[valentine]

Everybody’s talking All-Star team and potential MVPs and all affiliated conversation, which is all important and all good.

To avoid the clutter, I go my own way: Which players are hurting their teams the most with lousy defense so far?

Quickly, right to my Watch List as I contemplate my fourth (wow, that many?) annual end-of-season NBA No-Defense team…

* Devin Harris, New Jersey. I gave him a pass last year after being traded to New Jersey, but there’s no excuse for his invisibility on D now. Possibly the softest PG in the league and an early candidate for 2011 No-Defense Player of the Year.

* Brook Lopez, New Jersey. What has happened to him this year? I think Carmelo Anthony got a look at Lopez and immediately decided there was no need to be joining the Nets. (Harris was projected to be traded away in the Anthony machinations.)

At times, Lopez looks like he’s getting personal slow-motion defensive instruction from Troy Murphy.

* Amare Stoudemire, NY Knicks. A huge plus player on offense (the Knicks are +10 points when he’s on the floor per 100 possessions vs. when he’s out of the game) who almost gives it all back on the defensive side (-7 per 100 possessions).

Stoudemire needs Ronny Turiaf in there at center more–Turiaf, fighting injuries, still remains one of the most consistent plus-defense guys in the league.

* DeMar DeRozan, Toronto. With Turkoglu gone, he’s the worst defender on the NBA’s worst defensive team, and incredibly poor on the plus/minus in relation to his teammates.

* Andrea Bargnani, Toronto. Second-worst defender on NBA’s worst defensive team.

* Stephen Curry, Warriors. Some defensive regression here, possibly related to his ankle injuries or maybe to the league game-planning him. Last year, Curry was a neutral performer–the Warriors were about the same on D with him on or off the floor.

But this year, while the Warriors are once again a much better offensive team when Curry’s on the floor, they’re a bad defensive team that gets specifically worse when he’s playing.

* Tayshaun Prince, Detroit. This is the second straight year of major regression, from consistently being one of the best defensive players in the league to now, sadly, one of the worst.

* Hedo Turkoglu, Orlando. My guy was well on his way to “defend” his No-Defense Player of the Year from 2010 during his short stint in Phoenix.

But since his trade back to Orlando, his stats have tracked up since his trade to Orlando. You can play poor D on the Magic, but it’s hard to tell when Dwight Howard is covering your backside.

* Al Jefferson, Utah. Simply not a good defensive player, and there’s nothing even Jerry Sloan can do about it.

* Ramon Sessions, Cleveland. I don’t know what executive in Cleveland decided to acquire him, but it was a terrible idea.  They already have a bunch of all-shoot, no-D guys like him, and he’s the worst of ‘em all–that is the problem.

* Carl Landry, Sacramento. He owns the worst peripheral stats on Sacramento, which has a lot of players with hideous stats. It’s hard to pin it all on him, but they’re bad.

* Tyreke Evans, Sacramento. It’s not just the erratic offense that will keep him from going to the near-elite level as a player. Sometimes it looks like he just doesn’t care. He has the skills to play D. But if you don’t care, you don’t play D.

* Blake Griffin, LA Clippers. Hate to say it, because he’s so quickly developed into a dominant leaper and offensive force and overall signature league
player.

But the numbers are bad. The defensive numbers, to be clear. Undeniably, Griffin has a very difficult time on individual low-post defense. For now, he’s a power forward who desperately needs a lock-down defender beside him at center, which DeAndre Jordan has done for him lately.

* Corey Maggette, Milwaukee. No shock, he’s the Bucks’ worst regular-rotation player, by analytical measurements. (Bucks are -6.3 points worse when he’s on the floor than when he’s off, per 100 possesssions. That’s really bad.)

That Warriors stint with Don Nelson didn’t turn him into a bad defender last year. This is who Corey is: 8 steals and 3 blocks in 733 minutes this season. Awesome.

* O.J. Mayo, Memphis. Can’t even call it a decline any more. He’s a bad defensive player now and probably will always be.

* Wayne Ellington, Minnesota. To be so much worse in the peripheral stats than his teammates, when his teammates are the Timberwolves… Ellington might be the worst player in the league getting any kind of minutes.

* Randy Foye, Clippers. Might be the second-worst player in the league getting any kind of minutes.

[KayjayParticipant]

I think you are actually right on Griffin. Its what made the comparisons to Amare true. But hey, he’s got time to improve. But it doesn’t help when you’ve got a T-rex wing span.

[dmo21Participant]

How dare he say DeRozan is the worst defender on Toronto. Yes, the Raptors are autrociuos on defense, but Derozan the worst one? How about Derozan is the best defender in Toronto’s starting lineup. You have Bargnani which is just bad, I thought he was gonna top this list because his team plays much better when he is out. He does not move his feet or stay in front of guys or even try to block shots, just bad. Calderon was born naturally bad at defense being slow footed laterall, but atleast he tries and gives a lot of effort. Kleiza(who was their opening day starter) has the same attributes as Calderon, except he doesn’t really try. Amir is athletic and can be a good defender he is still just a lil foul prone. Derozan though, is athletic and guard the best wing player on the other team every night. He has to get stronger but how dare this guy say he is the worst defender on the Raptors. Watch some basketball.

[JoeWolf1]

 I don’t think you can really put a rookie on the worst defensive team.  It’s almost understood that defense will be the thing a rookie will struggle with the most on during his first year in the league.  If at this time next year he hasn’t progessed into any better of a defender then, yeah, I think it’s fair to put him on the list, but he hasn’t even played a full season.

