything, but this season with a lot of offensive pressure being taken off of him, he was able to truly go 100% on defense and really anchored that team, maybe even more so than Adams.

Draymond, whiteside, baynes, gobert, kawhi are in that argument.

I'd obviously rather have a guy like draymond who offers great defense and good offense than a guy who offers more elite defense but bad offense like Roberson, sefolosha, nurkic, mbah moute though obviously.


A team full of solid defenders is usually better than one great defender. The great defender can be game planned for. Whereas a team full of solid defenders who can switch is really tough to expose

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Paul George’s defensive impact drops significantly without Andre. Basically all of the metrics that said the thunder were significantly better with Roberson, are now being proven correct for those who like the eyeball test. George is a good one on one defender but George can’t clean up all of the messes Russ leaves when he daydreams on defense. Andre prevented a lot more embarrassing scenarios like Russ had last night.

he's probably not the best in the nba but the thunder are a house of cards defense that is constructed around andre roberson and steven adams doing specific tasks which offset the ambivalence of russell westbrook and incapability of carmelo anthony. i would say that with kawhi leonard, he is the best defensive wing in the league.

the starters with andre roberson this year in okc are an elite defense allowing < 100pp100. without him, the starters are allowing 120pp100. he's having an impact like he's hakeem olajuwon or bill russell. he's not that obviously. the team (especially westbrook, who roberson played 90% of his minutes with the last three seasons) just got used to him doing what he does and doesn't know how to defend without him.

By the way, I don’t know if he’s the best defender but he’s close. He maybe did more for his teams defense than anyone else. Barring some significant trade, the thunders season is now capped at a quick first round exit at best.

Hes the only overall good defender on OKC. Adams cant defend the pick roll and his footspeed with excuse isnt good enough to keep up with bigs today. Russ gets lose on rotations on ball is fine, PGs on ball is good, but when he gets beat on ball its very apparent, and his closing out on rotations is sometimes missed, you all know the issue with melo obviously.

Can he guard C's like Green.

2nd in Defensive RPM among all players (for a guard, this is insane), and is + 11.4 in net rating.

OKC is 4-8 when Roberson does not play.

Yeah, he's definitely in the conversation, and SEVERELY underrated.

Utah was top 3 defense early this year. Not sure about Gobert's first injury, but during his 2nd injury, Utah was the worst defensive team in the league.

Since he's been back, Utah has been #1.

Nobody has talked about him because of the injuries, but if he stays healthy he should be right there for DPOY.

Knrstz wrote:By the way, I don’t know if he’s the best defender but he’s close. He maybe did more for his teams defense than anyone else. Barring some significant trade, the thunders season is now capped at a quick first round exit at best.

I think you hit the nail in this comment from yesterday:

Knrstz wrote:

BallerTalk wrote:Those Roberson airballs are looking a whole lot more tolerable right now.

For people that pay attention to the thunder we knew our season was over when Andre went down. National media isn’t smart enough to realize that Dre was playing lockdown defense and also covering for Russ and Melo.

KyrieEarthing wrote:Draymond, whiteside, baynes, gobert, kawhi are in that argument.

I'd obviously rather have a guy like draymond who offers great defense and good offense than a guy who offers more elite defense but bad offense like Roberson, sefolosha, nurkic, mbah moute though obviously.


A team full of solid defenders is usually better than one great defender. The great defender can be game planned for. Whereas a team full of solid defenders who can switch is really tough to expose

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C'mon now.

i would say the best non big man defender

MrBigShot wrote:Paul George is better imo. He's taller, longer and more athletic.

Absolutely not. Roberson is clearly a superior defender.

OKC should get Smart while he's available IMO

You can game plan for a great defender. You can pull whiteside out of the paint by playing a stretch 5.

You can take Roberson out of the play by parking his man in the corner.

You can set picks on Chris Paul to stop him from harassing your ball handler.


Ultimately a team full of solid defenders is more important than an ELITE defender. A defense is like a chain link fence. Only as strong as your weakest link. You can have Chris Paul, Roberson, and Sefolosha but I'm still gonna put Enes Kanter in the pick n roll.

When a team has Smart, Brown, Tatum, and Horford on the court there is no weak link to pick on. That leads to contested midrange jumpers and lots of defensive rebounds.

Defense is significantly underrated on this board but it's MORE IMPORTANT to be solid across the board then have a guy who is great defensively but leaves you playing 4 on 5 on offense like Roberson.


But without him the thunder are nothing. They obviously have to make a deadline deal or they are meat. Not even red meat. Like flies circling rancid meat.

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