Draymond Green & DeAndre Jordan NBA Defensive MVP Over Anthony Davis?

[ZaytovenCat]

During the Clippers vs Warriors game today Van Gundy, Jackson and Breen brought up NBA Defensive MVP. Warriors coach Steve Kerr has said Draymond Green deserves it and Clips coach Doc Rivers has said DeAndre Jordan deserves it. So they talked about which of those two should win and not once did they mention Anthony Davis for the award.

I thought Davis should have won the award last year but there's no doubt he deserves it this year IMO. He's averaging 1.5 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. He's the league leader in blocked shots, or was as of a few days ago and still likely is. But I just can't understand why Davis isn't getting brought up in that discussion.

 

[5iveStarRecruit]

Jordan may not have a stronger case, but Draymond certainly does. ( As does his teammate Andrew Bogut )

He's an analytical darling. The GSW have the best defensive splits when he's on the court ( they're currently the #1 ranked defense in the league). Defends the SF/PF at elite levels and is one of the main reasons for GSW success. Arguably the most versatile defender in the NBA.

Also, you'd think AD protects the rim better than Draymond, due to his height/length advantage, but check this out :

Opponents FG% at the rim :

Draymond : 47%

AD : 48%

Not a big difference, but pretty remarkable for a 6'7" combo forward, who plays the C spot for GSW when they go small.

 

[mjj_2K]

Because New Orleans isn't that good of a team.

There's more to defense than blocks and steals, and New Orleans' overall team defense is bad. That's not AD's fault, but he is a part of a team that struggles on D, and that's always going to raise questions. In any awards' voting, there's always a penalty for questionable team results. It's the same reason that Russell Westbrook is still highly unlikely to win the MVP.

 

[ZaytovenCat]

Green also has ALOT of help around him on defense which makes him look even better. Davis has a little help but it's mainly just him.

 

[akaukswoosh]

I never liked Kerr. Thank goodness he's not announcing the NCAAs.

 

[rhstoess]

Davis is the best player in the league, but, even though he blocks more shots than anyone in the NBA, he doesn't have a top tier defensive field goal percentage as many others do (Tyson Chandler, Rudy Gobert, etc.). That's why he isn't getting that nod

 

[AnarchoNeoLuddite_rivals]

screw Green that dude needs to be ktfo. He will bail on the Warriors after the season and be exposed.

 

[Lukasz0brzut]

Bit off subject, but I wish the draft day deal of Nerlens/Jrue would've never happened.


Would have loved to see Nerlens/Davis together. Nerlens is having a great year on D and will be a candidate in the future yrs

 

[Big_Blue79]

Originally posted by mj2k10:
Because New Orleans isn't that good of a team.

There's more to defense than blocks and steals, and New Orleans' overall team defense is bad. That's not AD's fault, but he is a part of a team that struggles on D, and that's always going to raise questions. In any awards' voting, there's always a penalty for questionable team results. It's the same reason that Russell Westbrook is still highly unlikely to win the MVP.

This. Also, relying strictly on blocks per game and steals per game is a little 2002. We have such better metrics, like opponent FG% at the rim when a defender is within X feet, sophisticated on/off splits, rate stats (change denominator from game to possession to compare different tempos), etc...

None are perfect on their own (nor do any of them claim to be), but by and large a responsible use of these better stats is far superior to simple (and sometimes misleading) things like blocks and steals per game. Unless you think Allen Iverson is the best perimeter defender of all time, then there is no hope for you.

 

[Gary4UK]

Originally posted by 5iveStarRecruit:
Jordan may not have a stronger case, but Draymond certainly does. ( As does his teammate Andrew Bogut )

He's an analytical darling. The GSW have the best defensive splits when he's on the court ( they're currently the #1 ranked defense in the league). Defends the SF/PF at elite levels and is one of the main reasons for GSW success. Arguably the most versatile defender in the NBA.

Also, you'd think AD protects the rim better than Draymond, due to his height/length advantage, but check this out :

Opponents FG% at the rim :

Draymond : 47%

AD : 48%

Not a big difference, but pretty remarkable for a 6'7" combo forward, who plays the C spot for GSW when they go small.

You said it! Defensive team! Davis is the best defensive player in the league... The only thing that could knock him out it his injuries.... I would like to see the numbers on when they played each other... On a good defensive team, a player can stand out more, because he can concentrate on one man, one area.... Davis has to guard the inside himself....

