IT: Dead Last in DRPM

[jfs1000d]

Also, on defense. Wall and Beal went off. He wasn't guard both, He wasn' guarding both Lillard and McColum. He wasn't guarding Hernangomez and Freakin Myer or Gortat. Our issues on defense aren't IT, it is our inside defense starting at the 4 and 5 spots.

[SMTBSI]

On our roster, we have both the worst defensive PG in the league and the worst offensive PG in the league.

I'mnotevenmad.gif

I've never wanted more to fuse two players into one.

[cellar-door]

Fair warning this is going to be long.

1. DRPM is a black box so I don't use it much.
2. Even without DRPM though it's obvious that IT hurts his team's defense more than almost any other player in the league, just simple on/offs show that.
3. IT ISN'T GOING TO THE BENCH. It doesn't solve the problem, and if anything probably hurts the offense more, the only options with IT going forward are start him or trade him.

For the idea that it isn't IT's fault: C'mon, this is obviously wrong, we have the best defense in the league when he's on the bench and the worst when he's on the court. It's definitely his inability to defend that is causing our issues. The question becomes HOW do you scheme to bring his negative impact down some so that we can be at least average defensively when he's on the floor.

"BUT IT WAS ON THE TEAM LAST YEAR AND THE D WAS GOOD!" - Well.... kind of? Our defense was RIDICULOUS last year when IT was on the bench and pretty good when he was on the floor. Now we have to figure out what caused that vs. this year. This was also with a ton of guys having by far their best defensive seasons ever (IT, AB, KO, Jonas, Crowder, Smart, ET)

1. Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko This is one big one, last year KO graded out as one of the best defensive big men in the league, and Jonas had great on/offs too. This year, we are still better with them on than off, but that's more a bad vs terrible thing. I think KO is an above average defender and Jerebko is a situational defender, you can have great D with them, but they aren't going to consistently cover up bad guard play.
2. Step back from the wings? Bradley is not at the same level he was last year, he's still very good, but he isn't a DPOY candidate. Same for Crowder.
3. THE BIGGEST ONE to me.... teams are making much more of an effort to get IT in a switch and punish him every time down the floor. I think we've all noticed this, teams are much more committed to getting IT at the elbow or top of the key isolated against a scorer. Beyond guys blowing by him or shooting over him, it's also stretching the team D too thin. Often we see the same play, IT gets switched with a 2 or 3 at the elbow.... the big (Horford or Olynyk) has to cheat over to help, Crowder cheats off his man to prevent the big's man from rolling clean to the rim, Bradley shades towards Crowder's man. Guy backs down or blows by IT, Big traps, Crowder rotates, Bradley is stuck picking a shooter, whoever he leaves gets a good look.
4. IT has taken a step back- this is inevitable as a guy his size gets targeted, he wears down, dies on some screens, struggles to consistently body for position.
5. ET- yep, ET being gone is a reason for both our defensive decline and our offense not being trash anymore. It's less ET himself than his role, we replaced him with Brown and Green, Green just isn't much of a defender, and Brown is what you'd expect out of a rookie.

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

SHORT TERM- I'd like to see Brad tell the guys to just let IT get cooked. I'm of the opinion that letting one guy just get destroyed is probably better than having him get destroyed AND have guys cheating and helping leaving others wide open. The disadvantage is that players aren't robots, I have no idea how IT getting destroyed with no help every night effects the locker room, IT's confidence etc.
Also hopefully Brown keeps improving which helps when we go small.
The other option is to get a rim protector, I think it's overrated since a lot of what IT gives up is just easy jumpers because of his height, but maybe it also ties into helping rotations if nobody cheats because there is a rim protector back there to funnel IT's guy to.

LONG TERM-
The big decision looming is who gets the big contracts in 2018. I've said before I'm a proponent of drafting a PG with the Brooklyn pick and selling high on IT. I love his offense, but he really is tough to scheme around on D, and with so much of his value in his explosiveness and how quickly small guys tend to break down, I don't want to be the team paying him max money into his 30s.

