Tracking Lebron (and other ATGs) games defensively

[Gibson22]

I’m trying to track some of lebron games defensively. Maybe I’ll try to do 1 game per series, for him and other all time greats. Let me preface this by saying that this will have no value analytics wise, and doesn’t measure anything statistically. This is just me trying to see what players did possession by possession defensively, as offense at this point is pretty much well measured, while defense is a lot more blurry. This is game 2 of the 2013 ECF against the pacers.

Let’s classify these possession as A (great defensive play, very impactful play, great block or steal, great defensive display) B (good defensive play, good contest, good man defense, good close out, etc) NI (not involved, he just isn’t part of the action, which isn’t bad, or isn’t impactful) D (bad defensive play, he gets beat or doesn’t close out well, whatever) F (terrible play, doesn’t run back, doesn’t guard for no reason, unacceptable defense). I’m going to also put a + if for example it’s better than a normal b, or – if it’s worse than an average, D, etc.
1) good help defense to contest paul george’s shot who still scores (B).
2)he isn’t involved in the play (NI)
3) NI
4) NI
5) hill’s man (chalmers) gets screened so lebron rightfully tries to help and contest the shot, but he has to come from the other side so he can’t do it, right play but can’t impact the shot (NI)
6) NI
7) this time, he guards PG who decides to give up the ball, the pacers score (NI)
8) he guards PG again, he lets him create a bit of separation on the jumper too easily and he scores, not terrible defense but pretty bad (D)
9) NI
10) NI
11) Again, he guards PG so the action is handled by stephenson who basically hasn’t touched the ball when guarded by pg, p&r stephenson/hibbert, lebron tries to help and strip hibbert but he doesn’t get the ball (NI)
12) he roams well but he gets a dumb foul on a david west fadeaway jumper where he likely wouldn’t have scored (D)
13) NI
14) (D) He loses the ball and doesn’t run back as soon as he could, I won’t give him an F because he was looking to see who was gonna get the ball and once pg started running he was gone, still a bad defensive effort because he should have started running earlier, showed poor hustle
15) NI
16) NI
17) Again, when he guards PG the action doesn’t start with him. When he gets the ball, he absolutely locks him up, and pg loses the ball (A, he caused the turnover)
18) He intercepts the pass for his man (stephenson) like a gazelle and runs the other way for the dunk (A)
19) NI
20) NI
21) NI
22) This is a fine help defense possession by lebron. Lebron finds himself helping on a 2 on 1 situation after battier and wade both went on the pick and roll ball handler, so lebron is between david west in a midrange position and young on the corner. Lebron does a good job staying in the middle between those two, and he denies the pass when young cuts, so west is forced to shoot and lebron manages to get a decent contest and west misses. Now granted the pacers did a bad job as west could have just shot a better jumper earlier or passed it for the three, but lebron did a very good job of making them indecisive. (B+)
23) With only 5 seconds on the quarter he guards stephenson who runs at full speed and stops to get the jumper off, lebron gets lost as he can’t stop in time, lance misses the jumper (D)
24) he roams decently, but this time his cheating off his man gets punished as hill finds a great cross court pass for his man who beats his close out and gets fouled at the rim (D)
25) NI
26) I would classify it as (D), as he gets the offensive rebound taken by him from his man and doesn’t contest his 3 point shot, altough his man is a bad shooter, and he bricks it badly (sam young)
27) Not impactful, as he tries to help on the dump on hibbert but can’t do nothing as he’s behind him
28) This is difficult to classify. Lebron is very active and he does a good show on PG who is the pick and roll ball handler and he denis the action, then wade and lebron trap pg well as they almost force him out of bounds, I don’t know who got called on the foul which sent pg to the line because they were in the bonus but I think that wade did, besides they both were too aggressive in this trap, but I’d still classify this as (B-) as this was good defense by him even tho it led to 2 free throws.
29) NI
30) NI. He guards PG and the action, pg immediately does a pick and pop with hibbert, lebron does his job of staying on him but bosh over helps (as lebron didn’t need much help here) and hibbert hits a long two.
31) He does a good job of tagging hibbert and running back to his man west, hibbert still finds a good pass for pg who gets blocked by wade, not like james did anything spectacular but still gets a (B-)
32) Decent transition Defense but can’t make an impact (NI)
33) The heat make a terrible job of getting back in transition as nobody picks up hill in the corner and he makes a 3, after rewatching it lebron is not guilty (NI)
34) NI
35) Guards west in the post, doesn’t do anything particularly ugly but the result is 2 fts for west (D)
36) NI
37) NI
38) He guards west who makes a pass that is like 10 feet to high for anybody to reach, I debated if I should rate this as a merit and at the end I will give him a (B-) for still pressuring him even if it’s mostly an unforced error on west’s part
39) Lebron does a good job here of eating the shot clock, first by denying the pass to his man (west), then he switches on the p&r ball handler and he switches again on the roll man (West) to deny the chalmers/west post up), the pacers then get a foul (B)
40) NI
41) NI
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI
45) NI
46) (B-) he roams well and then good contest on pg, but hibbert takes the rebound and scores.
47) NI
48) NI
49) NI
50) NI
51) (D+) he doesn’t do anything horrible, but he takes a little too long to get around hibbert on the p&r so he finds himself behind the handler (george), wade takes the charge on roy but it doesnt get called
52) (B-). Similarly, he doesn’t anything spectacular, but he somewhat denies things (passes, the shot for pg), and the pacers get a shot clock violation, more due to their slowness and indeciveness than anything great from james, still did his job decently guarding the action
53) This is lebron’s worst defensive possession so far, as he completely loses pg on the backdoor cut and he has all the time in the world for the layup. (F)
54) NI (did a decent job of staying close to west on the pick and pop to not give him much space to operate but wouldn’t say he was very involved or was very impactful)
55) PG hit the jumper in his face as james found himself in a bit of a hands down man down situation, again nothing horrible but he just gave him a few inches of space without pg doing much (D)
56) NI
57) This is the famous play when pg blows by him and dunks on birdman (D-)
58) (B+) Good defensive possession. The first time I tought he did a huge gamble cheating off pg but rewatching I noticed he sayed to battier to stay on him as he rightfully picked the big inside, then him and battier stopped and took the ball from pg.
59) (D). As he was following PG who took the rebound and pushed the ball, lebron basically tripped giving pg the possibility to get an open jumper which he swished.
60) I wasn’t sure how to classify this. Lebron guards pg who gives the ball up to hill, who drives and dishes. Lebron decides to help on hibbert, as bosh went up on hill leaving him a bit open, this resulted in a wide open pg 3 that he swished. Theoretically an open layup is better than an open 3, but I’m not sure if the pass to hibbert would have been that easy (if lebron wasn’t there). I don’t know, maybe it was the right play. I decided to give him a (Not Impactful)
61) (D-) It wasn’t lebron not getting back that caused this, but what happened is that, after lebron was left behind the play as he tried to grab the offensive rebound, he didn’t make an effort to get back on d, and hill was fouled as he run the ball.
62) (A) As Hibbert grabs the offensive rebound, lebron gets a pretty crazy block from behind to deny the putback dunk.
63) (A) Again, hibbert grabs the offensive board, lebron puts his hands on the ball and gets the jump ball. The reason why I switched from a B to an A is that he actually somewhat touched the jump ball on the 6 inches taller hibbert and the heat got the ball.
64) NI
65) NI even tho he did his job well.
66) NI
67) NI. He tried to help on hibbert who pump faked him and scored, but you can’t fault him.
68) (B). Good job on transition D to make stephenson miss, he mostly took a wild shot tho.
69) NI
70) (B). One of the things he most often does, he rushes to help on the hibbert roll. Even tho hibbert scores, we don’t have to be result oriented, this was a great job, as he closed the lane on hibbert, the heat didn’t leave any clear pass for the open shot, and he forced hibbert to take a tough hook shot, which roy was good enough to make
71) (B-). The whole possession is a stephenson west p&r defended by him and ray which results in a wild shot at the last second but it’s mostly on lance’s sloppyness and ray allen’s decent defense on him, lebron does his job.
72) (D). Not totally caused by him but again I don’t like that he shows his frustration after chalmers misses a wide open transition corner three (the game is tied 2 minutes to go) and he can’t get the offensive rebound, but him being slightly late to get back on d somewhat causes them to not be perfectly set and therefore a west on ray allen postup which results in 2 points.
73) NI. He’s a bit at fault when lance steals the board from him but he maybe slightly tips a pass which gets stolen by wade.
74) NI