 

[Big_Blue79]

^ but splits largely account for that. That's why they exist at all. There's a lot of noise is defensive stats, but not enough to totally disregard them.

 

[5iveStarRecruit]

Originally posted by Gary4UK:

Originally posted by 5iveStarRecruit:
Jordan may not have a stronger case, but Draymond certainly does. ( As does his teammate Andrew Bogut )

He's an analytical darling. The GSW have the best defensive splits when he's on the court ( they're currently the #1 ranked defense in the league). Defends the SF/PF at elite levels and is one of the main reasons for GSW success. Arguably the most versatile defender in the NBA.

Also, you'd think AD protects the rim better than Draymond, due to his height/length advantage, but check this out :

Opponents FG% at the rim :

Draymond : 47%

AD : 48%

Not a big difference, but pretty remarkable for a 6'7" combo forward, who plays the C spot for GSW when they go small.

You said it! Defensive team! Davis is the best defensive player in the league... The only thing that could knock him out it his injuries.... I would like to see the numbers on when they played each other... On a good defensive team, a player can stand out more, because he can concentrate on one man, one area.... Davis has to guard the inside himself....

AD has Omer Asik, a pretty good defensive big. He's not stuck on a bad team.

AD has the potential to become the best defensive player in the league, but he simply isn't there yet. He puts up sexy block/steal totals, but players still score at the rim higher than they should.

 

[UK90]

Obvioulsy I'd take AD, but I will say Draymond Green is amazing--the guy's got a chubby body type, ain't fast, can't jump well, and barely measured over 6'5" without shoes at the combine. How the hell does a guy with those physical limitations defensively dominate NBA power forwards like he does?

 

[DSmith21]

I don't get why some people don't think that DeAndre Jordan is as worthy as Davis or Green. DJ has had a monster year and leads the league in rebounds (4 more per game than AD) and is 4th in blocked shots. He also gets a respectable one steal per game which is good for true center. Not a defensive stat but DJ also leads the league in FG% at a whopping 71.5% clip.


This post was edited on 3/9 5:23 PM by DSmith21

 

[anon_hvdd36eg5u05l]

AD has substantially more potential than Draymond Green. Don't think it'll be long before this discussion is moot.

 

[bthaunert]

I remember when Draymond Green committed to Kentucky. BTW, just looked at some old articles about him committing here, and here is what someone posted on a message board about Green:

"I just hope we recruited an athlete, thats not afraid to bang on the
inside. Hopefully, he will turn out better than Perry and Thomas."

How awesome is that.

This post was edited on 3/9 5:30 PM by bthaunert

 

[UKserialkiller]

Yeah, NO are buffons for trading Noel. Imagine having both those guys down low against you. That would have been scary. I hope to see them play on the same team someday.

 

[JBHolmesfan]

I haven't seen all of the analytic stats to say who I think is the best defender. The fact that Jordan is getting about 15 rebounds a game doesn't hurt him. He's put up crazy rebounding numbers. Also, I wonder how much anyone, myself included, have watched enough of those 3 play this year to say one player is better than the other. Obviously, I'd like Davis to win that award but I couldn't tell you who I think should win it.

 

[Chico&TheMan]

We were very close to all 3 of these guys being in a UK uniform, which makes me wonder if there are not some sour grapes out there against Green and Jordan. But I'm glad that they didn't end up here because each one could have bought Tubby and/or Gillispie more years.

Thank you, Cal!

 

[wildcatsboston1984_rivals]

Originally posted by ZaytovenCat:
During the Clippers vs Warriors game today Van Gundy, Jackson and Breen brought up NBA Defensive MVP. Warriors coach Steve Kerr has said Draymond Green deserves it and Clips coach Doc Rivers has said DeAndre Jordan deserves it. So they talked about which of those two should win and not once did they mention Anthony Davis for the award.

I thought Davis should have won the award last year but there's no doubt he deserves it this year IMO. He's averaging 1.5 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. He's the league leader in blocked shots, or was as of a few days ago and still likely is. But I just can't understand why Davis isn't getting brought up in that discussion.

AD likely has close to zero shot at winning the award, right now.

1) Pelicans aren't even a playoff team as of today. The MVP/DPOY awards very rarely ever go to a player on a non-playoff team

2) He's missed 13 games, that's a lot of games to miss to win the award.

3) New Orleans ranks 25th out of 30 NBA teams in Defensive Efficiency. That means they are a terrible defensive team. The award isn't going to a player on a team that is one of the worst in the league at defense.