Clay Davis wrote:dhsilv2 wrote:Clay Davis wrote:None of those all-defensive team accolades mean anything lol there was a year where Tyson Chandler won but didn't make the all-defensive team, and I'm sure there's been cases of the other. It's a rizzless accolade. Seeing Rudy Gobert get humiliated on defense after being crowned the league's best defender should have you skeptical of those awards. Indeed, it's the opinion of the opposition and the people who watch the game with a keen eye towards strategy whose opinions ought to resonate. A full quote from one of the articles I cited is given below:
"Nowadays, opposing coaches often talk about him as one of the best defenders in the NBA. They have to cope with his agility. This past season, Synergy Sports data ranked him as the single best pick-and-roll defender in the NBA, holding big-man opponents to just 0.53 points per play. "
I have given you a reference Synergy stat that says that Bosh was the best pick and roll defender for a year. In the modern NBA, that's the most important stat, if you're going to care about any of them. It's what's demanded of a bigman, that they can defend in situations where fluidity matters more than physicality, and my point is is that Bosh was pivotal in ushering the age of the positionless big man, who'd switch onto whoever he had to. If Draymond is regarded as a good defender, it's because of his ability to do the same thing. So why isn't the pioneer of implementing that strategy of defense regarded well? Without Chris Bosh setting the blueprint for Draymond, he'd have no idea what to do. He'd be adrift, a lifeless turd floating in an ocean of tweeners.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/breakdown-chris-bosh-gives-dominating-defensive-performance/If you can read this article and tell me seriously that you can imagine Karl Malone doing the things highlighted of Chris Bosh, please explicitly say so.
Well first off, Gobert has never been humiliated or even been anything less than excellent on defense in the playoffs. Stop parroting ESPN's idiotic takes.
Next off, why are we comparing Bosh, a solid defender, to Dray and all time great one? The difference here is Dray is vastly better.
Again go look at the RAPM data if you're wanting to see better context here.
https://xrapm.com/table_pages/xRAPM_hist.html
Did you watch the Jazz-Clippers play-off series in 2021? It was absolutely humiliating, I have never seen a supposed "defensive player", nevermind a "defensive player of the year" humiliated so badly. It was the general consensus. Nobody believed they were watching the "defensive player" let alone the "defensive player of the year".
This is just a silly game where you're refusing to look at my sources, where numerous players and coaches in the know actually talk about Chris Bosh's rizz on defense -- not some garbage statistic that, in 1997-1998, scored noted defensive savant Steve Nash's defensive impact to be larger than Karl Malone's.
However, it is not only that you are refusing to look at my sources: you are refusing to think. There is no excuse, in the 21st century, for refusing to think. This sort of anti-intellectualism on your part is indicative of a larger trend in society, one that worries me, one that disgusts me.
The Clippers attacked Utah's defense by strategically avoiding Gobert. They'd play 5 out, and Utah would put Gobert on the least threatening shooter (usually Terrence Mann or Nic Batum) so he could help in the paint). The Clippers countered by putting that shooter on the weakside, and attacking Utah's weakest defenders on the strongside. Utah had so many breakdowns on the strongside, forcing Rudy to run to the paint, leaving that corner shooter. The strategy went double poorly for the Jazz, because Mann and Batum shot out of their minds, combining to shoot 50% from 3 in that series.
Utah's defense breaking down would often make Gobert look bad, sure, but if you want to actually think about what was happening on those plays, you have to be daft to blame Gobert for those strongside breakdowns. The stats back it up. Utah was fine in Gobert's minutes, outscoring the Clippers by 11 points per 100 when Gobert was off the floor. With Gobert on the bench, they got absolutely annihilated, giving up like 130 points per 100 possessions. Just zero ability to guard when they tried to match the Clippers 5-out strategy by putting no bigs on the floor.
But fans want to ignore all the facts just because they saw some highlights of Rudy looking awkward closing out to the corners after running into the paint to put out a fire.
There is some evidence that Gobert has been
slightly less effective in the playoffs than in the regular season. Emphasis on slightly. There's simply nothing to back up the general fan perception people have. People who say this are completely rizzless, and it hurts to see.