B 12= 16,2/100
A 4= 5,4/100
D 13 17,55/100
F 1= 1,35/100

Assessment: In the first half especially Lebron has the easiest assignment in lance stephenson, while wade guards pg. What really jumps to the eye is how lebron is used as an help defender, and that’s not a nice way to say that they don’t want him guarding the best player or they want him to conserve his stamina, that’s really the fact that they think that his help defense is a big weapon. And in fact, it his, as lebron can jump out and pick the otherwise open man in a fraction of a second, can block, can stay on smaller men and affect bigger men. If you know what I’m saying, it looks like when on 2k you let the AI play defense on the ball and you control somebody else. Let me say this: I don’t know if lebron was the best on ball defender, but I’d say that even if they tought that lebron could have done a better job than anybody else of guarding the star or at guarding the ball, I’d say they’d rather lose his man defense than his off ball defense, as in, they’d rather let pg score 30 knowing that with lebron guarding him he’d score 20 and have him impact the game off ball, than have pg scoring 20 but lebron not having a chance to do his magic off ball. It’s also noteworthy how the pacers decide to devolep their plays away from lebron: when lebron has lance, lance barely touches the ball, while when he guards pg, who previously was the protogonist of the vast majority of the plays, pg gives the ball up a lot more, and lance becomes one of the main ball handlers. Generally speaking, lebron has a pretty noticeable “defensive antigravity” in this game. The offset to him being mostly an (impactful) off ball defender, is that he doesn’t guard the action that often, and that there’s a large percentage of plays when he isn’t involved or can’t make an impact on the action, as it develops away from him. Another thing I would say, is that sometimes he even has too much freedom to cheat off his man, who’s left open for the shot. What I must say is that, him being off ball doesn’t mean he’s just away from his man doing nothing, that’s never the case in this game, he’s always clearly involved in what’s happening and ready to make a play, and orchestrating the defense.
In the second half, he guards the ball a lot more, picking pg or david west many many times. In this half he also had his worst defensive possessions, like not hustling back on defense, losing pg on that backcourt cut, and getting blowed by him once. These are some of his downised: being that big, he somewhat lacks the elite footspeed of some of the elite defensive wings like leonard, mj, iguodala etc, so he sometimes can’t move quick enough to not let pg create seperation on the jumpers, and having played more than 45 minutes, and him sometimes deciding that he’s allowed to not hustle back on d. Overall, he got scored on a few times by pg, made a couple of avoidable fouls on west, got punished on his cheating off his man a couple times, and he had that horrible backcourt cut by pg. On the other hand, his help defense and ability to affect anybody on the floor was really impactful, and he had a couple stretches of great defense.

All in all, this isn’t a GREAT defensive game, but this is clearly a key defender and somebody who can make some special things defensively, and clearly a very positive defender, who sometimes got burned one on one, made some mistakes and sometimes didn’t hustle back on d, but also affected the game many times in a big positive way. Rate 7/10

Game 6 vs warriors 2016

1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) NI
5) (B) He put himself between the opponenet and the rim twice and they gave it up both times
6) (A-) He stole the ball from thompson and dunked on the other end
7) NI
8) NI
9) NI, grabbed a good board.
10) (D+) Green split him and thompson.
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) NI
15) NI
16) NI
17) NI
18) (B-) Nothing spectacular but he came up on the thompson drive forcing him to dump it to ezeli and klay bricked the pass
19) NI.
20) NI.
21) (B+) I didn’t really understand how, but he forced the turnover with his help on ezeli who otherwise would have had an easy finish.
22) (B+) He almost blocked livingston on his drive, and forced him to a tough shot whiche he missed
23) (D+) Barnes had a good look from 3 in a miscommunication between james and shump, which he missed
24) NI
25) NI. He prevented barbosa from shooting as he drove on irving, but then draymond blocked lebron (lol) so barbosa curled around them and lebron wasn’t able to contest his shot as irving was left behind. It’s not like lebron wasn’t involved but he did a decent job despite him ultimately not being able to contest the job. Realistically it’s an offensive foul by green.
26) (B+) Good contest on klay at the rim leading to him throwying the ball away
27) NI
28) (B) As curry threw a wild pass, lebron recovered the ball
29) NI decent job helping between roll man and basket
30) NI
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI, cavs do a good job of scrambling
34) NI, kyrie lost klay between screens and lebron was the last man left to contest his job, he somwhat was there but wasn’t able to contest, I won’t fault him as green totally blocked him and besides he wasn’t in a good position, also klay missed
35) NI
36) NI, did his job of trying to intercept the bad pass and then staying on draymond in the post, then green found the cutting klay
37) (B-) Iguodala missed the jumper on him but that didn’t require extraordinary d.
38) NI
39) NI
40) (D) He tripped as he was guarding curry but luckily tt was there to help and curry missed, then he was a bit in the middle of nowhere and iggy got the open 3, which he missed.
41) NI
42) (B) He does a great job at picking up klay in transition, and tightly contests his 3, which he misses
43) NI initially I tought that he should have been more active closing out on barnes but realistically barnes was bricking everything and he just was on his man draymond, which iggy had a path to pass to, all in all he just decided to stay on his man
44) NI
45) NI
46) (D) overall not a smart decision to go away from guarding someone in the post to follow someone on the cut, it leads to draymond passing to curry for an open 3
47) NI
48) NI good rotation and closeout from him on barnes but I would classify as not impactful
49) NI
50) (b) he made a good tapout as ezeli could have got a putback and klay was there
51) NI
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) NI
60) (D) would have expected more of an effort to help and contest thompson’s drive, but he just stends there
61) NI
62) NI
63) (A-) he intercepts a varejao pass, bonus points for closing the lane on him as soon as he sees him turning around on tt
64) NI
65) (A-) blocks draymond at the rim after curry’s outlet pass. - because it wasn’t particularly difficult.
66) NI
67) NI
68) NI
69) NI
70) NI
71) NI
72) NI
73) (B+) Guards curry 1v1 on the drive and blocks him
74) NI
75) NI
76) NI

B 10= 13,1/100
A 3= 3,93/100
D 5= 6,55/100
F 0= 0/100

Assessment: this was an extremely solid defensive effort by james. His off ball defense wasn’t as much of a focus and a weapon as his miami days but it was still a pretty big part of what he did on defense. In this game he made very few mistakes, was really focused, was really good at transition d, basically never got scored on (even tho it’s not like he was the primary defender of that many shots), and was really solid in his rotations. I counted only 5 mistakes none ofw whom was major. I would give this performance an 8,5 out of 10. The limitations are: his assignment was draymond green, he did a number of great plays but not a huge number, and even tho he was really good he wasnt a juggernaut, as in, it’s not like he was a dog going on every ball and guarding everything.

What do you think of this?

[falcolombardi]

I’m trying to track some of lebron games defensively. Maybe I’ll try to do 1 game per series, for him and other all time greats. Let me preface this by saying that this will have no value analytics wise, and doesn’t measure anything statistically. This is just me trying to see what players did possession by possession defensively, as offense at this point is pretty much well measured, while defense is a lot more blurry. This is game 2 of the 2013 ECF against the pacers.

