"The Dwight Effect", from the Sloan Analytics conference.

It's possible that this is a repost, but I feel that it will draw much more attention now for obvious reasons. It's a research paper, so it's not easy to read. I'll try to summarize the main points. For the most part it's an attempt to more fully analyze the defensive impact of a player beyond what's possible with typical statistics like blocks or steals.

"We define 'The Dwight Effect' as the ability of an interior defender to reduce the efficiency of an opponent’s shooting behavior"

The paper splits the halfcourt into three areas. You can guess these. Three point range, mid-range, and close range. Strong interior defense shows up in two ways. "The most obvious is perhaps reduced shooting efficiencies close to the basket. The second is less apparent but perhaps more important: reduced shooting frequencies close to the basket, and increased frequency in the mid-range and three-point areas." So a straight reduction in FG% or pushing offenses into inherently less efficient shots.

Dwight doesn't actually lead in the first category. Roy Hibbert and Larry Sanders tie for #1 in interior FG% reduction, dragging it down from 49.7% to ~38%. Dwight comes in tenth overall, dragging from 49.7% to 45.7%. But he does solidly lead in the second category. "Overall, when a qualifying defender is within 5 feet of the basket, the NBA shoots 57.2% of its attempts close to the basket; however, when Dwight Howard was the interior defender this number dropped to 48.2% (Appendix 1A). This is what we call the “Dwight Effect” – the most effective way to defend close range shots is to prevent them from even happening. Although Howard does not lead the league in blocks, he does lead the league in “invisible blocks,” which may prove to be markedly more significant. When Howard is protecting the basket, opponents shoot many fewer close range shots than average, and settle for many more midrange shots, which are the least productive shots in the NBA."

The authors of the paper are Kirk Goldsberry and Eric Weiss at Harvard. The link to the paper is here:
http://www.sloansportsconference.co...of Interior Defense Analytics for the NBA.pdf

 

True, but I think the gist of the paper is that most if not all of his "lower" (still not bad by any means) FG% reduction is simply due to plenty of people (likely the poorer shooters) simply not trying to drive or shoot inside against him. They instead say **** it and opt for a midrange jumper or pass for a midrange jumper/3.