Defensive statistics

#1
I did an offensive list like this in the Buddy Hield thread but here are some stats on our players on the defensive side of the ball. The stats are sorted by type of play. The left side is points per possession given up and the right side is the percentile they're in with respect to the rest of the league. So if you're the 90th percentile, that means that you're better at defending that play than 90% of the players in the league. If you're in the 10th percentile, that means that you're only better at defending that play than 10% of the league.

Take note of small sample sizes and players that aren't really required to defend a particular play all that often. Spot up defense was the highest percentage as far as how often they have to defend that type of play. James, Dedmon and Yogi are all elite but small sample sizes for each because they don't play a lot. Holmes and Bagley are very good at it but they are defending spot up shooters much less than say Ariza would. Hield, Barnes and Fox are all killing us on their spot up defense.

You'd look at the numbers and Barnes is near the top in a lot of them but it's fools gold because he's the best at the plays he defends the least amount. CoJo is rather pedestrian at everything. Are the numbers misleading or are we just noticing the impact plays he makes while ignoring all the random drives he gives up? We do the same thing with Fox. He makes impact plays but is a poor overall defender and it can trick your eye into thinking he's a good defender because you aren't noticing when he gives up points as much as you're noticing when he gets steals and breakaway dunks.

Isolation Defense

Barnes 0.84 PPP - 59%
Fox 1.00 PPP - 39%
Ariza 1.00 PPP - 39%
CoJo 1.00 PPP - 39%
Bjelica 1.09PPP - 21%
Bogdan 1.11PPP - 19%
Holmes 1.14PPP - 17%
Hield 1.21PPP - 12%
Bagley 1.46 - 2%

Pick and Roll Ball Handler Defense

Bogdan 0.68PPP - 90%
Barnes 0.71PPP - 84%
Yogi 0.77PPP - 74%
Bjelica 0.85PPP - 57%
Fox 0.85PPP - 57%
CoJo 0.87PPP - 47%
Ariza 0.91PPP - 37%
James 1.00PPP - 20%
Hield 1.08PPP - 10%

Pick and Roll Roll Man Defense

Barnes 0.54PPP - 95%
Dedmon 0.82PPP - 74%
Bjelica 1.08PPP - 44%
Hield 1.08PPP - 44%
Holmes 1.50 PPP - 6%

Post Up Defense

Barnes 0.53PPP - 95%
Hield 0.79PPP - 69%
Dedmon 0.93PPP - 47%
Holmes 1.00PPP - 35%
Giles 1.08PPP - 27%
CoJo 1.13PPP - 21%
Bjelica 1.14PPP - 19%

Spot Up Defense

James 0.41PPP - 99%
Dedmon 0.65PPP - 94%
Yogi 0.72PPP - 90%
Holmes 0.76PPP - 88%
Bagley 0.79PPP - 85%
Ariza 0.89PPP - 72%
Bjelica 0.96PPP - 57%
Bogdan 0.96PPP - 57%
CoJo 0.99PPP - 47%
Fox 1.10PPP - 25%
Barnes 1.16PPP - 18%
Hield 1.16PPP - 18%

Off Screen Defense

Ariza 0.53PPP - 96%
Bjelica 0.83PPP - 64%
Hield 0.92PPP - 52%
CoJo 1.04PPP - 39%
Fox 1.16PPP - 25%
Bogdan 1.19PPP - 24%
Barnes 1.25PPP - 18%
 
#5
yep on the year Fox is a pretty bad defender. In my opinion, his numbers are worse than Buddy’s because Fox has the potential to be a great defender.
He was good last year defensively so you know he can do it. He's young. He still has time to put it all together.
 
#9
You'd look at the numbers, and Barnes is near the top in a lot of them, but it's fools gold because he's the best at the plays he defends the least amount. CoJo is rather pedestrian at everything. Are the numbers misleading, or are we just noticing the impact plays he makes while ignoring all the random drives he gives up? We do the same thing with Fox. He makes impact plays but is a poor overall defender, and it can trick your eye into thinking he's a good defender because you aren't noticing when he gives up points as much as you're noticing when he gets steals and breakaway dunks.
If your role is to defend the best player from the opposing team regularly, you might be a much better defender but have worst statistics than a guy who coach tries to hide on poor/small usage player or the guy who comes of the bench and defends bench players.
 
#10
If your role is to defend the best player from the opposing team regularly, you might be a much better defender but have worst statistics than a guy who coach tries to hide on poor/small usage player or the guy who comes of the bench and defends bench players.
This is true, it's just the drop off with Fox is concerning to me when looking at twslam's graphs. Fox went from a good defender last year to horrible this year.

It looks like Bagley has improved from horrible to just really bad defensively. Giles went from below average to above average this year. Which is one of the things that annoys me with Walton's rotations. He puts Giles in for about 5 minutes and then doesn't bring him back until the 2nd half. It doesn't matter how much the Kings may need defense, he never puts Giles back in. He plays Bagley or Bjelica at the 5 and we all know how that turns out defensively. Out of the last 9 games, only 3 of them has Giles had a negative +/- stat. I'm not a fan of that stat but it goes to show that at least lately, the Kings aren't hurting when they have Giles out there. Yet for some reason Walton has him on this weird rotation that is hurting the defense.
 
#11
This is true, it's just the drop off with Fox is concerning to me when looking at twslam's graphs. Fox went from a good defender last year to horrible this year.

It looks like Bagley has improved from horrible to just really bad defensively. Giles went from below average to above average this year. Which is one of the things that annoys me with Walton's rotations. He puts Giles in for about 5 minutes and then doesn't bring him back until the 2nd half. It doesn't matter how much the Kings may need defense, he never puts Giles back in. He plays Bagley or Bjelica at the 5 and we all know how that turns out defensively. Out of the last 9 games, only 3 of them has Giles had a negative +/- stat. I'm not a fan of that stat but it goes to show that at least lately, the Kings aren't hurting when they have Giles out there. Yet for some reason Walton has him on this weird rotation that is hurting the defense.
Well, context matters. With Fox's injuries, it is still a small sample size. However, Fox entered a couple of games from the bench, but his statistics even went down. It is concerning, but right now, I would rather believe eye check, than small sample statistics. For Giles, the sample is even lower. Based on watching games last and this year (small sample again, but more context), Bjelica defense effectiveness significantly regressed. It looks like he ages fast.
 
#12
Well, context matters. With Fox's injuries, it is still a small sample size. However, Fox entered a couple of games from the bench, but his statistics even went down. It is concerning, but right now, I would rather believe eye check, than small sample statistics. For Giles, the sample is even lower. Based on watching games last and this year (small sample again, but more context), Bjelica defense effectiveness significantly regressed. It looks like he ages fast.
What isn't helping Bjelica is Walton playing him at the 5. He was a 3 just a few years ago under Thibs and now he's a 5 for stretches? It's not his game and certainly has to hurt his defensive stats.

Fox is one of those cases like I pointed out in the first post of the thread where you notice his impressive impact plays on defense but you don't notice how often he gets beat on routine plays and gets stuck behind screens. He's not like Hield where he just stares at a butterfly floating by while a G Leaguer backdoor cuts him for an easy lay up but he's also not out there shutting anyone down for stretches either. Especially in the first 3 quarters. Seems like he likes to turn it up in the last 4 minutes of the game when they're down by 10 but if most of that intensity was there from the beginning of the game up until that point, maybe they aren't down 10 points?