Let’s classify these possession as A (great defensive play, very impactful play, great block or steal, great defensive display) B (good defensive play, good contest, good man defense, good close out, etc) NI (not involved, he just isn’t part of the action, which isn’t bad, or isn’t impactful) D (bad defensive play, he gets beat or doesn’t close out well, whatever) F (terrible play, doesn’t run back, doesn’t guard for no reason, unacceptable defense). I’m going to also put a + if for example it’s better than a normal b, or – if it’s worse than an average, D, etc.
1) good help defense to contest paul george’s shot who still scores (B).
2)he isn’t involved in the play (NI)
3) NI
4) NI
5) hill’s man (chalmers) gets screened so lebron rightfully tries to help and contest the shot, but he has to come from the other side so he can’t do it, right play but can’t impact the shot (NI)
6) NI
7) this time, he guards PG who decides to give up the ball, the pacers score (NI)
8) he guards PG again, he lets him create a bit of separation on the jumper too easily and he scores, not terrible defense but pretty bad (D)
9) NI
10) NI
11) Again, he guards PG so the action is handled by stephenson who basically hasn’t touched the ball when guarded by pg, p&r stephenson/hibbert, lebron tries to help and strip hibbert but he doesn’t get the ball (NI)
12) he roams well but he gets a dumb foul on a david west fadeaway jumper where he likely wouldn’t have scored (D)
13) NI
14) (D) He loses the ball and doesn’t run back as soon as he could, I won’t give him an F because he was looking to see who was gonna get the ball and once pg started running he was gone, still a bad defensive effort because he should have started running earlier, showed poor hustle
15) NI
16) NI
17) Again, when he guards PG the action doesn’t start with him. When he gets the ball, he absolutely locks him up, and pg loses the ball (A, he caused the turnover)
18) He intercepts the pass for his man (stephenson) like a gazelle and runs the other way for the dunk (A)
19) NI
20) NI
21) NI
22) This is a fine help defense possession by lebron. Lebron finds himself helping on a 2 on 1 situation after battier and wade both went on the pick and roll ball handler, so lebron is between david west in a midrange position and young on the corner. Lebron does a good job staying in the middle between those two, and he denies the pass when young cuts, so west is forced to shoot and lebron manages to get a decent contest and west misses. Now granted the pacers did a bad job as west could have just shot a better jumper earlier or passed it for the three, but lebron did a very good job of making them indecisive. (B+)
23) With only 5 seconds on the quarter he guards stephenson who runs at full speed and stops to get the jumper off, lebron gets lost as he can’t stop in time, lance misses the jumper (D)
24) he roams decently, but this time his cheating off his man gets punished as hill finds a great cross court pass for his man who beats his close out and gets fouled at the rim (D)
25) NI
26) I would classify it as (D), as he gets the offensive rebound taken by him from his man and doesn’t contest his 3 point shot, altough his man is a bad shooter, and he bricks it badly (sam young)
27) Not impactful, as he tries to help on the dump on hibbert but can’t do nothing as he’s behind him
28) This is difficult to classify. Lebron is very active and he does a good show on PG who is the pick and roll ball handler and he denis the action, then wade and lebron trap pg well as they almost force him out of bounds, I don’t know who got called on the foul which sent pg to the line because they were in the bonus but I think that wade did, besides they both were too aggressive in this trap, but I’d still classify this as (B-) as this was good defense by him even tho it led to 2 free throws.
29) NI
30) NI. He guards PG and the action, pg immediately does a pick and pop with hibbert, lebron does his job of staying on him but bosh over helps (as lebron didn’t need much help here) and hibbert hits a long two.
31) He does a good job of tagging hibbert and running back to his man west, hibbert still finds a good pass for pg who gets blocked by wade, not like james did anything spectacular but still gets a (B-)
32) Decent transition Defense but can’t make an impact (NI)
33) The heat make a terrible job of getting back in transition as nobody picks up hill in the corner and he makes a 3, after rewatching it lebron is not guilty (NI)
34) NI
35) Guards west in the post, doesn’t do anything particularly ugly but the result is 2 fts for west (D)
36) NI
37) NI
38) He guards west who makes a pass that is like 10 feet to high for anybody to reach, I debated if I should rate this as a merit and at the end I will give him a (B-) for still pressuring him even if it’s mostly an unforced error on west’s part
39) Lebron does a good job here of eating the shot clock, first by denying the pass to his man (west), then he switches on the p&r ball handler and he switches again on the roll man (West) to deny the chalmers/west post up), the pacers then get a foul (B)
40) NI
41) NI
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI
45) NI
46) (B-) he roams well and then good contest on pg, but hibbert takes the rebound and scores.
47) NI
48) NI
49) NI
50) NI
51) (D+) he doesn’t do anything horrible, but he takes a little too long to get around hibbert on the p&r so he finds himself behind the handler (george), wade takes the charge on roy but it doesnt get called
52) (B-). Similarly, he doesn’t anything spectacular, but he somewhat denies things (passes, the shot for pg), and the pacers get a shot clock violation, more due to their slowness and indeciveness than anything great from james, still did his job decently guarding the action
53) This is lebron’s worst defensive possession so far, as he completely loses pg on the backdoor cut and he has all the time in the world for the layup. (F)
54) NI (did a decent job of staying close to west on the pick and pop to not give him much space to operate but wouldn’t say he was very involved or was very impactful)
55) PG hit the jumper in his face as james found himself in a bit of a hands down man down situation, again nothing horrible but he just gave him a few inches of space without pg doing much (D)
56) NI
57) This is the famous play when pg blows by him and dunks on birdman (D-)
58) (B+) Good defensive possession. The first time I tought he did a huge gamble cheating off pg but rewatching I noticed he sayed to battier to stay on him as he rightfully picked the big inside, then him and battier stopped and took the ball from pg.
59) (D). As he was following PG who took the rebound and pushed the ball, lebron basically tripped giving pg the possibility to get an open jumper which he swished.
60) I wasn’t sure how to classify this. Lebron guards pg who gives the ball up to hill, who drives and dishes. Lebron decides to help on hibbert, as bosh went up on hill leaving him a bit open, this resulted in a wide open pg 3 that he swished. Theoretically an open layup is better than an open 3, but I’m not sure if the pass to hibbert would have been that easy (if lebron wasn’t there). I don’t know, maybe it was the right play. I decided to give him a (Not Impactful)
61) (D-) It wasn’t lebron not getting back that caused this, but what happened is that, after lebron was left behind the play as he tried to grab the offensive rebound, he didn’t make an effort to get back on d, and hill was fouled as he run the ball.
62) (A) As Hibbert grabs the offensive rebound, lebron gets a pretty crazy block from behind to deny the putback dunk.
63) (A) Again, hibbert grabs the offensive board, lebron puts his hands on the ball and gets the jump ball. The reason why I switched from a B to an A is that he actually somewhat touched the jump ball on the 6 inches taller hibbert and the heat got the ball.
64) NI
65) NI even tho he did his job well.
66) NI
67) NI. He tried to help on hibbert who pump faked him and scored, but you can’t fault him.
68) (B). Good job on transition D to make stephenson miss, he mostly took a wild shot tho.
69) NI
70) (B). One of the things he most often does, he rushes to help on the hibbert roll. Even tho hibbert scores, we don’t have to be result oriented, this was a great job, as he closed the lane on hibbert, the heat didn’t leave any clear pass for the open shot, and he forced hibbert to take a tough hook shot, which roy was good enough to make
71) (B-). The whole possession is a stephenson west p&r defended by him and ray which results in a wild shot at the last second but it’s mostly on lance’s sloppyness and ray allen’s decent defense on him, lebron does his job.
72) (D). Not totally caused by him but again I don’t like that he shows his frustration after chalmers misses a wide open transition corner three (the game is tied 2 minutes to go) and he can’t get the offensive rebound, but him being slightly late to get back on d somewhat causes them to not be perfectly set and therefore a west on ray allen postup which results in 2 points.
73) NI. He’s a bit at fault when lance steals the board from him but he maybe slightly tips a pass which gets stolen by wade.
74) NI

Assessment: In the first half especially Lebron has the easiest assignment in lance stephenson, while wade guards pg. What really jumps to the eye is how lebron is used as an help defender, and that’s not a nice way to say that they don’t want him guarding the best player or they want him to conserve his stamina, that’s really the fact that they think that his help defense is a big weapon. And in fact, it his, as lebron can jump out and pick the otherwise open man in a fraction of a second, can block, can stay on smaller men and affect bigger men. If you know what I’m saying, it looks like when on 2k you let the AI play defense on the ball and you control somebody else. Let me say this: I don’t know if lebron was the best on ball defender, but I’d say that even if they tought that lebron could have done a better job than anybody else of guarding the star or at guarding the ball, I’d say they’d rather lose his man defense than his off ball defense, as in, they’d rather let pg score 30 knowing that with lebron guarding him he’d score 20 and have him impact the game off ball, than have pg scoring 20 but lebron not having a chance to do his magic off ball. It’s also noteworthy how the pacers decide to devolep their plays away from lebron: when lebron has lance, lance barely touches the ball, while when he guards pg, who previously was the protogonist of the vast majority of the plays, pg gives the ball up a lot more, and lance becomes one of the main ball handlers. Generally speaking, lebron has a pretty noticeable “defensive antigravity” in this game. The offset to him being mostly an (impactful) off ball defender, is that he doesn’t guard the action that often, and that there’s a large percentage of plays when he isn’t involved or can’t make an impact on the action, as it develops away from him. Another thing I would say, is that sometimes he even has too much freedom to cheat off his man, who’s left open for the shot. What I must say is that, him being off ball doesn’t mean he’s just away from his man doing nothing, that’s never the case in this game, he’s always clearly involved in what’s happening and ready to make a play, and orchestrating the defense.
In the second half, he guards the ball a lot more, picking pg or david west many many times. In this half he also had his worst defensive possessions, like not hustling back on defense, losing pg on that backcourt cut, and getting blowed by him once. These are some of his downised: being that big, he somewhat lacks the elite footspeed of some of the elite defensive wings like leonard, mj, iguodala etc, so he sometimes can’t move quick enough to not let pg create seperation on the jumpers, and having played more than 45 minutes, and him sometimes deciding that he’s allowed to not hustle back on d. Overall, he got scored on a few times by pg, made a couple of avoidable fouls on west, got punished on his cheating off his man a couple times, and he had that horrible backcourt cut by pg. On the other hand, his help defense and ability to affect anybody on the floor was really impactful, and he had a couple stretches of great defense.

All in all, this isn’t a GREAT defensive game, but this is clearly a key defender and somebody who can make some special things defensively, and clearly a very positive defender, who sometimes got burned one on one, made some mistakes and sometimes didn’t hustle back on d, but also affected the game many times in a big positive way.

