DavidStern wrote:‘77
-3.4 (1st)
Jones played 400 less minutes, added Silas (very underrated defender, IMO better than Jones)
I suppose my first thought here is how strange it is that you're seeing Jones as the most respected defender on a #1 defense as part of your year-by-year analysis, and your only observation relating to Jones is that he played less minutes than the previous year. To me that sounds like someone trying to make a quick case in a certain direction instead of looking to understand how people came to have the beliefs they did.
First thing you'll notice if you start looking at Bobby Jones stats that year is that although his minutes went down significantly, his per minute and efficiency numbers went up enough that he ended up with better stats really from any perspective than the year before. It's hard to imagine anyone thinking Jones became significantly worse that year, but your one line implies he did.
I think I find most telling about this particular year is to look at the details of why Denver was the #1 defense. When we look at the Nuggets 4 factors of defense, we actually find a team that's pretty average except for one factor: TOs caused where they rank 2nd. When we move into basic box score stats, and look at the relevant stat there (steals), Denver ranks easily tops in the league recording almost 200 more steals than the league average.
To me, what all this is saying is that Denver's primary competitive edge on defense was defensive pressure and steals.
Okay, so who was most responsible for that on the Nuggets? First thing to do is to check steal leaders on the team. What do we see? That Jones has way more steals than anyone else on the team.
So stopping right there. This is a team whose defense is thriving based on steals, Jones is the one being called the defensive star, and he is also the one stealing the ball. Pretty obvious how that all relates together right?
So now the question becomes not why people think he's a great defender, but what if anything could have made all that occur that was not due to Jones' abilities? I'll took a couple stabs at it:
1. A great thief only works well if he has protection. If the team has some great man and help defenders, then the thief can do his work, but he might not be the most valuable defender.
So who was the team's relied upon top man defender? Jones
And who was the team's top shotblocker? Jones
Let's pause for a second and consider that Jones averaged both 2 steals and 2 blocks per game this season. Something no other non-big has ever done in the NBA while playing a full season, and Jones did it in the aforementioned limited MPG while having people say he was playing absolutely selflessly (not with a Jevale McGee-esque hanging his teammates out to dry).
So, in a season where his team was the best defense in the league, every analysis looking for an explanation points to Jones doing extraordinary things that NBA players just don't do.
2. That was the only #1 defense year, if Jones was responsible for it, why didn't it continue after year?
Well, clearly he wasn't solely responsible for it. More productive though to analyze the details like I did before though.
The Nuggets defense drops from 1st to 15th. The big reason for this, 4 factor-wise, is that their one standout area (turnovers) falls back to earth. The team steals 130 less than the year before. Why was that? Well, the team loses a couple strong secondary thieves, and Jones himself steals 49 passes less than the previous year. Presto, you've got a defense that no has a competitive advantage.
So yeah, if you want to say it wasn't all Jones, that's fine. It wasn't. However, it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me, to see how the loss of the team's defensive signature at the same time as the defense fell off, and say that the primary guy involved with that wasn't big part of what the team a #1 defense in the first place.
For anyone looking at Jones career, they can then see that he spends the rest of his career not putting up numbers like he did before. He still racks up All-Defensive accolades which one can rightly argue that he might have gotten some based on his existing reputation. However, it should be noted that even in his diminished state, the 76ers never regretted acquiring him in a trade in exchange for superstar George McGinnis (and the Nuggets would have without question have gone back in time to undo the trade).
This was a player that everybody thought to be a fantastic contributor to a team even when he put up role player numbers, who has a brief peak where he puts up historical numbers on fantastic defenses. I'd say that's a great defender, no doubt about it.
One last note, in case anyone wonders why Jones played limited minutes, the poor dude had epilepsy, severe asthma, and a heart condition. Of course minutes he doesn't play need to be factored in when compared with guys who can play more, but it wasn't a choice made because he wasn't good enough to play more minutes, and as mentioned, he still put up numbers at his peak that you just don't normally see.