[jfs1000d]

Fair warning this is going to be long.

1. DRPM is a black box so I don't use it much.
2. Even without DRPM though it's obvious that IT hurts his team's defense more than almost any other player in the league, just simple on/offs show that.
3. IT ISN'T GOING TO THE BENCH. It doesn't solve the problem, and if anything probably hurts the offense more, the only options with IT going forward are start him or trade him.

For the idea that it isn't IT's fault: C'mon, this is obviously wrong, we have the best defense in the league when he's on the bench and the worst when he's on the court. It's definitely his inability to defend that is causing our issues. The question becomes HOW do you scheme to bring his negative impact down some so that we can be at least average defensively when he's on the floor.

"BUT IT WAS ON THE TEAM LAST YEAR AND THE D WAS GOOD!" - Well.... kind of? Our defense was RIDICULOUS last year when IT was on the bench and pretty good when he was on the floor. Now we have to figure out what caused that vs. this year. This was also with a ton of guys having by far their best defensive seasons ever (IT, AB, KO, Jonas, Crowder, Smart, ET)

1. Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko This is one big one, last year KO graded out as one of the best defensive big men in the league, and Jonas had great on/offs too. This year, we are still better with them on than off, but that's more a bad vs terrible thing. I think KO is an above average defender and Jerebko is a situational defender, you can have great D with them, but they aren't going to consistently cover up bad guard play.
2. Step back from the wings? Bradley is not at the same level he was last year, he's still very good, but he isn't a DPOY candidate. Same for Crowder.
3. THE BIGGEST ONE to me.... teams are making much more of an effort to get IT in a switch and punish him every time down the floor. I think we've all noticed this, teams are much more committed to getting IT at the elbow or top of the key isolated against a scorer. Beyond guys blowing by him or shooting over him, it's also stretching the team D too thin. Often we see the same play, IT gets switched with a 2 or 3 at the elbow.... the big (Horford or Olynyk) has to cheat over to help, Crowder cheats off his man to prevent the big's man from rolling clean to the rim, Bradley shades towards Crowder's man. Guy backs down or blows by IT, Big traps, Crowder rotates, Bradley is stuck picking a shooter, whoever he leaves gets a good look.
4. IT has taken a step back- this is inevitable as a guy his size gets targeted, he wears down, dies on some screens, struggles to consistently body for position.
5. ET- yep, ET being gone is a reason for both our defensive decline and our offense not being trash anymore. It's less ET himself than his role, we replaced him with Brown and Green, Green just isn't much of a defender, and Brown is what you'd expect out of a rookie.

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

SHORT TERM- I'd like to see Brad tell the guys to just let IT get cooked. I'm of the opinion that letting one guy just get destroyed is probably better than having him get destroyed AND have guys cheating and helping leaving others wide open. The disadvantage is that players aren't robots, I have no idea how IT getting destroyed with no help every night effects the locker room, IT's confidence etc.
Also hopefully Brown keeps improving which helps when we go small.
The other option is to get a rim protector, I think it's overrated since a lot of what IT gives up is just easy jumpers because of his height, but maybe it also ties into helping rotations if nobody cheats because there is a rim protector back there to funnel IT's guy to.

LONG TERM-
The big decision looming is who gets the big contracts in 2018. I've said before I'm a proponent of drafting a PG with the Brooklyn pick and selling high on IT. I love his offense, but he really is tough to scheme around on D, and with so much of his value in his explosiveness and how quickly small guys tend to break down, I don't want to be the team paying him max money into his 30s.

How is he getting destroyed? Post-ups? Off the dribble? Is he getting beat so bad that the roations are killing us? I don't see that. Everyone thinks Avery's D has regressed. It doesn't make sense that our PG defense is what is killing this team. It's our interior D.

