Montrezl Harrell making a huge defensive leap?

[OkcSinceSGA]

Only 5 games sure, but what he's done on defense is pretty eye opening when you consider most view him as a poor defender.

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He obviously won't maintain best defender in the NBA level defense, but even just being a "good" defender would be a huge leap. He showed flashes last season, but it was inconsistent. This year all the sudden he's starting off dominating the paint on defense. In preseason I noticed the much higher volume of blocks and contests as well. People think he's small, but he's got Elton Brand's 7'4 wingspan and a really good standing reach for a 6'8" guy.

This guy is a beast and needs to start over the corpse known as Gortat.

This man is putting up 23.5/11/2/2 steals/4 blocks PER 36 (similar stats to last year but with way more defense). PER of 27, WS/48 of .278. He should of been the team's starting 5 to begin with this year.

[Young gun 6]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

[lars_rosenberg]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

[OkcSinceSGA]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

His defense has always been underrated. He's a really good positional defender in the paint.

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[BloodNinja]

Harrell was EVERYWHERE tonight. I hope he can get more playing time as the season progresses.

[Gooner]

His offense is pretty good too.

[OkcSinceSGA]

His offense is pretty good too.

Great candidate for MIP or 6th man depending on if he starts or comes off bench.

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[Gooner]

His offense is pretty good too.

Great candidate for MIP or 6th man depending on if he starts or comes off bench.

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Yeah,he can put up a lot of points in short amount of minutes.Last year i was surprised by how good he was posting up.I knew he was great in pick and roll,we saw that already in Houston.He is a perfect 5 for today's game.

[OkcSinceSGA]

His offense is pretty good too.

Great candidate for MIP or 6th man depending on if he starts or comes off bench.

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Yeah,he can put up a lot of points in short amount of minutes.Last year i was surprised by how good he was posting up.I knew he was great in pick and roll,we saw that already in Houston.He is a perfect 5 for today's game.

His drop step/up and under dunk and hook shot are money dude. A throwback player. One of very few guys in NBA you can throw ball to in deep post and there is a very high chance of a post move and score. Not many players now go to the hook shot.

The obstacle is Doc Rivers. He needs to play Harrell 30+ mpg this year, that's the natural progression. I've been saying since last year Trez is actually our best two way player. His impact is greater than that of Harris and Gallo. I consider him a part of the core going forward, along with SGA and Robinson. He's our best young player to build around for sure. He's only 24.

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[whocurrz]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

I’ve heard on a lot of podcasts the advanced stats are kind to him. This season the nuggets have given up a crazy 3 pt rate but people just haven’t hit them. Jokic isn’t abysmal but he’s average at best

[Pillendreher]

I hate him! Had him on my fantasy team for the first two games; he didn't show up, I dropped him and now this.

[NBARocks]

Jerry West has done work! Collecting some of the most underrated players in the league. Tobias Harris, Montrezl Harrel, and Luc Mbah Moute. If they get Kawhi, that's going to be a scary team.

[CelticsLV]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

Except that individual DRtg and DBPM alone isn't a good metric for bigs. If you go by individual DRtg and DBPM, Monroe would've been considered an elite defender for Boston last year But the reality is that Boston had awful defense whenever Monroe was out there. Check opposing teams ORtg on BasketballReference with the player on/off the floor and you will get a better picture.

[lordjeff05]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

No it’s not a myth, it’s proof that the metric is faulty. Jokic has been, up to this point, a bad defender.

[Cappy_Smurf]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

I don't want to derail this thread, but Jokic is just one on a list of players, where at some point somebody noticed he had similar block stats to Rudy Gobert, and decided the 2 players must be on the same level defensively.

Unfortunately you have to watch the game on a regular basis to understand that Gobert often has games where he gets a couple early blocks and then players just flat out stop trying to score on him at the rim, otherwise he'd likely have better block numbers than Mark Eaton.

Moral of the story is that certain stats can be misleading, while others can flat out lie at times. Any stat that tells you Jokic is a top 5 defender should be taken with a truck load of salt.

[perempe20]

His offense is pretty good too.

he can finish.

[SlowPaced]

I’m more shocked that Jokic is 5th

He's always among the best defenders in advanced metrics.
Jokic being a bad defender is a myth. He's extremely smart so even if he's not athletic he's always in the correct position to defend.

No, it's not a myth. He simply is an outlier case in advanced metrics. Advanced metrics are not gospel, they can at times completely contradict what you see when you watch the game. Nikola Jokic is a similar case to post-prime Pau Gasol in terms of the contrast between their actual defensive prowess and how they show up in advanced metrics.

Jokic ranks dead last among centers in opponent FG%. He allowed 54.1% last season, Kevin Love allowed 52.9%, Nikola Vucevic allowed 52.2%, Enes Kanter allowed 52.0%. On top of that, he gets taken advantage of on the pick 'n' roll due to his slow rotations. He's also too slow to guard in space. So you have a center that doesn't protect the rim, can't guard the pick 'n' roll and can't guard in space. He shows up favorably because 1) He's a great rebounder and the Nuggets are a terrible rebounding team without him and 2) He gets a lot of steals for a center.

[playaloc916]

Watching last night's highlights makes me happy. A couple of nice blocks and even stole a pass from Paul.

I love how vocal he is. Listen closely at 0:22-0:24 and 1:22-1:25

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[OkcSinceSGA]

Watching last night's highlights makes me happy. A couple of nice blocks and even stole a pass from Paul.

I love how vocal he is. Listen closely at 0:22-0:24 and 1:22-1:25

Watch on YouTube

Monster.

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[will]

Montrezl is helping fantasy basketball teams all across the world.