Three Kings in top 25 in isolation defense:

bajaden

Hall of Famer
Let me first say that I plagiarized this information from another site. But I thought it was interesting enough to post. There were three Kings that ranked in the top 25 in the NBA in isolation defense.

1. Omri Casspi: Believe it or not he was ranked number 10. He allowed just 0.63 points scored and caused turnovers on 14% of those possessions. He held his opponents to 31.1% shooting.

2. Jason Thompson: Yeah, believe it or not he came in at number 19 on the list. His opponents only scored 0.66 points and he held them to 33.6% shooting. Away from the post he only fouled 5.5% of the time. While in the post he fouled 11% of the time. He was good at stopping the ball out of the post and forcing the player to take a jump shot. Obviously his post defense still needs some work. But congrats on what he did accomplish.

3. Tyreke Evans: He barely made the list at number 25. But hey, he's on it. His opponents scored only 0.68 points against him while he held them to 31.2% shooting. He caused turnovers on 20% of his isolation plays.

I'm not sure what the defining numbers are, because I don't see a lot of difference in some of the numbers. I would assume that its the points allowed number that ranks the player. Of course there's a lot more to defense than just isolation plays, but if you have three players on the floor that are able to defend isolation, its a step in the right direction.
 
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Sorry, I had a typo in the heading and can't seem to fix it. Its suspossed to say top 25. My bad....Maybe a mod can fix it for me.
 
Come on now we all know Casspi is not a great defender. Westphal has said he needs to improve in this area if he wants to see more playing time. Do any of you really believe Omri is a good one on one defender? I personally don't think so. I know for certain hes not one of the 10 best isolations defenders in the league, that would make him a elite defensive player which he clearly is not.
 
Come on now we all know Casspi is not a great defender. Westphal has said he needs to improve in this area if he wants to see more playing time. Do any of you really believe Omri is a good one on one defender? I personally don't think so. I know for certain hes not one of the 10 best isolations defenders in the league, that would make him a elite defensive player which he clearly is not.

I think after you get past the stats, and they are what they are, it becomes subjective. Who was he guarding for instance? How many minutes did he play at a time. Its harder to sustain defense when your out there for 8 to 10 minutes at a time, than it is to come in and play all out for 4 or 5 minutes. I think there's a distinct difference between guarding LeBron James and guarding Mike Miller..

But that aside, it does show he has the potential to become a good defender. Time will tell..
 
I think after you get past the stats, and they are what they are, it becomes subjective. Who was he guarding for instance? How many minutes did he play at a time. Its harder to sustain defense when your out there for 8 to 10 minutes at a time, than it is to come in and play all out for 4 or 5 minutes. I think there's a distinct difference between guarding LeBron James and guarding Mike Miller..

But that aside, it does show he has the potential to become a good defender. Time will tell..

I understand why stats like these don't add up to much. You are right this is subjective, so in your opinion is Omri Casspi a good isolation defender?
 
just means Casspi was guarding the least best scorer on the other team.

Exactly. Stats sometimes can be misleading. The fact that Tyreke even made the list being that he normally guards one of the opponent's best players is fantastic.
 
I understand why stats like these don't add up to much. You are right this is subjective, so in your opinion is Omri Casspi a good isolation defender?

He very well may be. The summary Baja is quoting from mentions that Casspi also had a high amount of isolation run against him, so it isn't statistically insignificant.

This is not saying though that Cassipi is a good defender. Isolations only made up 15% of all plays run against the Kings. So while it shows Reke, JT, and him are good individual defenders, there's a lot more that goes into team defense.

Pick and rolls, not over-helping, rotating and defending jumpers, etc. are all places where these individuals and the Kings as a whole ranked poorly despite that fact we were the #4 team in the league against isolations.
 
Why doesn't anyone mention the words Sactownroyalty on this forum? Just curious. Is that considered a no-no by the MOD's here? Just wondering...
 
Not that I know of. It might just be people trying to be courteous by not mentioning competitors.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2010/5/5/1458916/in-isolation-the-kings-defensive

If it really is a no-no then the moderators can just remove the link.
I go on both sites, as a Kings fan, as I'm sure a lot of us do. They both offer a lot for fans. Just curious as to why neither mentions the other, since we're all here for the same reason. Fans of the Kings.
 
just means Casspi was guarding the least best scorer on the other team.

The good thing about stats is that they are AVERAGES, sometimes he guarded the best player, sometimes the worst, and this is a summarize of his defensive performance against all the players he guarded.

Do you think the other 24 players from that list always guarded the best player of the opposing team?

In my opinion, who he or others on that list guarded is irrelevant, but if it's so important to you, at the first half of the season i remember Casspi guarding James, Bryant, Anthony, Ginobili and the other starting SG/SF of the opposing teams for good amount of minutes, and he did a good job(again, at the first half of the season).
 
Come on now we all know Casspi is not a great defender. Westphal has said he needs to improve in this area if he wants to see more playing time. Do any of you really believe Omri is a good one on one defender? I personally don't think so. I know for certain hes not one of the 10 best isolations defenders in the league, that would make him a elite defensive player which he clearly is not.

I actually didn't have a problem with Casspi's isolation defense. I thought where he had a problem defensively this season was with team defense. When he had to switch or rotate, he often got lazy or confused. He also had a habit of losing track of his man when he didn't have the ball. It was when he was out there on an island that he seemed to be at his best. That being said, I wouldn't consider him one of the top 10 in the league. And if I had to choose any player on the Kings to guard the other team's best player with the game on the line, it would be Tyreke.
 
If you want to watch good team defense and crisp rotations, just watch Atlanta play. I've been very impressed with their team defense. They do a good job of covering up their lack of size in the middle.
 
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