Game 6 vs warriors 2016

1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) NI
5) (B) He put himself between the opponenet and the rim twice and they gave it up both times
6) (A-) He stole the ball from thompson and dunked on the other end
7) NI
8) NI
9) NI, grabbed a good board.
10) (D+) Green split him and thompson.
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) NI
15) NI
16) NI
17) NI
18) (B-) Nothing spectacular but he came up on the thompson drive forcing him to dump it to ezeli and klay bricked the pass
19) NI.
20) NI.
21) (B+) I didn’t really understand how, but he forced the turnover with his help on ezeli who otherwise would have had an easy finish.
22) (B+) He almost blocked livingston on his drive, and forced him to a tough shot whiche he missed
23) (D+) Barnes had a good look from 3 in a miscommunication between james and shump, which he missed
24) NI
25) NI. He prevented barbosa from shooting as he drove on irving, but then draymond blocked lebron (lol) so barbosa curled around them and lebron wasn’t able to contest his shot as irving was left behind. It’s not like lebron wasn’t involved but he did a decent job despite him ultimately not being able to contest the job. Realistically it’s an offensive foul by green.
26) (B+) Good contest on klay at the rim leading to him throwying the ball away
27) NI
28) (B) As curry threw a wild pass, lebron recovered the ball
29) NI decent job helping between roll man and basket
30) NI
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI, cavs do a good job of scrambling
34) NI, kyrie lost klay between screens and lebron was the last man left to contest his job, he somwhat was there but wasn’t able to contest, I won’t fault him as green totally blocked him and besides he wasn’t in a good position, also klay missed
35) NI
36) NI, did his job of trying to intercept the bad pass and then staying on draymond in the post, then green found the cutting klay
37) (B-) Iguodala missed the jumper on him but that didn’t require extraordinary d.
38) NI
39) NI
40) (D) He tripped as he was guarding curry but luckily tt was there to help and curry missed, then he was a bit in the middle of nowhere and iggy got the open 3, which he missed.
41) NI
42) (B) He does a great job at picking up klay in transition, and tightly contests his 3, which he misses
43) NI initially I tought that he should have been more active closing out on barnes but realistically barnes was bricking everything and he just was on his man draymond, which iggy had a path to pass to, all in all he just decided to stay on his man
44) NI
45) NI
46) (D) overall not a smart decision to go away from guarding someone in the post to follow someone on the cut, it leads to draymond passing to curry for an open 3
47) NI
48) NI good rotation and closeout from him on barnes but I would classify as not impactful
49) NI
50) (b) he made a good tapout as ezeli could have got a putback and klay was there
51) NI
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) NI
60) (D) would have expected more of an effort to help and contest thompson’s drive, but he just stends there
61) NI
62) NI
63) (A-) he intercepts a varejao pass, bonus points for closing the lane on him as soon as he sees him turning around on tt
64) NI
65) (A-) blocks draymond at the rim after curry’s outlet pass. - because it wasn’t particularly difficult.
66) NI
67) NI
68) NI
69) NI
70) NI
71) NI
72) NI
73) (B+) Guards curry 1v1 on the drive and blocks him
74) NI
75) NI
76) NI

Assessment: this was an extremely solid defensive effort by james. His off ball defense wasn’t as much of a focus and a weapon as his miami days but it was still a pretty big part of what he did on defense. In this game he made very few mistakes, was really focused, was really good at transition d, basically never got scored on (even tho it’s not like he was the primary defender of that many shots), and was really solid in his rotations. I counted only 5 mistakes none ofw whom was major. I would give this performance an 8,5 out of 10. The limitations are: his assignment was draymond green, he did a number of great plays but not a huge number, and even tho he was really good he wasnt a juggernaut, as in, it’s not like he was a dog going on every ball and guarding everything.

What do you think of this?

Interesting idea, may even try it myself when i have time and ttack some games using your methodology if you are ok with that

Do you plan to focus on lebron for now? Cause i was gonna watch a bunch of pippen footage for later in the peaks project

[MyUniBroDavis]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

[falcolombardi]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

Out of curiosity do you know what was cavs defensive rating with lebron on court those games? I remember him standing out of his teammates in that cavs had def ratings of 100~ in lebron minutes but all the main rotation guys were in the 105-110 range suggesting the defense really fell off a cliff in lebron bench minutes but was outright excellent with him in

I may be misremembering tho and dont know how to look it up in bballrer

[homecourtloss]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

Out of curiosity do you know what was cavs defensive rating with lebron on court those games? I remember him standing out of his teammates in that cavs had def ratings of 100~ in lebron minutes but all the main rotation guys were in the 105-110 range suggesting the defense really fell off a cliff in lebron bench minutes but was outright excellent with him in

I may be misremembering tho and dont know how to look it up in bballrer

Cavs’ DRtg with LeBron on in 85 minutes: 95.3
Cavs’ DRtg with LeBron off in 11 minutes: 141.7

Warriors shot 4/28 in these 2 games against LeBron, 1/11 from 6ft and under.

Absolutely wild.

[falcolombardi]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

Out of curiosity do you know what was cavs defensive rating with lebron on court those games? I remember him standing out of his teammates in that cavs had def ratings of 100~ in lebron minutes but all the main rotation guys were in the 105-110 range suggesting the defense really fell off a cliff in lebron bench minutes but was outright excellent with him in

I may be misremembering tho and dont know how to look it up in bballrer

Cavs’ DRtg with LeBron on in 85 minutes: 95.3
Cavs’ DRtg with LeBron off in 11 minutes: 141.7

Warriors shot 4/28 in these 2 games against LeBron, 1/11 from 6ft and under.

Absolutely wild.

I know i always bring it up but lebron led an atg offense result while simultaneously lifting the defense like he was a dpoy big and people still question that version of lebron ceiling raising

I will never understand basketball community sometimes

[Gibson22]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

Hey thanks for the interest. Anyway this was an impressive, super solid, damn near flawlass defensive game by lebron, like, he almost could not have done better in the role that he was in, and I agree that that was his role and he did it to near perfetion, the reason why I didn't give it a 10 or something like that is that I wanna give myself room for someone having a tougher assignment (he guarded draymond) being involved in more plays, etc. For example, if I give this game a 9,5 or a 10, what mark do I give if I see Hakeem having 8 blocks and 4 steals, contesting 35 shots, altering a lot of them, while guarding some elite center in the post, or pippen shutting down some superstar making play after play. As far as A+ plays, lebron had a number of A tier plays (at the end of the day, he had 4 steals and 3 blocks even tho one of those blocks was basically him and dray fighting for the rebound), I just felt like none of them was incredibly difficult or game changing. Honestly even tho this was a much better defensive game than the pacers one (Which I would rate a 7) I think that in the pacers game he did the single most impressive plays, when he stopped hibbert from behind two plays in a row and the steal.

I also gotta say that what I'm doing is very amateurish, and also I foresee that the games from the past when there was a lot less off ball dfense involved and you didn't have to guard in much space will have a better ratio of good to bad defensive plays, but I won't consider that very indicative of defensive quality, in fact the marks aren't that much important, it's more about the overall impact.

[MyUniBroDavis]

I’d have to look at bron again but I remember tracking game 5 and 6 for the peaks project he had a ridiculous amount of high leverage defensive plays, so an 8.5/10 for that seems pretty harsh

There are a few times where it’s kind of just the defensive scheme vs anything else, how they’re guarding and stuff

Going after every ball against the Warriors is kind of how you get caught out, and I felt he stopped a a lot of of insta buckets, so him not having a single A+ play is suprising

Hey thanks for the interest. Anyway this was an impressive, super solid, damn near flawlass defensive game by lebron, like, he almost could not have done better in the role that he was in, and I agree that that was his role and he did it to near perfetion, the reason why I didn't give it a 10 or something like that is that I wanna give myself room for someone having a tougher assignment (he guarded draymond) being involved in more plays, etc. For example, if I give this game a 9,5 or a 10, what mark do I give if I see Hakeem having 8 blocks and 4 steals, contesting 35 shots, altering a lot of them, while guarding some elite center in the post, or pippen shutting down some superstar making play after play. As far as A+ plays, lebron had a number of A tier plays (at the end of the day, he had 4 steals and 3 blocks even tho one of those blocks was basically him and dray fighting for the rebound), I just felt like none of them was incredibly difficult or game changing. Honestly even tho this was a much better defensive game than the pacers one (Which I would rate a 7) I think that in the pacers game he did the single most impressive plays, when he stopped hibbert from behind two plays in a row and the steal.

I also gotta say that what I'm doing is very amateurish, and also I foresee that the games from the past when there was a lot less off ball dfense involved and you didn't have to guard in much space will have a better ratio of good to bad defensive plays, but I won't consider that very indicative of defensive quality, in fact the marks aren't that much important, it's more about the overall impact.

I can agree on like ATG games by interior defenders

But I do think when we think about defense there’s both a process oriented one and a results oriented one, but especially now adays I do think that help defense > man to man defense to an extent.

