Harden's DRPM is as bad as his defensive reputation? smh. Now I know you don't even have the basic knowledge on this issue.
Yes 49th among shooting guards is nowhere near bad as his reputation, and 321st among all players is misleading since centers and other big men have significant advantage over guards in terms of making defensive impact. In fact, even though Dwight's DRPM is higher than Harden's, his relative rank among centers is actually worse. Harden : 49th out of 96 SGs Dwight : 35th out of 75 Cs
Now, lets take a look at who I consider to be truly 'worst' defenders in this league : Ryan Anderson : 92nd out of 99 PFs Enes Kanter : 74th out of 75 Cs Damian Lillard : 79th out of 81 PGs Kyrie Irving : 76th out of 81 PGs Either Harden has a magical power where he can skew the defensive metrics in his favor when he is just as bad as, or even worse, than the guys listed above, or maybe, just maybe, Harden ain't that bad on defense. Ooh, blasphemy.
If Ryan can play respectable defense on most nights, his overall presence will be a positive one. His offensive game is good. I voted no, to his addition, but I'm rooting for him to succeed.
harden isn't as bad as his vines imply, but his DRPM is about -1 over the last 3 seasons. if real plus-minus is basically just the same as adjusted plus-minus, then the error for any season is huge, but given how many minutes harden plays, it might be close to accurate for a 3 season sample size. so the numbers wouldn't indicate the he is a positive on defense. just not a disaster (klay thompson isn't much ahead for the last 3 seasons). other numbers seem to paint a similar picture. luckily they also indicate he's way, way better on offense than he is bad on defense.
I think a lot of this is where a good coach comes in. You need to know who is going to matchup better with whom. If you just throw Anderson out there for 30+ minutes per night no matter what, you will get burned on occasion. You keep him in the (+) by knowing when to sit him. And that's where this team seemed to be severely lacking last year. As much hell as this team has been given, I think the actual talent was better than the 41-41 record. Not sure if MDA is the coach to make those adjustments, but I guess we shall see. I certainlt think Anderson will be better than Jones.
You are absolutely on point. The stats do not tell the whole story. In the final analysis the Pelicans were a 30 win team last season and that tells you that the defense and offense of that team was mediocre and that the players on that team were a major reason for that result. Stats and analytics need to be put in the right context and analyzed with the appropriate variables or the resulting analysis or conclusion of these raw data often lead to nowhere. Good post.
Why are you derailing the original OP. This is strictly about Anderson. Wow the nerve of some Homer's. Crash rep'd and thanks for sharing this with the GARM. I know it wasn't the intention but dang it boy, Bobby you just got served. Lol
Fact: using one defensive stat to justify an opinion about defense is objectively misleading. Defensive stats are generally not good indicators of actual defense. Curry got absolutely torched by Cleveland, but he is not subpar by any metric that I've seen (correct me if I'm wrong anyone). I have actually broken down and analyzed defense for complete Rockets games, and it is not pretty with Harden. Search for them yourself on CF if you want.
Nice thread, crash, but I still think signing Anderson for $20 million was insane. I'd think that if he played 70+ games a season, but history says he won't manage it. One of Morey's worst moves, in my opinion. I would absolutely love to be proven wrong next season, but can't see it happening. Not at that salary.
Lol... why is the conversation still about defense? We hired MDA... that ship has done sailed... lol! People that complain that Harden was the only option last year... well, know ya got scorers.... no d... but ya got scorers...
ALL the signings this year are insane. So that's hard to judge. Looking at the numbers Anderson puts up compared to other signings this year...seems fair to me. It's several million a year less than what Chandler Parsons signed for....feel better about it now?
It's not misleading, it would take a complete fool to argue that Ryan Anderson is even mediocre defensively.....unfortunately this thread proved just how many of those fools we have represented here. All I did was point out what should be obvious to any competent basketball fan and the rabble threw a fit as they are wont to do.
