Interesting look at Tiago defensive impact from Matt Tynan of 48 minutes of hell.
Essentially if you look at the advanced stats Tiago's one of the best post defenders in the league and he has an unreal effect on our overall defense as well.
Some tidbits from the article:
Currently, the Spurs own the second best defensive rating (91.6 points allowed per 100 possessions) in the league, behind only the Pacers (91.4), and Splitter is boasting an individual defensive rating of 86.4, second only to Danny Green at 86.1 points allowed per 100 possessions. But what’s been even more impressive is the data revealed to us by the new SportVU camera systems present in every NBA arena.
Of all players averaging at least 20 minutes per game this season, Splitter has registered the league’s best field-goal percentage defense at the rim. Opponents are attacking Splitter at the basket more than five times per game, and he’s only allowing them to shoot 29.4 percent in those situations. (Kings guard Isaiah Thomas has better numbers, but in a sample size that’s not even relevant to the conversation.) That’s better than the likes of Anthony Davis, Omer Asik, Roy Hibbert and Joakim Noah.
You can’t post him up (he’s allowing players to shoot just 36 percent when posting up, which is 12th best in the league), you can’t isolate on him as a big (allowing 16.7 percent shooting in these situations) and when he chases players off the block, spot-up shooters are converting just 35 percent of the time when he’s defending them.
