Dr Positivity wrote:I think I have not taken Anthony Davis seriously enough. When taking into account turnovers he uses possessions more efficiently than Malone although, also assist numbers are far behind Karl. Defensively while I am skeptical of him matching his numbers in production yet, the team was still better with him defensively on and the guy averages 4.4 combined steals and blocks so at some point it has to make a difference. If he is Serge Ibaka level defensively that is still quality, although I like Malone's D as well. Davis' scoring rate and efficiency is fantastic for one of the league's lowest paces and he also spaces the floor. He also isn't playing with John Stockton.
I will give the edge to Davis
Ballot 1 - 2015 Anthony Davis
Ballot 2 - 1995 Karl Malone
Ballot 3 - 1972 Walt Frazier
Which serge Ibaka are we talking about?
As a rim protected, I would say that Ibaka's edge puts him over the top in 2015, since he was beyond special in that regard (statistically as good as Gobert I think in fg% allowed)
In terms of fg% allowed, Davis is pretty much at the level of people like Duncan, Dwight, Noah, and deandre. Good, but deceptively good, if that makes sense.
That being said, he is kind caught out of position a lot of times because of his teammates, particularly when defending the pick and roll and on the spot up, since the thing about all those incredible jump shot blocks, is that he was covering for a teammate out of position first, and then has to guard the stretch 4 who he had to leave open to prevent an open rim.
I feel like one problem, in my opinion, is that Davis, as a defensive specimen, isn't the "traditional" big man, like Ibaka or other guys are.
While I might be wrong, as even those such as green don't defend these plays that much, Davis's strengths (a lack of sample size though) seem to be in areas where big men "aren't supposed to be good in"
Allow me to explain.
He had 40 defensive possessions against a player off the screen, and he let in 0.55 PPP (24% fg)
He had 18 possessions against the hand off, where he let in 0.61 PPP (31% fg)
He had 26 possessions against the ball handler p and r, where he let in 0.65 PPP (35% fg)
Draymond, who many call the most versatile defender in the league, had around 60 possessions against the ball handler p and r, and he achieved the same results.
Ha had rhe same possessions against someone off the screen, wasn't as good as Davis.
He had less possessions against the hand-off, and was more effective.
But overall, Davis was better against these "guard plays"
As for Davis and Ibaka
They were about the same at defending in isolation, Ibaka was better, but only slightly.
Davis was better at all of the "non-traditional" plays I mentioned above, handily I think. (Davis ranked among the best, while I think almost all big men were below the 50th percentile)
Ibaka was better at defending the roll man, by 0.1 PPP, which was surprising to me because the biggest reason Davis was bad at defending its play was coaching... They didn't know whether to hedge, or to ice the pick and roll, which lead to confusion. With them simplifying the defense for next year, Davis said he believes they will be a top 5 defensive unit. I'm skeptical, but I expect improvement.
I have a hard time believing that Anderson was better than Davis at this, and tbh, I have heard a quote or two saying Davis will be utilized differently when defending the pick and roll next year, and since apparently this isn't all based on impact, I'll argue he wasn't utilized correctly.
He was 0.11 PPP better at defending the post than Ibaka.
0.05 PPP worse than Ibaka at defending the spot up
So in general, Davis was better at defending man to man (which they did 26% of the time)
Better at defending the "guard plays" (around 10% of the time)
Was worse at defending the spot up and roll man (28% of the time)
And for some odd reason it doesn't add to one hundred. In frequencies.
I'm definitely willing to say that he was better at defending transition plays as well, as the Pelicans defended that pretty well I think.
And Ryan Anderson, Omar Asik, and Dante Cunningham aren't getting any chase down blocks anytime soon lol
So as for defense, I guess it's a matter of preference. Davis seems to be the defender in the league with the least amount of weaknesses in my opinion, based on the play type stats.
His rim protection isn't at the same level though
In terms of shots. Ibaka will generally stop 2 more shots at the rim.
So I think they are about even, it's a matter of preference.
there is a myth that Davis isn't good with the ball in his hands for a while, or he can't create his own shot, because someone made an article and used tyreke said isolation stats instead of Davis
He was more efficient that Westbrook, Lebron, and curry in isolation situations, in over 100 possessions.
He didn't get enough touches. He is great off-ball, but considering he was a guard in high school, I think he is more comfortable with the ball in his hands.
And while I would totally understand him not getting the touches of, someone like griffin, he got less touches than Kevin love last year, which I think isn't exactly ideal.
I personally believe that the turnover part of his game is overblown, and that he will average a lot of turnovers next year because of his increased role.
As for his passing, he was a pretty good passer after the Milwaukee game, where I think there was definitely a role change.
It's only a 16 game sample, but he averaged 3.8 assists a game
While he actually marginally decreased his turnovers per 100 possessions, and maintained the same amount of turnovers overall
As a rebounder, I believe he is undervalued. As someone said before, he is generally pretty good at getting rebounds when they are contested, if that makes sense. I'll go into it more later, but I believe he is a solid rebounder, on an impact basis, I feel he has the "impact" of an 11-12 rebounder, if that makes sense.
while I love Monty to death, he wasn't the best coach for Davis, in my opinion.
On him in the playoffs, that someone else brought up before, while I do agree that the stats overrated his impact, (something I would like to note, net rating over 4 games isnt really good to look at for obvious reasons... personally, I dont think he was a net negative on offense, especially a -22 lol, and looking at the play by play he exited for like a minute, jrue hit 3 jumpers in a row, so that basically killed his net rating)
the pelicans were good offensively against the warriors.
he had 1 bad game against the warriors, game 2, and the pelicans had a horrible offensive rating of 95.4 in that game. In game 1, he was bad until the 4th quarter, and I will say that it was a good performance overall because of that 4th quarter, the pelicans offense still wasnt very good.
In games 3 and 4, he was good offensively,and the pelicans were as well.
overall, despite 2 bad games earlier, the pelicans had an offensive rating of 107,4 against the warriors
while one could argue about sample size, in general, their defense struggled the most against the pelicans. their offense was good against everyone. one could argue that they didnt face any real good offense in the postseason
for comparison, the rockets (who had a worse offense than the pelicans int he regular season, but not by much) had an offensive rating of 102.4 against the warriors
they had a defensive rating of 98.2 against the grizzlies, and 99.6 against the cavs.
One could argue that anderson had alot to do with it, but asik was horrible in this series (and for some odd reason when we desperately needed him in the 4th of game 3, monty was like, nope)
and jrue, pondexter, and tyreke were all at 75% at best, with jrue being more like at 50%. on a sidenote, I doubt the defense was his fault.
I'll go more in depth with these later, because I don't believe he is better than Karl Malone (in a 15 game sample, I think Malone did well without Stockton, then again, it was from inside hoops from a renown troll poster, so I'm gonna check the data later)
but personally, I think he is better than harden.