Blake Griffin is 6’8.5” with no shoes and has a 6’11.25” wingspan.  I wouldn’t exactly call that T-Rex

[Quincey Hodges]

He’s going by watched and stats that show how many points and fg percentage that Derozen gives up. I think if you look at that you will see how right he is

[Quincey Hodges]

If you can’t put him on there because he’s a rookie then doesn’t it stand to reason he shouldnt be on the AllStar team or All NBA team ( if he was selected) because he’s a rookie? He’s included in everything else because he’s a rookie so why can’t he be included with defense.

[Toronto16Participant]

Yea, saying DeRozan is the worst defender on the Raptors is utterly ridiculous.  Bargnani and Calderon are much worse.

[llperez]

im not sure about this list. Not saying hes wrong, but some of those names are suspect. I mean even if prince has taken huge steps backwards is he really the worst defender on the pistons now? I seriously doubt that. A couple other guys i dont thnk of as defensive liabilities either.

[Quincey Hodges]

I can’t comment on all the guys since i haven’t seen all the games and did the number cruntching that this guy did. But its easy to think someone is a better defender then they are without watching all there games and getting all the data

 

I’ve thought guys were better defenders then they are then looked at how many points the guy they guards scores on average and the FG percentage the guy shoots and i’m shocked at how bad the guy played defense

[JoeWolf1]

 So it’s only high profile players? because there are a lot of other rookies that are worse defenders than him.  You make a good point with the all-star teams and whatnot, and I’m not like "don’t pick on Blake" but by having him (the only rookie) on the list you are deeming him the worst rookie defender in the league, which I do not think is even close to the reality of all the rookie defenders in the league.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Is a much worse overall defender than DeRozan in my opinion. I like DeMar’s effort on that end personally, and while he is definitely not good, he at least tries. Bargnani is utterly lost. I do not care if his plus/minus (this is not hockey, and that statistic tells us so little) is worse than Andrea’s, Bargnani is LOST on defense. He may block a few shots, but his rebounding in and of itself makes him possibly the worst starting defensive Center in the league. 5.6 rebounds in 35.6 minutes per game! Most of his picks are somewhat justified, I just wished he used more analysis besides +/-. Is Tayshaun Prince really such a bad defender now? I still think he at least does alright besides the Pistons being wack. The Maggette thing is staggering though. I know statistics are not all that makes a person a good or bad defender, and it is hard to quantify. With Maggette though, that is horrendous. When you play a certain amount of minutes, you should be at least getting some activity on that end of the court. He is fantastic at getting to the line, and a tank, but when you average a steal every 4 games or so, that is incredibly weak. To put it in perspective, Shaq is averaging 0.44 steals per game to Maggette’s 0.32. Shaq is also playing fewer minutes per game! More often than not when you play basketball, there will be an errant ball up for grabs if you just pay attention or go after it. Guess those are passing him by this year.

[ghettosermonParticipant]

Basically the Wizards entire starting lineup. John Wall gets caught going for steals too often and plays too far off his man. Nick Young gets backed down at will and never fights through screens. Rashard Lewis is too slow to guard perimeter players and too weak to guard the post. Javale Mcgee tries to block everything so he ends up selling out his team on defense and being out of position. He also gets backed down with ease by nearly every low post player. Andray Blatche no point of even going there because he doesn’t even attempt to play defense.

[Quincey Hodges]

This isn’t my list.

[Quincey Hodges]

But my opinion is that derozen is consdiered the worst defender because he gives up the most points which is probably due to the fact that the guys he guard are better scorers then the guys Barani guards

[Tha_PrinceParticipant]

 DeRozan is the Raptors best defender in their starting rotation easily. 

[R-Dot-13Participant]

Derozan isnt a great defender, but he is not the worst on the raptors.

Bargnani is an atrocious defender, along with Jose Calderon.

Bargnani just gets lost on defense, and Calderon gets blown by too often.

Derozan has room to improve on defense, but is definately not the worst on the raptorss

[fgrrghgParticipant]

I watch every raps game.. demar is quite horrendous on D. The guy has all the physical tools to be a pretty good defender, but he constantly gets lost on screens and cant really guard anyone one-on-one. Bargs is a terrible team defender for sure but his one on one D actually isnt too bad, since he’s long enough to affect a lot of shots.  

Calderon has notoriously been a horrible defender, and sonny weems fucking sucks on D as well. Watch that guy try to fight through screens, its embarrassing. 

[Tha_PrinceParticipant]

 I’m not saying DeRozan is an amazing defender by any means but when it comes to the starting line-up of Calderon, Weems, Johnson and Bargs he trumps them all as defenders.

If DeRozan played with as much intensity as Julian Wright on D we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all. Gotta love his hustle

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

How isn’t Kevin Love on this list? 

I think people look at Griffin’s steal and block numbers, and they think he’s a bad defender. He’s not a good defender, but I wouldn’t call him bad either. He’s probably average to slightly below average right now.

He moves his feet well on defense and has taking a quite a few on ball charges. He defends the pick and roll well. His on ball defense needs work vs offensively talented fours. He doesn’t close out as well on shooters as he should either. He’s still learning where to be.

He hasn’t learned to play with the same intensity on defense as he has on offense yet, but he will eventually.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

And I think Prince is still a solid defender. I don’t know how he’s coming up with that one.

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