[cellar-door]

Fair warning this is going to be long.

1. DRPM is a black box so I don't use it much.
2. Even without DRPM though it's obvious that IT hurts his team's defense more than almost any other player in the league, just simple on/offs show that.
3. IT ISN'T GOING TO THE BENCH. It doesn't solve the problem, and if anything probably hurts the offense more, the only options with IT going forward are start him or trade him.

For the idea that it isn't IT's fault: C'mon, this is obviously wrong, we have the best defense in the league when he's on the bench and the worst when he's on the court. It's definitely his inability to defend that is causing our issues. The question becomes HOW do you scheme to bring his negative impact down some so that we can be at least average defensively when he's on the floor.

"BUT IT WAS ON THE TEAM LAST YEAR AND THE D WAS GOOD!" - Well.... kind of? Our defense was RIDICULOUS last year when IT was on the bench and pretty good when he was on the floor. Now we have to figure out what caused that vs. this year. This was also with a ton of guys having by far their best defensive seasons ever (IT, AB, KO, Jonas, Crowder, Smart, ET)

1. Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko This is one big one, last year KO graded out as one of the best defensive big men in the league, and Jonas had great on/offs too. This year, we are still better with them on than off, but that's more a bad vs terrible thing. I think KO is an above average defender and Jerebko is a situational defender, you can have great D with them, but they aren't going to consistently cover up bad guard play.
2. Step back from the wings? Bradley is not at the same level he was last year, he's still very good, but he isn't a DPOY candidate. Same for Crowder.
3. THE BIGGEST ONE to me.... teams are making much more of an effort to get IT in a switch and punish him every time down the floor. I think we've all noticed this, teams are much more committed to getting IT at the elbow or top of the key isolated against a scorer. Beyond guys blowing by him or shooting over him, it's also stretching the team D too thin. Often we see the same play, IT gets switched with a 2 or 3 at the elbow.... the big (Horford or Olynyk) has to cheat over to help, Crowder cheats off his man to prevent the big's man from rolling clean to the rim, Bradley shades towards Crowder's man. Guy backs down or blows by IT, Big traps, Crowder rotates, Bradley is stuck picking a shooter, whoever he leaves gets a good look.
4. IT has taken a step back- this is inevitable as a guy his size gets targeted, he wears down, dies on some screens, struggles to consistently body for position.
5. ET- yep, ET being gone is a reason for both our defensive decline and our offense not being trash anymore. It's less ET himself than his role, we replaced him with Brown and Green, Green just isn't much of a defender, and Brown is what you'd expect out of a rookie.

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

SHORT TERM- I'd like to see Brad tell the guys to just let IT get cooked. I'm of the opinion that letting one guy just get destroyed is probably better than having him get destroyed AND have guys cheating and helping leaving others wide open. The disadvantage is that players aren't robots, I have no idea how IT getting destroyed with no help every night effects the locker room, IT's confidence etc.
Also hopefully Brown keeps improving which helps when we go small.
The other option is to get a rim protector, I think it's overrated since a lot of what IT gives up is just easy jumpers because of his height, but maybe it also ties into helping rotations if nobody cheats because there is a rim protector back there to funnel IT's guy to.

LONG TERM-
The big decision looming is who gets the big contracts in 2018. I've said before I'm a proponent of drafting a PG with the Brooklyn pick and selling high on IT. I love his offense, but he really is tough to scheme around on D, and with so much of his value in his explosiveness and how quickly small guys tend to break down, I don't want to be the team paying him max money into his 30s.

How is he getting destroyed? Post-ups? Off the dribble? Is he getting beat so bad that the roations are killing us? I don't see that. Everyone thinks Avery's D has regressed. It doesn't make sense that our PG defense is what is killing this team. It's our interior D.