Like as long as you can hold your own man to man being an elite defender is generally more important, outside of specific matchups, so I would say lebron shutting down the Warriors offense numerous times would probably be more valuable than let’s say a pippen shutting down the opponents superstar player. Especially when it comes to the Warriors, who were so ahead of their time and don’t rely on one guy isoing like that, which is partially why they’re so hard to stop (and why they’re dumb as hell sometimes lol)

Beyond that not all blocks and steals are created equal, like a block on a midrange jumper isn’t the same as a help defense block on an open cutter, a block 1 on 1 in the post isn’t the same as a block in transition, etc etc. ditto with steals with the shot clock running down and in isolation vs steals on a back door cut or in transition.

Lebrons tended to be REALLY high leverage with all his plays in the last 3 games of the series, from a results oriented perspective I remember even just counting his highlight plays per game, because they were almost all high leverage plays, you can argue he saved 20+ points in the last 3 games with only his “box score” plays alone without too much difficulty

With steals it’s pretty simple but with blocks it’s kind of hard, because a guy getting 8 blocks in a game for example doesn’t mean they saved 16 points, you know what I mean?

Like I think a way to look at it is, what would a replacement player do in this situation, and what were their odds to defend the play in general, and in that regard even when you’re conservative lebron kind of went insane

There were situational advantages to it for sure, in that he could play free safety because of draymond, but when you think of guys who could replicate what he could have done we’re talking about like, a select few defenders in nba history, and of course there’s a difference between doing it hypothetically and doing it for real. Like if someone drops 50 in the last three games of the finals, some could replicate that but even those guys probably wouldn’t

As a whole I don’t mind calling it a GOAT tier perimeter defensive performance in terms of his impact because of that, more than half of his blocks were pretty much lebron onlies, he was rotating like a elite defensive big and destroying Warriors actions, etc etc.

You can make a pretty convincing argument that you take lebron out

I will say though, I’d be curious of your thoughts on brons defensive performance in game 5.

I’d say that game 7 was where lebron had the most highlight defensive plays, in terms of his blocks and steals all being high value, but game 5 was probably his most impressive defensive performance

I don’t disagree in terms of his comparison to all time bigs best games, but I do think it outdoes like, for example iggy in 2015 or pippen shutting the opponent superstar down

And like as a whole, game 6 was probably the weakest performance of the 3 defensively, but even then like I think an 8.5/10 seems a bit harsh, at least in the lens of a perimeter guy.

[Gibson22]

Honestly I'm thinking that for now I should focus on Jordan, Kobe, Lebron, Kawhi and Draymond Green. Then I wanna do Scottie, wade, giannis and magic before going on with centers.

[Gibson22]

Game 2 Cavs vs Magic ECF 2009

1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) (D+) lebron was playing free safety here and was caught having his eyes off his man Lee who had a backcut and was in a good position to pass it to howard who got fouled
5) NI
6) NI
7) (D) he got screened by howard leading to his man alston getting an open long two which he swished
8) (A) Great help defense on the rolling howard, slaps the ball away from him as soon as he dribbles, steal
9) NI he somewhat was behind alston on the drive also thanks to the dwight screen but he wasn’t completely blown by and also ilgauskas was there, so alston wasn’t in a great position to finish and missed. This wasn’t good defense but it wasn’t that bad.
10) (D) got the rebound taken from him by howard
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) NI this resulted in a foul from him to howard, but this was good defense
15) NI
16) NI again he does his job, almost taking a charge from lee stopping his drive and then trying to help on a drive, the play ends in a 3 made on the other side of the court
17) NI
18) NI
19) NI
20) NI
21) NI
22) NI
23) (B-) he did his job guarding lewis for a couple seconds before another man being switched on him after the howard screen, somewhat denying the pass to howard and also not getting screened that bad
24) (D) Doesn’t do a good job of boxing out his man at the free throw line
25) NI
26) NI
27) (B-) Did his job of somewhat helping on the drive and somewhat contesting the 3 point shot off the drive and kick
28) (D) Gets beat on the close out after he cheats off his man
29) NI
30) NI
31) NI
32) NI. His closeout was beat again this time by redick, but upon rewatch I won’t fault him because he had to control 2 men as mo williams cheat off his man alston to help on the other side
33) NI
34) NI
35) (B) Good double on howard and trap on Lee to eat most of the shot clock
36) NI
37) NI
38) NI
39) NI good closeout on lewis in transition but the play then develops away from there
40) NI
41) NI
42) (B-) The whole play wasn’t shown but what I saw is basically 5 men collapsed on howard inside, leaving 4 open shooters, lebron is the only one to make an effort to close out and he sprints and jumps very high to the point of almost blocking lewis’s shot, but lewis swishes it
43) NI
44) NI
45) NI
46) NI
47) NI
48) NI
49) NI
50) NI
51) NI
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) NI
60) NI he pressures lee well but he’s able to feed lewis in the post, who scores
61) NI
62) NI
63) NI
64) NI
65) NI
66) NI
67) NI
68) NI
69) NI

B 4= 5,80/100
A 1= 1,45/100
D 5= 7,25/100
F 0

Assessment: this wasn’t a super impactful defensive game by lebron. His off ball role was less prominent than in other games from him, even tho he was probably the most important off ball defender in his team, but anyway it wasn’t as much of a weapon. Lebron hasn’t made any major mistake, and there wasn’t a play where he was lazy or didn’t care or didn’t run back on defense, but he wasn’t that involved as the plays mostly devoloped away from him, which is probably his biggest impact. The only major defensive play he made was the steal on howard, besides that he mostly did his job fine rotating and things like that. His only mistakes were minor: a couple offensive boards taken by gortat and howard, getting beat a couple times on the close out after he distanced himself from his man to play free safety, and a couple of buckets on him after getting somewhat illegal screened. He was the main defender on very few shots. Rate 6,5

Now that we are here, let’s do dwight to see what this would look like for an elite defensive big:

1) NI
2) NI he helped deter lebron’s drive, who kicked it to west for an open 3 which he missed
3) NI he was somewhat late to the transition which led to 2 free throws but he can’t be faulted that much
4) (D+) I think he should have guarded varejao midrange, which he missed
5) (D) He gets scored on by ilgauskas in the post, doesn’t defend it well
6) NI
7) NI
8) NI
9) NI
10) (D-) Mo williams circles around the rim and doesn’t even think of trying to go for a layup as howard is there, however he gets the switch on howard at the 3 point line, and DH sits back too much and doesn’t contest the 3, that goes in. Bad perimeter D
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) (B-) Nothing particularly great but again he deterred Williams’ drive, who passed it to ilgauskas but dh deflected with his foot, after that he grabbed a good board
15) NI does a decent job of stepping up to the pick and roll ball handler to contest his midrange shot, the contest is decent but not super, williams swishes the shot
16) (B-) same action as before but this time DH gets closer to williams, which misses the shot but he honestly was probably fouled by pietrus, and that’s what really impacted the shot
17) NI
18) NI
19) (B) Ugly postup by ilgauskas who wastes time, DH tips the ball and Ilgauskas takes a stupid long two which he misses
20) (B+) this was very good D by DH: first he meets lebron and sends him the other way, LBJ takes the screen and tries to drive in the middle but DH meets him again forcing him to kick it out, then he tips a pass, all of this helps a shot clock violation
21) NI
22) NI
23) (D) Fouls the roll man in what wasn’t a particularly dangerous action
24) NI
25) NI
26) NI
27) (B-) good contest on the drives overall even tho it ends up in a basket
28) NI
29) (B-) This ended up on a dunk by james, bud I didn’t think this was bad D by dwight. He switches on LBJ on the p&r, following him in his drive, lbj find the pass for williams and dh steps up to contest his shot, nobody ends up picking lbj in the scramble and williams finds the pass for him, I didn’t think it was dwight who should have picked him
30) NI this is a crazy play by lebron who spins between two men and dunks near howard who doesn’t jump to contest but he couldn’t have done much, also it was unexpected by james
31) (B-) Good contest on Lebron who still ends up with the crazy finish
32) (B-) Again he deters williams drive (even tho he didn’t fully blow by redick) who tries the floater and misses
33) NI
34) NI
35) NI
36) NI
37) (B-) decent contest on the rolling varejao even tho he ended up making the layup
38) (D) Third identical mo williams pick and roll action, this time he doesn’t contest as he’s backtracking worried about the drive. Midrange bucket from mo
39) NI
40) NI
41) (B-) I can’t faul him for james’ greatness. He makes a good show and recovery, but then lebron is able to split the defense and make a crazy and one layup, which dh is almost able to contest after lebron gets fouled by another man
42) NI
43) NI him and lewis get a good block/contest on lebron, but the ball remains in his hands and he scores the and1 on howard.
44) NI
45) (B) there he goes again deterring williams drive and forcing him to shoot a floater (miss)
46) (B+) steal on the pick and roll
47) (B-) Good switch on the pick and roll ball handler, williams throws the ball away
48) NI decent contest on lebron’s drive, he scores
49) NI he fouls delonte west on the alley oop on back cut, wasn’t his fault at his was delonte’s man who got lost and rashard lewis was closer than dwight from the play
50) (B-) Somewhat overall disrupts the play
51) NI
52) NI
53) (B+) varejao turned the ball over in a postup against DH, even tho it was more on varejao than on DH
54) (D++) Lebron scores on him on the drive in the p&r action, dwight can’t really contest as lebron makes a great drive.
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) NI
60) (B) This could probably have been his best defensive play of the game. He deflected the ball in a Lebron alley oop play, preventing him from catching it. Lebron also got fouled by pietrus on the play, but he potentially would have prevented a dunk.
61) (B) Good contest on lebron’s drive, who gets blocked by pietrus
62) (B) Help defense block on mo, who was guarded well by his man
63) (B) Lebron travels as dwight meets him on the drive
64) NI

