What I did was calculate team DRTG with the player on the court and the team DRTG with the player off the court, then deduct one from the other to see if the team becomes better or worse when the player is off the court. The criteria I set is simple, the player has to have played at least 750 minutes of NBA ball to matter (that represents about 9 minutes of court time over an 82-game season). However, I did take into account injured players (like Joel Przybilla), who normally play more than 9 minutes per game.
Top-10 in defensive impact on team:
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Player Name Min DRTG ON DRTG OFF Net
Amir Johnson 1457 107.92 116.17 -8.25
Eric Maynor 904 97.74 105.94 -8.19
Ben Wallace 1974 107.36 115.19 -7.83
Nick Collison 1560 99.50 107.06 -7.56
Joel Przybilla 683 100.88 108.26 -7.38
Rodney Stuckey 2501 108.71 115.75 -7.04
Keyon Dooling 970 105.28 111.64 -6.36
Stephen Graham 804 98.30 104.65 -6.34
Jared Jeffries 1464 107.21 113.50 -6.29
Chris Andersen 1696 104.34 110.55 -6.21
Worst-10 in defensive impact on team:
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Player Name Min DRTG ON DRTG OFF Net
Brook Lopez 3025 111.53 105.49 6.04
David West 2948 111.63 105.56 6.06
C. Villanueva 1849 114.61 108.42 6.19
Will Bynum 1669 115.14 108.53 6.61
Jonny Flynn 2341 114.41 107.33 7.08
Devin Harris 2218 113.29 105.95 7.34
J.J. Hickson 1692 108.64 101.20 7.44
M. Speights 1017 116.45 108.05 8.40
Andrea Bargnani 2801 115.87 106.77 9.10
Jeff Green 3041 106.55 95.94 10.61
These lists doe’t tell us who are the best defenders. They only tell us who should have played more when the team was having defensive problems. For instance, Amir’s 107.92 ON the court isn’t stellar on its own. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad defender either (it’s all about the context). As an example, Amir’s last year with Detroit:
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Player Name Min DRTG ON DRTG OFF Net
Amir Johnson 908 100.49 109.42 -8.93
Also, there are 2 main factors that can influence the numbers: Who's on the court with the player, who's on the court for the opponent. So, this is not the end-all, be-all stat. For instance, Bargnani was +2.31 and +0.74 in his first 2 seasons under Mitchell (and with Moon/Parker at the wings), but +7.41 and +9.10 in his last 2 seasons under Triano (and with Marion/Parker and Turk/DeRozan at the wings). There's no denying that he's a bad defender, but maybe the defensive philosophy has an impact (Triano!) and he needs to play with capable defenders in front of him. Also, watch out for something else: the Net DRTG doesn’t tell us that Green was still a decent 106.55 when on the court. It’s just that his replacement was even better.
However, over thousands of minutes of play, you can determine who's having a defensive impact on his team by his presence on the court, and who's not. And the 2 lists pass the smell test.
Raptors (750+ mins):
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Player Name Min DRTG ON DRTG OFF Net
Amir Johnson 1457 107.92 116.17 -8.25
Marco Belinelli 1120 110.09 114.37 -4.28
Antoine Wright 1390 110.53 114.60 -4.07
Chris Bosh 2527 112.42 114.46 -2.04
Sonny Weems 1365 111.85 113.86 -2.02
Jarrett Jack 2245 113.70 112.42 1.28
Jose Calderon 1817 114.69 111.87 2.83
DeMar DeRozan 1667 115.24 111.63 3.62
Andrea Bargnani 2801 115.87 106.77 9.10
New Raptors:
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Player Name Min DRTG ON DRTG OFF Net
Leandro Barbosa 783 107.77 110.56 -2.79
David Andersen 893 106.26 108.79 -2.53
Julian Wright 873 109.26 110.34 -1.08
Linas Kleiza 1821 107.70 105.60 2.10