All of the above? I mean I described the most common one, another way you can see it is go watch the TOR game. Derozan took him to the elbow or the hash, and just shot 10 footers over his head time and time again. Or watch DEN and see Mudiay stroke 3s over him because he can't contest. Watch Teague beat him off the dribble, or post him.

The ways IT hurts us:
1. Guys just shoot right over him.
2. Guys bully him on the block.
3. Guys get a step on him in the lane and body him out.
4. because of 1, 2 and 3 we have to send help to IT very often, and that ends with someone open either at the rim or from 3.
5. The bigs helping leaves them in worse rebounding position, making our already bad defensive rebounding worse.

[mbsnmisc]

IT hurts the team on defense, that's a given and undeniable. But Celtics defensive woes this season go beyond him. Team had a top 4 defense all of last season with him starting and playing the most total minutes and carried that over into the postseason with a barely playable Sully and depleted roster. The blame will be put on IT first though 'cos it's the easiest and laziest narrative.

Having said that, he's not worth the max imo. The market should dictate that.

This is my amateur opinion. Teams are isolating on IT's defensive assignment more this year. I noticed Carlisle did it last year and now it seems every team is trying to exploit his size. I don't know if that can be schemed around. He tries on defense. He is in the right position and gives good effort. He is just too short to challenge anyone's shot.

[Dannyboy36]

IT hurts the team on defense, that's a given and undeniable. But Celtics defensive woes this season go beyond him. Team had a top 4 defense all of last season with him starting and playing the most total minutes and carried that over into the postseason with a barely playable Sully and depleted roster. The blame will be put on IT first though 'cos it's the easiest and laziest narrative.

Having said that, he's not worth the max imo. The market should dictate that.

I don't think it's lazy at all. It's lazy to say it's lazy and not explain why.

IT gets all the glory for the offense and the heroics, and rightfully so. It's been amazing.

But in turn he should get highlighted for being literally one of the WORST defenders in the league. It's putting an incredible strain on the defense having to cover up for him.

Yes our team defense has been brutal and we lack a rim protector but we play 4 on 5 every time up the floor. And guys are cheating off their man to help IT. It's a BIG TIME liability.

Not a lazy argument.

Hard to argue with him individually but we were still excellent despite him last year. While IT is horrible on d, some other guys simply are not trying as hard as last year.

[Banks2Pierce]

Fair warning this is going to be long.

1. DRPM is a black box so I don't use it much.

It is black box, but models that include RPM in their inputs destroy box-score specific and crowdsourced projections. RPM and PTPM deserve to get the benefit of the doubt over pretty much all metrics at this point in time. Knowing both gives you a strong base to evaluate players along with context and your eye.

Single season may be hurting its cause as a metric and has crazy noise for some(Bass from last year to this being an example).

[Dannyboy36]

I don't think it's lazy at all. It's lazy to say it's lazy and not explain why.

IT gets all the glory for the offense and the heroics, and rightfully so. It's been amazing.

But in turn he should get highlighted for being literally one of the WORST defenders in the league. It's putting an incredible strain on the defense having to cover up for him.

Yes our team defense has been brutal and we lack a rim protector but we play 4 on 5 every time up the floor. And guys are cheating off their man to help IT. It's a BIG TIME liability.

Not a lazy argument.

It's lazy when he's the only one being mentioned when topic of bad defense comes up. How about AB and Jae's defense dropping off whether due to injury or wanting to become more offense-oriented? How about the frontcourt's inability to hold their position down low to defend/rebound? It's not often mentioned but we apparently underrated Sully and ET's ability to play tough, physical D, unlike their replacements. Did we change our scheme/coverages? Is the effort level down? Is everyone just content on putting up points? When I say it's lazy, it's only because there's more to our cratering D than just IT being a terrible onball defender.

Again, they have made it work last season. So what's different now?

Honestly, haven't seen anyone not say Smart, Crowder, Bradley haven't slipped. They have. But mostly due to catering our team more to IT.

