Post#28 » by trex_8063 » Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:13 pm
I'm sort of glad Lebron is off the table. For one, he's such a contentious figure I've come to dislike being involved in discussions pertaining to him. Additionally, although my last cast vote (#2 thread) was for Battier, I subsequently was wavering on that, mostly out of consideration for Lebron and Iguodala. Lebron being out of the way kind of simplifies things for me. I'm down to primarily considering Iggy and Battier (with Bowen and Havlicek somewhat in the mix for me, too).
Iggy is listed as 6'6" and 215 lbs by both bbref and nba.com, 6'7" and 217 by DraftExpress.
Battier is listed 6'8" and 220 lbs by bbref, but 6'9" and 229 by DraftExpress.
Iggy has excellent reach for his height with a recorded 6'11" wingspan. Battier also has fairly long arms (not sure if has Iggy's span beat, but certainly good length/reach for his height). Couldn't find specific listings for their respective standing reaches, but I'd hazard a guess that Battier has Iguodala just marginally beat there, based on being ~2" taller and having somewhat long arms himself. And with roughly 5-10 lbs more mass, too, it's safe to say he's effectively the "bigger" SF.
However, Iguodala has clearly superior lateral quickness and is the more explosive leaper. And "pound-for-pound", I speculate that Iguodala may be marginally stronger, too (can't prove it, though).
Both are quite versatile defenders. Iguodala's combination of length, quickness, strength, and footwork enable him to effectively guard anything 1-4 (well, or at least as far as guarding "large" SF's---such as Lebron---very well). Battier, being bigger, can probably more effectively guard PF's, but his lateral quickness doesn't enable him to stay in front of most PG's (or some of the quicker SG's), though his length does aid him in "catching up" when he's beat. Gun to my head, I probably give Iguodala a very marginal edge in versatility, though it's debatable.
Stylistically, Iguodala looks better to me in on-ball pressure. He's much more physical in defending a dribbler: moves his feet well and stays in front, but also uses his body to bump and discourage his opponent. He's also got quick hands on those long arms, which he's constantly using to harass the dribble; consequently forces more turnovers than Battier.
Shane Battier, to my eye, plays a little "softer" [that is: less contact] on-ball, but is extremely intelligent as far as his positioning and footwork is concerned.
Looking at some of their box-based defensive production:
Iguodala has career averages of 2.3 steals, 0.7 blocks, 6.3 DRebs per 100 possessions.
Battier averaged 1.7 steals, 1.6 blocks, though only 4.9 DRebs per 100. That's a really high block avg from a SF, though from what I've seen of Battier I think a lot of his blocks come on jump-shooters. He gets a lot simply by being in good position and keeping a hand up (doesn't get burned in a "hand down, man down" situation often), because he's so long. To me, these are among the lowest value blocks (because jump-shots are the shots that are most likely to miss and be rebounded by the defensive team anyway). otoh, the fact that he's so "present" in contesting outside shots likely also means there are tons of shots he's reducing the accuracy of without coming up with a box-score tally (such as a block).
Overall, I feel like Battier's the better outside shot contester, but Iguodala is more generally disruptive. Both guys are very timely in their rotations and help assignments.
In terms of accolades from the media, it's more or less a wash, or at best a tiny edge to Battier: he's got a small-moderate edge in terms of DPOY shares, though Iguodala has the slimmest of edges in All-Defensive honors.
In terms of box-based defensive metrics, it's basically a wash (or at best a tiny edge to Iguodala):
Battier's got the marginally better DBPM (though Iggy's on more career minutes, fwiw). Iggy's got the small edge in DWS total. Both have a career 105 DRtg (Iggy's looks just marginally better in terms of rDRTG).
In terms of Value Over Replacement (via DRAPM), Battier looks to have the better single-season peak and the better top 5 seasons average. But then Iguodala's got the better overall average season and a comfortable edge in cumulative career DVOR.
It's hard to say where all of that leaves me, but I want to get a vote in before the deadline. I'm tentatively going with Andre Iguodala as my pick here.
"The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it." -Edward Rutherfurd
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
LeBron is 0-7 in game winning/tying FGs in the finals. And is 20/116 or 17% in game winning/tying FGs in the 4th/OT for his career. That's historically bad 