B 19= 29,6/100
A 0
D 6 = 9,36/100
F 0

Assessment: Dwight’s biggest impact is how he deters opponents from getting to the cup. This wasn’t goat tier determent (I’ve seen other elite rim protectors deter drives even more) but still elite, pretty impactful. He also very rarely got attacked in the post by ilgauskas or varejao, and ilgauskas is mostly used as a stretch big to try and keep dh further away from the basket. DH doesn’t have a crazy defensive game as far as great plays, but he makes a number of good contests. His only downfall is his perimeter d, as he gets bucketed 3 out of 4 times by williams’ jumpers. 7.5/10

[Redmoon]

It’s a lot of work to track and record! Good stuff. Would love to see some tracking of other players too. The Dwight one was nice to follow along with

[Gibson22]

Kawhi Game 7 vs Heat 2013 finals
1) NI
2) NI
3) (D) he loses lebron on the cut, not totally his fault
4) NI
5) NI
6) NI
7) NI
8) NI
9) (B-) he guards lebron in the post, who settles for the jumper and misses, not much effort required by KL
10) NI. As duncan is switched on wade, KL cheats off LBJ who is notoriously challenged to shoot it during this game, LBJ makes a smart cut to the basket and Wade finds a great pass to LBJ, who gets fouled. I won’t fault KL who probably made the right play even tho leaving LBJ alone was risky and got punished.
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI as he gets switched on bosh in the post, CB turns around him pretty efforlessly, but bosh helps him with the block.
14) NI
15) (B) Good defensive possession by kawhi, first DW is indecisive when he could have shot the midrange jumper as KL was screen by CB, then he defends well the ray allen drive, granted allen wasn’t dangerous when he put the ball on the floor in his heat days and he also got helped by diaw.
16) NI
17) NI
18) NI
19) NI good help on lebron’s drive, but he somehow is able to kick it out for chalmers three who ends up being tapped in by birdman
20) (D) he got screened by two guys as lebron got the wide open midrange jumper which he missed
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI
24) NI
25) NI
26) NI
27) (B+) He gets screened, but he does a good job to recover and contest well and maybe even tip lebron’s shot, that ends up in an airball
28) NI lebron does a good eurostep on him in transition and gets an and one (foul by green), but I wouldn’t go close to call KL defense here bad
29) NI
30) NI
31) NI
32) (D+) doesn’t do a good job of switching to contest Chalmers’ midrange jumper, that goes in
33) NI
34) (B-) Guarded lebron well, who ended up passing it
35) NI
36) NI
37) NI this is another KL help cheating off lebron in the corner, that results in a Lebron 3. This is probably a good help, for 2 reasons: they were daring lebron to shoot, and ray probably would have had an open layup otherwise, but I can’t say if Duncan would have been able to contest it
38) (B) He almost intercepts a pass for Lebron, which consumes a bit of the shot clock, lebron then gets switched on green and misses
39) (B-) This is one of those ugly Lebron possessions where he gets the ball in the post and stays there without doing anything for many seconds before passing it. In this he gets it back and shot a three which he misses. KL is guarding him
40) NI
41) (B) As he gets switched on the p&r ball handler he follows him baseline and he tips his dribble, this doesn’t have an impact but being less result oriented it could have been a turnover, even tho it’s not like he had to do anything amazing
42) NI he guarded wade on the midrange shot and wade swished it, his D was fine
43) NI
44) (B+) he helps on DW drive, blocks it out of bounds, not particularly hard
45) NI
46) NI
47) (B) he defends wade’s drive, almost helping force the turnover, the play randomly ends up in a wide open lebron 3
48) NI
49) NI
50) NI
51) (A-) He intercepts and steals a pass
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI Not a bad mistake, but realistically by this point they should put more pressure on lebron’s jumpers, and allen’s potential drive didn’t need much help
56) (D) He doesn’t deal with screens well and Lebron burns him again with the 3
57) (D+) lebron drives on him and gets fouled by him. bad defense? No, tough assignment
58) NI he sits back as lebron shoots another open 3 which he misses, but this is clearly the rule by pop
59) (B+) he takes the ball away from chalmers who was already fumbling his dribble
60) NI
61) NI
62) (B-) Kawhi was the main lebron defender in this possession which eneded up in a brick
63) NI
64) NI
65) NI
66) NI
67) NI
68) (B+) first he deflects a pass that could have resulted in an open battier 3, then he guards lebron well, who finds the pass for the battier 3 that goes out
69) NI
70) NI
71) NI
72) NI
73) NI
74) NI
75) (D+) He got screened and went on bosh leaving duncan on james on the perimeter a little too easily for my liking, lebron hit the long two on TD
76) NI
77) NI
78) NI
79) (B-) Decent defense on lebron in the post, who misses the midrange j
80) NI
81) (B) Fought hard to deny bosh the rebound
82) (D) Famous lebron dagger, imho he doesn’t navigate the chalmers “screen” well and gives LBJ too much space
83) NI.

B 14= 16,8/100
A 1= 1,2/100
D 7= 8,4/100
F 0

Assessment: leonard is a really focused and precise defender, really fundamentally sound. He’s always very engaged and doesn’t make serious mistakes. This was a tough match to assess as the spurs were really daring lbj to shoot and also wade was given a lot of space to shoot. KL mostly does a good job and has a few good plays. His strong suits are his focus and how he can tip the ball with his long arms. Anyway I wouldn’t call this a super strong defensive display, If I didn’t know kawhi, I would not suppose that he’s an atg defensive wing from this game only, as he doesn’t make many super plays and doesn’t really make anyone life hell or is that much of a pest. His only downfall is that he isn’t that good at navigating screens. Rate 7.5

[falcolombardi]

If you feel like it i suggest watching 1994 bulls vs knicks game 6

Pippen has a master class on stealing the ball with the perfect timing as a help defender and is just a impressive game in general, really dominated without half court scoring (there was plenty of full court scoring)

[Gibson22]

Michael Jordan Game 2 ECSF Bulls vs Knicks
1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) NI
5) (D) he lost wilkins on the inbound, so he got a wide open 3, which he missed
6) NI
7) NI
8) NI
9) NI he made a cool blindside double team on wilkins but wilkins still scored and wasn’t affected much
10) NI
11) (D++) I tought he could have made an effort to help on the drive but I figured he tought that horace could have contested it at the rim and he didn’t want to leave his man open. Anyway I was a bit surprised to see him so non reactive.
12) NI he got screened in a potential pick and pop situation starks/ewing and as him and stacy king were switching back starks passed it inside to oakley who scored.
13) NI
14) (B-) The bulls are full court trapping the knicks, here starks couldn’t catch the inbound well as MJ was guarding him, even tho MJ didn’t do much
15) NI MJ tries to help on the drive but he’s just a little late, jackson scores
16) NI
17) NI
18) (D) His swipe on the help on the drive resulted in an unnecessary 2 fts foul
19) NI
20) NI
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI
24) NI
25) NI he almost got a crazy chasedown block
26) NI
27) NI does a good job of stalking starks around screens to deny the pass
28) (B-) good help defense to contest stark’s drive
29) NI
30) NI
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI
34) NI
35) (B) Good contest on a jumper that gets badly missed and also tries to go for the steal on the pass for ewing in the post, helping to achieve a shot clock violation
36) NI
37) NI
38) (D+) he closes out too much ending up being a little blown by wilkins who scores
39) NI
40) NI
41) NI
42) (B-) good contest on wilkins’ shot off the screen altough he may have fouled him, the knicks take the rebound and score
43) NI
44) (B) this was his best defensive play so far, as he helped on the mark jackson drive and also went to cover the passing line for wilkins, jackson ends up traveling
45) (D+) He didn’t do a great job of running on defense as he couldn’t pick his man wilkins in time and left him wide open for a midrange jumper, altough I suspect he wasn’t that worried about his jumpshot at that moment as Wilkins was really struggling and shot one of the ugliest jumpers
46) NI
47) NI
48) NI good help inside but can’t impact the play
49) NI
50) (D) Starks and him basically go one on one in transition and starks gets him with a spin move pushing him under the basket, scores
51) (A-) this time, he gets starks, as starks goes at him again and MJ forces the turnover
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) (A) Great deflection to deny the outlet pass, the ball remains to the knicks, jordan gets attacked and basically forces the turnover
57) NI he was somewhat inactive in this play but it’s aight
58) (A) Jordan’s crazy ass gets a block in transition, bulls get the ball
59) (A-) Jordan gets attacked by wilkins (I think) who gets the offensive foul, so jordan forces another turnover
60) NI
61) NI
62) NI wilkins comes off screen for a midrange j, MJ’s contest is average, wilkins misses
63) NI
64) (D+) Got screened off his man starks but continued running behind him hoping to make a play in help, starks missed the layup, mason took the rebound and jordan fouled him for two
65) (B) Good d on starks
66) (D+) He overhelps leaving starks open for 3 (missed), then he’s behind the play as the knicks take the off reb and he was going the other way, then he makes a decent help on mason inside, the knicks end up with 2 fts
67) NI
68) NI
69) (B) ewing gets an offensive foul trying to get position in the post as MJ was denying the entry pass