The difference now is that not only are Smart, Crowder and Bradley being asked to make up for IT's defensive efficiencies they are now tasked with taking on an increased scoring role, and in Bradley's case a rebounding role.

Yes, the scheme 100% changed. The identify of the team has gone from a defense first, tough, scrappy team to a new up-tempo, high scoring team. That fits the strengths of IT. Those are not the strengths of Crowder/Bradley/IT.

The effort level is all over the place for a number of reasons: Bradley's game was 3pt line to 3pt line. He was able to max out because he was really just covering a small portion of the court. This year, he's baseline to baseline. With having to play up-tempo, more ball movement and off ball movement for increased scoring something has to sacrifice. And that sacrifice was on ball defense.

Ok. So this would mean we were actually better with ET and Sully or it's on the coaching staff, or both. I can't believe we may be better with Sully than Horford.

[grindtime22]

There is no doubt that Isaiah hurts on the defensive end. But I guess I can just live that. It will always be a problem. I just haven't noticed a ton of it over the past few games. It hasn't been glaring in my eyes. I have seen our elite perimeter defenders getting roasted over and over and over.

[Green89]

Good or bad defending guards (we have both) we have no defensive bigs to back them up. That's why coaches go right at us, they know there's no help behind our guards.

People are acting like IT doesn't try on defense. Like he's not growing 5 more inches on game nights for us. He's incapable and we have to bring in real defenders in the paint to solve our problems. Knocking IT and calling for him to come off the bench is ludicrous. This is the worst thread here in a long, long time.

C'mon you're better than this: "We have to bring in real defenders in the paint to solve our problems". We had a top 5 defense last season without a superior big man protecting the rim. And that's because our perimeter defense was really solid: Bradley, Crowder and Smart were tough as nails. Even Thomas rated better last year.

This year, the team identity is gone. It's not longer a scrappy, tough defending team. It's an "up-temp", ball movement valuing scoring team.

IT is literally one of the worst defenders in the league. It's asking a lot of Smart, Bradley, and Crowder to not only cover up IT on defense for 35 MPG but also pick up their offense and tempo. It's no surprise Smart, Bradley and Crowder have all dipped defensively while taking on a much larger scoring role.

It's not their games but it's being forced to be.

-Last season we rebounded at a rate of 45 boards per game. Right now, we're at 41 boards per game.
-Last season we had a 74.6 Defensive rebound percentage (ranked 26th in the league), this year, 73.6 (good for dead last).
-Last season we had a 25.1 Offensive rebound percentage (ranked 10th in the league), this year, 21.6 (ranked 25th).

None of these 3 stats tell me it was our perimeter defense that was getting it done last year, because it was our interior defense. No more Sully this season and Amir taking a nose dive in his own stats are probably the main causes. Amir went from a 19.6 DREB% to a 15.7 DREB%, which is good for the worst of his career in the past 11 seasons. He was only worse in his rookie season. He should not be starting and we need an upgrade here in the worst way.

Also, last season we were taking 89 shots per game, this season 86 shots per game. So, your uptempo scoring team isn't even shooting as much this season as they were last year. Rebounds play a huge part in this.

The whole league has gone more offensive. We ended up last year with 105.7PPG, and it was good for 5th best in the league. This season, we are scoring 107.3PPG and that's only good for 14th best right now.

[grindtime22]

Our pace has reduced this year

We were 3rd last year and down to 18th this year.

[Slax]

Why do you think bad teams weren't sorry to see him go?

Probably because he wasn't scoring 29 points per game on 46%/38%/91% shooting for them at the time? He's a big liability on defense, but it's absurd to just brush past how much he brings on offense. I mean, it's not like after Phoenix traded IT to us, they got better and we got worse. At least for this season, he clearly makes the team better when he's on the court.

[TheOGJabroni]

Fair warning this is going to be long.

