RealGM

Can someone point me in the direction of some websites that measure individual players defense?

I'm looking for stats that backup whether or not a players a good defender, as opposed to just going off of reputation. I found something at 82games.com, but it's for last year. is there anything for this year?

Thanks

You could look at 82games +/- stats for players from this year. If you click on a player and then the "by position" link you can also find a section entitled "Opponent Counterpart 48-Minute Production" that should be of some use for you.

Also if you go to:

www.basketball-reference.com

When you look at a player's profile there's a "Drtg" which stands for defensive rating or something like that...

Here's the leaderboard for the 2008 season:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... aders.html

The best way to do it is to watch a player as much as you can. Probably during the playoffs because theat's when they try their hardest.

The stats available are, at best, crude instruments in measuring defense.

Pretty much the only thing you can do is look at the counterpart PER data at 82games.com, and combine that with the on/off effect on the team defensive rankings. I don't like counterpart PER when looking at big men because big men have a primary responsibility for help D. A good defensive big man may actually yield a lot of points to his counterpart if he is spending his time rotating on defense to stop dribble penetration.

Counterpart PER is better for guards, but even then, you have to take into account who they match up against. A guy like Bowen only has a so-so counterpart PER (just 17), but if you consider that he is always guarding the best perimeter scorer, typically a guy with a PER around 20-24, then his counterpart PER of 17 doesn't look so bad.

Good defenders (particularly big men) tend to have a strong influence on how a team plays defense. I usually look at their effect on opposing team eFG%, points per possession, and FT attempts. Using on/off data is tricky though. A player may look good only because he plays alongside other good defenders, or perhaps he has a really terrible defensive player as a backup.

Also if you're a perimeter defender having a good shotblocker behind you helps your counterpart PER.