The video doesn’t have the last minute of the game

B 7= 10,1/100
A 4= 5,80/100
D 8= 11,55/100
F 0= 0/100

Assessment: Michael probably had a below average defensive game until about the middle of the third quarter, at that point, I would have rated it a 6. Obviously, he wasn’t like a liability, he wasn’t particularly disangaged, he wasn’t getting shredded by somebody and didn’t have any horrible mistakes, but at that point he had more bad than good defensive plays and wasn’t really making impactful plays. Then after he gets got by starks he basically forces 3 turnovers + a crazy block on transition and does a couple of other good man defenses. Besides that, even when he wasn’t having a great defensive game it was really clear that the knicks never wanted to attack him off the dribble, when jordan is on you you pass the ball. As far as his role he’s usually on the perimeter on starks or wilkins occasionally jumping out to help trying to blindside block guys with his leaping ability. Rate 7.5

P.S. I tought that scottie was having a great defensive game, clearly the best defender out of the two teams this game

[Gibson22]

If you feel like it i suggest watching 1994 bulls vs knicks game 6

Pippen has a master class on stealing the ball with the perfect timing as a help defender and is just a impressive game in general, really dominated without half court scoring (there was plenty of full court scoring)

I'll do it, but generally I don't want to do on purpose games that I already know of for being great defensive games, the idea would be to randomly generate 1 game out of every series of a player's career and track it. At least I will do it for LBJ, for the other guys I won't track that many games. Obviously 1 game per series isn't a huge pool but yeah.

[Gibson22]

Kobe Bryant Lakers vs Spurs Game 4 WCSF
1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) (B-) Good help in a play the resulted in a TO
5) NI
6) NI
7) NI
8) NI
9) (B+) Deflected a pass resulting in a TO
10) NI wasn’t able to help on the dump to willis
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) NI
15) NI
16) NI
17) NI at first him cheating off bowen going to the other side was weird and it resulted on bowen having to be picked up by shaq at the 3 point line and BB could have shot the 3, then kobe does a good help on BB’s drive who misses
18) NI
19) NI
20) NI
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI tries to help on duncan’s help but doesn’t amount to much
24) NI
25) NI
26) NI
27) NI
28) NI
29) NI
30) NI almost knocks the ball from behind but gets called for the foul
31) NI
32) (D+) He’s left behind as he’s guarding TP and he gets screened by TD, TP misses the floater as he’s contested by Shaq
33) NI
34) NI
35) NI
36) NI
37) (D) His help d on duncan on the post resulted in a swing swing that ended in an open 3 made by parker
38) (B+) Ginobili had a wild drive and kick that resulted in a difficult pass to handle, and also thanks to KB, jackson couldn’t control it and it went out of bounds.
39) NI
40) NI
41) NI
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI
45) NI
46) (B) good man D on jackson who gets blocked by walker
47) (B+) Excellent man D on ginobili who throws the wild shot
48) (B+) Good help D on TP’s drive, maybe also blocked it
49) NI
50) NI not sure if he did a good job picking up in transition
51) NI
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) NI
60) NI
61) (A) Damn, he intercepted the inbound as the spurs were trailing by 3 with 13 seconds to go
62) NI

Assessment: I give this performance a 7/10. I didn’t feel like Kobe was a force off ball even tho he mostly guarded bowen and cheated off him, I didn’t feel like his presence was relevant off ball. For a good portion of the game he wasn’t particularly involved, didn’t make a lot of plays. This was at a point where ginobili and parker weren’t very good players, and honestly you can count on one hand how many times the spurs created something off the dribble. Their game was all about duncan and kickout 3s, and some points in transition, so Kobe didn’t have to guard that much. Anyway was he hunted, was he disangaged, was he making bad mistakes, was he doing nothing? That’s not the case. From a certain point he got 3 stops in a row and ultimately got the “game winning” steal, which elevated his game.

B 6= 9,66/100
A 1= 1,61/100
D 2 = 3,22/100
F 0

[Gibson22]

Draymond Green Game 2 2015 WCF vs Rockets
1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) NI
5) NI
6) NI
7) (B+) steals the pass
8) NI
9) (B) decent D on Smith’s postup, resulting in miss
10) NI good fight overall
11) NI
12) (B-) Good help
13) NI
14) NI
15) NI
16) (D+) His close out was beat by brewer, resulting in 2 points
17) NI
18) NI
19) NI
20) (D+) Could potentially have picked up the rim running back in transition instead of running to the open shooter, easy dunk for the big. Mostly not his fault
21) (D) no business leaving jones open from 3 even tho he misses
22) NI harden scores on him in the midrange but I won’t faul green
23) NI
24) (B-) at the start, his close out is beat again after the help, but at the end of the day an ariza corner 3 is a lot more dangerous than him putting the ball on the floor and there’s ezeli under the rim. ultimately draymond blocks dwight inside
25) (D) got bullied by DH on the boards
26) (B-) Despite draymond’s good help d, jones scores inside
27) (D+) Could have faced harden at the midrange after the p&r, JH scores
28) NI
29) (B-) Doesn’t run back on D as he’s busy complaining to the refs, luckily for him the rockets don’t see DH open inside, and draymond has time to avenge himself by playing good postup and then closing out greatly on ariza
30) (B) good p&r D
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI he tries to take the charge on the pick and roll, he doesn’t and Harden scores but it wasn’t bad D
34) NI
35) NI
36) NI
37) NI
38) NI
39) (B+) gets switched on harden on the perimeter, locks him up
40) (D) I tought he should have closed out on the jason terry 3 after curry lost him between screens
41) (B-) almost stole the ball from terry (the ball goes off green, then dh scores after the inbound)
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI
45) (B-) Excellent postup D on Josh Smith even tho he ends up swishing the fadeaway J
46) NI
47) (B+) Good contest on the wild Jones’ shot
48) NI
49) (D+) He guarded the roll man jones who scored, props to jones on the great roll
50) NI
51) (B+) Excellent man D on Jones
52) NI
53) (B-) Good effort overall
54) NI
55) NI
56) (B+) almost causes an harden turnover, then on the p&r he gets helped by bogut who blocks harden
57) NI
58) NI
59) (B+) he pokes the ball from smith, and then contests his 3 well
60) (B-) decent d meeting harden and good foul on howard
61) NI
62) NI
63) NI
64) NI
65) NI harden split the defense but I tought Green did a good job
66) (D) blocking foul on draymond, resulting in 2 fts for harden
67) (B) I’d say green meets harden well in the p&r but harden throws a really incredible lob for howard
68) NI (man, what a bad play by harden as he had the chance to win the game)

B 17= 25/100
A 0
D 7= 10,3/100
F 0

Assessment: Green is used as an interior defender, who also roams a lot and coordinates the defense. He’s a really postup defender who’s also capable of switching well. He’s also good at closeouts. His level of activity is really high and he’s very aggressive. This sometimes results in mistakes as he fouls or closes out too hard. Another thing I’d point out is that green in this game sometimes preferred sitting back a few times instead of stepping out to contest the jumper. I’d also say that in this particular game he didn’t have many GREAT plays, just a lot of good ones. All in all his ratio of good/bad plays was excellent. Rate: 8/10

[Gibson22]