1. DRPM is a black box so I don't use it much.
2. Even without DRPM though it's obvious that IT hurts his team's defense more than almost any other player in the league, just simple on/offs show that.
3. IT ISN'T GOING TO THE BENCH. It doesn't solve the problem, and if anything probably hurts the offense more, the only options with IT going forward are start him or trade him.

For the idea that it isn't IT's fault: C'mon, this is obviously wrong, we have the best defense in the league when he's on the bench and the worst when he's on the court. It's definitely his inability to defend that is causing our issues. The question becomes HOW do you scheme to bring his negative impact down some so that we can be at least average defensively when he's on the floor.

"BUT IT WAS ON THE TEAM LAST YEAR AND THE D WAS GOOD!" - Well.... kind of? Our defense was RIDICULOUS last year when IT was on the bench and pretty good when he was on the floor. Now we have to figure out what caused that vs. this year. This was also with a ton of guys having by far their best defensive seasons ever (IT, AB, KO, Jonas, Crowder, Smart, ET)

1. Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko This is one big one, last year KO graded out as one of the best defensive big men in the league, and Jonas had great on/offs too. This year, we are still better with them on than off, but that's more a bad vs terrible thing. I think KO is an above average defender and Jerebko is a situational defender, you can have great D with them, but they aren't going to consistently cover up bad guard play.
2. Step back from the wings? Bradley is not at the same level he was last year, he's still very good, but he isn't a DPOY candidate. Same for Crowder.
3. THE BIGGEST ONE to me.... teams are making much more of an effort to get IT in a switch and punish him every time down the floor. I think we've all noticed this, teams are much more committed to getting IT at the elbow or top of the key isolated against a scorer. Beyond guys blowing by him or shooting over him, it's also stretching the team D too thin. Often we see the same play, IT gets switched with a 2 or 3 at the elbow.... the big (Horford or Olynyk) has to cheat over to help, Crowder cheats off his man to prevent the big's man from rolling clean to the rim, Bradley shades towards Crowder's man. Guy backs down or blows by IT, Big traps, Crowder rotates, Bradley is stuck picking a shooter, whoever he leaves gets a good look.
4. IT has taken a step back- this is inevitable as a guy his size gets targeted, he wears down, dies on some screens, struggles to consistently body for position.
5. ET- yep, ET being gone is a reason for both our defensive decline and our offense not being trash anymore. It's less ET himself than his role, we replaced him with Brown and Green, Green just isn't much of a defender, and Brown is what you'd expect out of a rookie.

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

SHORT TERM- I'd like to see Brad tell the guys to just let IT get cooked. I'm of the opinion that letting one guy just get destroyed is probably better than having him get destroyed AND have guys cheating and helping leaving others wide open. The disadvantage is that players aren't robots, I have no idea how IT getting destroyed with no help every night effects the locker room, IT's confidence etc.
Also hopefully Brown keeps improving which helps when we go small.
The other option is to get a rim protector, I think it's overrated since a lot of what IT gives up is just easy jumpers because of his height, but maybe it also ties into helping rotations if nobody cheats because there is a rim protector back there to funnel IT's guy to.

LONG TERM-
The big decision looming is who gets the big contracts in 2018. I've said before I'm a proponent of drafting a PG with the Brooklyn pick and selling high on IT. I love his offense, but he really is tough to scheme around on D, and with so much of his value in his explosiveness and how quickly small guys tend to break down, I don't want to be the team paying him max money into his 30s.

I'm an IT supporter through and through but I wanted to acknowledge this was a well written and informative post. Our defense should be good even with IT on the court because, as even Brad acknowledged last night: we were terrific last year. Having said that, losing Sully hurt us more than we realize. Al may be the better man defender but Sully was in our system for a long time, he was used to our players, and he is a better rebounder.

