Myth #3: Draymond Jamal Green Doesn’t Deserve Defensive Player of the Year
I might be slightly biased when it comes to this national media myth so I’ll keep it to the facts.
-The NBA’s becoming increasingly position-less. GMs preach versatility, and covet that lethal combination of foot speed, length, and enough strength to not get isolated in post-ups. The “stretch 4” isn’t an anomaly only practiced by teams who lack a burly 2nd low low-post threat -it’s commonplace. Who’s the NBA’s single most versatile defender? Draymond. Last Sunday he guarded Chris Paul (6’0”) and DeAndre Jordan (6’11”).
-The NBA has named a Defensive Player of the Year the past 32 seasons (since 1982/83). A guard or wing has only won the award 9 times. The other 23 times a center or non-stretch four was crowned. We’ve begun to reward rebounding as a factor in deciding the NBA’s best defensive player. The next in line in this big-man bias would be DeAndre Jordan, who Doc Rivers promotes for Defensive Player of the Year harder than Daryl Morey promotes Harden for MVP. Two stats for the DeAndre campaigners: the Clippers’ defense is ranked 15th in the league and it improves when DeAndre is on the bench.
-Two facts for the rationalists (my bias is seeping through!) supporting the Draymond campaign…
- With Draymond on the court the Warriors’ defense is the league’s best (by a differential equal to the differential that separates the league’s 2nd and 16th best defenses).
- With Draymond off the court the Warriors’ defense ranks 14th in the league. The defense gets 13 spots worse without Green!
Draymond’s more deserving of Defensive Player of the Year than Steph is of MVP. Considering Steph’s the Vegas favorite to win MVP (and Vegas never lies) that’s saying something.
In regards to the Simmons quote about Augstin and Curry, when did he say that? Googled around but could not find any reference to it.
It’s from this Monday’s BS Report with Zach Lowe. It’s at least 3/4 into the podcast. Thanks for reading the piece.
Wow I men wow learn’t something new by reading this. The Warriors defence goes from 1st to 14th when Green is off the floor, that is flabbergasting!! That means Green could basically make any team in the league improve drastically by himself!!
That is Hakeem and Rodman levels and could possibly mean that Green is Golden States most important player!! Golden States defence is much better than their offence so it tells you everything you need to know.