Lebron Cavs vs Wizards 1st round game 1
1) NI
2) NI
3) (B) locks up arenas
4) NI
5) (B) Good help D on the butler drive, leading to a miss
6) NI
7) NI
8) (D) gets scored on in the post by jamison
9) NI
10) NI
11) NI
12) NI
13) (B-) Good p&r D by him and his teammate
14) NI
15) NI
16) NI
17) NI
18) NI
19) (B-) Jamison travels this time in the post
20) NI
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI
24) NI
25) NI
26) NI
27) NI
28) NI
29) NI
30) (B-) He gets shaken up a bit by butler but his athleticism lets him recover and he stays infront of butler, ilgauskas blocks
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI
34) NI
35) NI
36) (B-) decent contest
37) NI
38) (D+) his help d isn’t that good, unneeded and leaves jamison open from midrange, he misses
39) NI
40) NI
41) NI
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI
45) NI
46) NI
47) NI
48) NI not a bad contest but daniels hits the 3
49) NI
50) NI
51) NI
52) (D+) Should have switched to contest the midrange J
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) NI
59) (D+) butler hit the j on him as he jumped for the pump fake
60) NI
61) (B-) decent man D on butler, who misses
62) NI
63) NI
64) NI
65) (D) Arenas blows by him, so LBJ fouls him for 2
66) NI
67) NI
68) NI

B 7= 10,3/100
A O
D 5= 7,35/100
F 0

Assessment: Lebron’s help defense powers weren’t used in this game, and he wasn’t a force switching and things like that, he was just another guy guarding his assignment and that’s it. His level of activity was pretty low, not that he was disengaged but he wasn’t like super aggressive. He didn’t have any great, or even very good defensive plays, still when he was called up he did more good than harm. Rate 6/10

[Gibson22]

Lebron James Game 4 ECSF vs Pistons
1) NI
2) NI
3) (D+) as he’s swtiched off prince after the screen, he’s on rasheed under the basket, and wallace takes the offensive board and scores
4) NI
5) NI good contest on hamilton at the rim but he scores
6) NI
7) NI
8) NI
9) NI
10) NI
11) NI
12) NI
13) NI
14) (A) great chasedown block in transition on hamilton, on what would have been 2 easy points
15) NI same action as N.3, but ilgauskas is right there and it’s not like lbj dies on the screen, ilgauskas gets a great contest but prince scores a tough running hook shot
16) NI
17) NI
18) NI again the pistons get a switch, this time from lebron to varejao on hamilton, varejao gets embarassingly blown by but I wouldn’t say lebron could have done much else
19) (D-) lebron tries to help on the prince postup, I think to deny to pass for the rasheed midrange j, but forgets that he’s guarding a shooter in hamilton who’s open for 3 and makes it.
20) NI
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI
24) NI
25) (D) He sends an unnecessary help on the billups drive, leading to his man prince being wide open for a midrange j, which he misses
26) NI
27) NI
28) NI
29) NI
30) NI he got called for the foul for 2 fts on prince in transition, but I’d argue that it was good D and I don’t know if it was a foul
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI
34) (B+) Lebron does a good job of staying in front of prince, who gets called for the offensive foul
35) (D) As hamilton cuts to the basket and gets found by wallace, lbj isn’t totally blown by but still doesn’t manage to get a good contest
36) NI
37) NI
38) NI
39) (B) Good help defense and great closeout on prince, who airballs it
40) NI
41) (B-) Good contest on billups
42) NI
43) NI
44) (D) he kinda loses track of prince, who beats his close out to score a runner
45) NI
46) NI
47) NI
48) (D+) He guards a prince postup, initially he knocks the ball but ultimately prince scores an hook shot which isn’t greatly contested
49) (D+) Not a great defensive possession in general. At first he cheats off prince but nobody else picks him up and he misses an open midrange J, then he gets the offensive board taken from him by ben wallace
50) NI
51) NI
52) NI at first he does a good job of help and recovery, knocking the ball out of bounds, but then he doesn’t fight for the board that gets taken by ben
53) NI
54) (B-) His man d on prince isn’t necessarily great, but it isn’t bad, he stays in front of him and even if prince pushes him off he still manages to get somewhat of a contest, prince misses>
55) NI
56) NI
57) (A-) as he gets attacked 1v1 by billups, he stays in front of him and pins his shot to the backboard, cavs gain possession
58) NI
59) NI
60) NI
61) NI
62) NI
63) NI
64) NI
65) (B) Lebron gets his hand on a pass, as he’s in a good help position, almost stealing it, and also manages to get somewhat of a contest on hamilton’s floater, who misses
66) NI
67) NI
68) NI

B 5= 7,35/100
A 2= 2,94/100
D 7= 10,29/100
F 0= 0/100

Assessment: Lebron primarely guards tayshaun prince, occasionally picking up hamilton. What to say about this game? Obviously, lebron meets the requirements of not being a liability, but there’s a few things to not like about his defensive game here. First of all, his level of activity isn’t particularly high especially in the first 3 quarters, he just doesn’t make a lot of plays and I don’t like him having the easiest assignment in this game. I also would have liked him to offer more help inside. But the worst thing was how he distanced himself from his man without his help defence having some distinct impact. That’s the thing about help defense: you gotta be smart, and you gotta be aggressive, you can’t tentatively distance yourself from your man without knowing if you are gonna make a play. Especially the mistake on the hamilton 3 was glaring. Lebron saves his performance with 2 great plays, and there are 2 other instances where he’s the main reason for the stop. Rating: 6/10.

[Gibson22]

Lebron James Cavs vs Nets ECSF Game 2
1) NI
2) NI
3) NI
4) (B) He steals the ball, even tho it was there to take it after the wild pass by kidd
5) (D-) Backdoor cut by jefferson.
6) NI
7) (D) His help on the drive is punished by the jefferson 3
8) (D) Can’t follow RJ around screens, he scores at the rim
9) NI
10) NI
11) (B+) He helps getting the steal inside
12) NI
13) NI
14) NI
15) NI
16) NI
17) (D+) He gets switched on Kidd, I won’t totally fault LBJ for giving him space as Kidd wasn’t a great jumpshooter, but Kidd makes it
18) NI
19) NI
20) (D-) Lebron decides to not follow his man, staying inside to possibly help, he gets punished by the 3
21) NI
22) NI
23) NI again, his decision to not pick up his man at the 3 point line was pretty poor, but he was able to recover and the action developed elsewhere
24) NI
25) (B+) carter makes a bad baseline pass, lebron is there to steal it
26) NI
27) (B) As the big man of the nets is taking the offensive rebound, he knocks the ball out of his hands
28) NI
29) (B-) His help on the carter drive almost gets a TO, but carter is able to recover and score
30) NI
31) NI
32) NI
33) NI
34) NI
35) NI
36) NI
37) NI
38) NI
39) NI
40) NI
41) NI I don’t know if he could have decided to pick up the rim running big man
42) NI
43) NI
44) NI he gets called for the blocking foul on RJ’s drive but I don’t know if it was there and to me he did a decent job of staying in front of him
45) (A) Great job playing the passing lanes, as he intercepts Kidd’s pass and goes the other way to dunk it
46) (B) Good closeout and contest on jefferson
47) NI the cavs as a whole didn’t do a good job of picking up their men in transition, not lbj’s fault
48) NI
49) NI
50) (B) Lebron’s help from behind almost causes the TO and denies the big from a possible easy finish inside, the big recovers the ball and passes it for an And-1
51) (B) RJ attacks him and shoots a midrange J which is well contested and goes off
52) NI
53) NI
54) NI
55) NI
56) NI
57) NI
58) (D+) Lebron’s closeout was beat leading to an RJ’s eurostep and-1, anyway his help is arguably right as it maybe prevented a layup by carter
59) NI
60) NI
61) NI
62) NI Jefferson missed the 3 slightly, lebron’s contest was average
63) NI
64) (B-) VC’s shot rimmed out, his contest was average
65) NI
66) (B-) He didn’t do that much, but he eat a good portion of the shot clock as he stalked RJ around screens decently (good enough that rj didn’t do anything with this action) and then stayed on him for a few seconds before switching, then RJ passed the ball at the last second
67) NI
68) NI
69) (D+) Carter scores on him on the midrange postup J
70) NI
71) (D) Died on the screen as Carter got the open midrange J, missed
72) NI
73) NI

B 10= 13,7/100
A 1= 1,37/100
D 8= 10,95/100
F 0

Assessment: Lebron guards primarly richard jefferson, for the vast majority of the game besides the few minutes when RJ is out and Lebron is in. RJ isn’t an easy assignment, he’s an athletic and dinamic wing who can also shoot the 3. Even then, I would have wished to see Lebron on the first offensive option (carter) and the playmaker (kidd) more, instead he was on them very rarely and didn’t do a good job against them. Lebron’s first quarter was bad defensively, losing RJ a couple times and distancing himself from his man two other times getting punished. After that Lebron’s defensive game was mostly positive, getting a few steals and managing to few in a few good contests, before carter getting the best of him at the end. He also helped a little inside and I’d say that Lebron’s physical presence was felt. All in all Lebron showed above average man defense and help defense, after being punished at the start. Rate 6/10