Rebounding is part of defense. People don't always think of it like that. I have to say, it seems like part of our passion for defense is gone and I can speculate a few reasons as to why:
1. Routinely getting killed because of adjustments being made, mainly because of IT, as cellar-door illustrated above, has taken a toll on us.
2. To piggy back off that, not only has our rebounding gotten worse, I assume it is extremely deflating. I know as a fan, it has become unbearable to watch games when you just see second chance after second chance killing us.
3. Last year, we hung out hats on the defense and the knock was on our offense and shooting at times. It is clear IT, AB, and Jae spent a lot of time focusing in on offense during the offseason; even if its just a mindset, it seems like defensive priorities have taken a backseat.

[Green89]

Amir and Sully's DREB% stats last season:
Amir - 19.6% ; Sully - 27%

Our starting front court of Amir and Al this season:
Amir - 15.7% ; Al - 17.8% (his worst in 5 seasons)

Our team's struggles this year are clearly not because of back court issues. It's all in the front court. Even Amir last season was at a better defensive rebound percentage than Horford!!

[jfs1000d]

IT hurts the team on defense, that's a given and undeniable. But Celtics defensive woes this season go beyond him. Team had a top 4 defense all of last season with him starting and playing the most total minutes and carried that over into the postseason with a barely playable Sully and depleted roster. The blame will be put on IT first though 'cos it's the easiest and laziest narrative.

Having said that, he's not worth the max imo. The market should dictate that.

I don't think it's lazy at all. It's lazy to say it's lazy and not explain why.

IT gets all the glory for the offense and the heroics, and rightfully so. It's been amazing.

But in turn he should get highlighted for being literally one of the WORST defenders in the league. It's putting an incredible strain on the defense having to cover up for him.

Yes our team defense has been brutal and we lack a rim protector but we play 4 on 5 every time up the floor. And guys are cheating off their man to help IT. It's a BIG TIME liability.

Not a lazy argument.

Hard to argue with him individually but we were still excellent despite him last year. While IT is horrible on d, some other guys simply are not trying as hard as last year.

Horrible on D is a bad work. He is limited. Horrible means he can't play D. He's limited by his size. And, he should never be on Derozan. Derozan is 6-8.

I think IT needs to pressure the ball more, but to do that, we need a rim protector. I also think IT gets picked on more because you are dumb to attack Bradley and Crowder when you can attack IT. So, part of it is he's a weak link on what should be a good D team.

Our problems aren't IT related. I think we are getting killed inside and that's the issue. I thin our PF and C defense is more of an issue than perimeter.

[AgentGreen]

Why werent people making a big case about this last season?? Where were you people then huh??

It's a team effort, AB and Crowder arent defending like they used to do. Amir has aged like 100 years in just on season. But no, lets blame it on IT, because he is the shortest guy on the court.

Plus i'm still concerned about Horford he hasn't improved our defensive game like we thought he would. Sully's big ass clogged the lain for us and thats the main difference so far and it made Amir also look better. We need a Noel type next to Horford and we will be pretty good again. Old man Amir is toast and needs a one way ticket to Amir Island, he isn't doing it anymore for us like last season.

I dont know why, but when i see Amir playing.. I think about a Horse Slaughterhouse. That's how much he has regressed in one season.

[Green89]

Time to blow up DRPM with this stat:

Avery Bradley ranked 319th in the league last year in DRPM, yet still made All Defensive First Team.

[165bows]

When someone can give me all the inputs, I will answer the question.

Agree, anyone expecting ESPN to have useful proprietary statistics is being naive.

The point is to correct for the quality of replacements, I doubt their ability to accurately do so in a lot of circumstances.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2017_advanced.html

Basketball-reference has the same thing bro. When you actually filter out players who haven't played more than 100 mins (totally reasonable filter) you'll get the same result... Even when you don't he's still 439 out of 454.

BBRef also lists PER and Hollinger's game score. What's your point?

[SparringPartner]

Not a huge fan of DRPM, but Isaiah Thomas being dead last and the YoY Diff in DRPM is alarming.