Battier: hand in the face. Moute: Bootay in the face. Nene: Big dick in the face. Tucker: mix it all like T H I C C milkshake.
Luc is a better athlete, makes playing the lanes a bit easier. Battier was a better one on one defender and a gamer. Not sure on the 3s... Corner 3s by Battier was his jam, like a road Ryno at home.
Different type of defenders. Battier was more of position defender that beat his players to certain spots. He used his strength & iq to force guys to shoot shots of balance. Luc is the same player but with more length & a hair quicker. Luc's length puts him in a different class
Shane Battier put a lot of effort on his defense like getting analytics reports from Morey but at the end of the day he was hampered by his lack of athleticism. Dude was called a "No Stats all star" for a reason. He contributed a lot to team defense and in little things like play calling however he couldn't contribute anything in actual production like rebs, steals, assists, blocks and points. Luc oth is an athletic beast with a lsrge winspan and he also has high bball IQ like Battier so he can also defend well. So there is no need to call Luc a no stats all star because apart from his solid D he will also grab some boards, steals and blocks to gi along with around 13 pts on good %. Battier put a lot of effort in his defense but Luc has both effort snd athleticism. Maybe if they had the exact same body Battier would be better since he is smarter however Luc's edge in athleticism and length makes his defense superior to Battier's.
Luc has a better face up game from the triple threat to me... Battier was limited and standing in the corner too much for me.
Barrier was a great defender and a real pest; I remember reading somewhere that Battier would shout stuff to other defenders that sounded like play calls whenever an opposing point guard signaled for something, to try to fool the point guard into think he knew their playbook. That said I don't know how well he'd fare against some of the longer offensive wingmen of this decade.
Here in lies the differenc between preference. I get that mbah is more athletic and that helps him a lot. He really gives him an edge over battier naturally. The thing is while both had high iq and put in a ton of effort, the fact battier was just as good (whether you believe one or the other is better let's just say for arguments sake they are about even) proves just how good he was defensively. His lack of athleticism did not hold him back because of how meticulously perfect he damn near was on defense. I think it's safe to assume if Shane had lucs athleticism this wouldn't be a conversation, which imo proves battier was the better and smarter defender. That isn't a knock on luc. TBH, just being mentioned with battier is a high respect and honor. Debating who is better just goes to show how great he has been. To each his own.
Morey disagrees with you. Remember this interview he had where he talks about Battier being the ultimate Kobe stopper because he would force him into bad shots. The level of detail was amazing. It was like if he goes left, with the ball n his right hand edge to the baseline but he counters push him to the right elbow.... Shane was like a computer.
I remember Battier well, he’d study opponents in the off season/before games and learn their tendencies. I can totally understand why people would pick Battier over Luc.
There can only ever have been one Battier. There's no real comparison between Mbah Moute and Battier. Battier wasn't just about 3&D or "intangibles" broadly speaking. He understood how to disrupt the other team's dynamic and change the course of a game.
Yeah I do agree that based on their mental edge and preparation Battier is the better defender. However in the NBA height is might and Luc is a much better defender than Battier because of this. Battier was one of the best defenders in his era but that was because his era is weaker than the current era. During Battier's time the best scorers were small guards or 6'8 dudes like Paul Pierce. Aside from Tmac where were all the athletic freaks? Now you have Lebron, KD, Kawhi, Harden etc. Battier wouldn't be able to guard these guys at all because they are so much more athletic than him. Also Battier benefitted a lot from analytics, the only teams doing analytics then were the Spurs, Rox and Boston so everybody's idea of a good shot was a contested step back mid range jumper, meaning all battier had to do is cover his opponent's sight with his hand and that's already great defense. Now, everybody does analytics and lots of teams are going positionless offense/defense, this means Battier in today's NBA would have to keep switching and he can't do that because he is too unathletic. In Battier's time he onoy had to guard Kobe for 4 quarters straight so he can prepare and utilize scouting reports etc. But now he would have to guard KD, Iggy, Curry and Green sometimes on the same play, can he scout out the entire enemy team? Obviously not. You may disagree with me but the proof is that there are no more Battiers in today's NBA. During Battier's time there were a lot of defenders who were super smart tenacious unathletic white dudes like Ryan Bowen, Battier, Bruce Bowen etc. Now these guys aren't in the NBA anymore, the best defenders are Ariza-type guys like Ariza, Kawhi, Luc, Roberson...basically athletic beasts.
Battier was a better rebounder, passer, and shotblocker than Luc in terms of raw stats and a per possession basis. Luc was a better rebounder when he was younger and played PF, but after that was worse than Shane. Shane also had a 2.5:1 ast/to ratio while Luc's is 1:1.6 this year. Shane's career block percentage is nearly double Luc's and his one one one defense was much better. Luc also averages 8.2 points not 13. I don't know how you think Luc can fill up a stat sheet better than Battier. Before this year he wasn't even a good steals guy. I like Luc, but if Battier were here he'd be starting and we'd be much better off for it.
Again you are comparing Battier's era (early 2000? I forgot it seemed so long ago) to today. There weren't so many athletic freaks in Battier's era. If Battier was here he would be out of the league. How many defenders in today's NBA arent athletic beasts or have insane length?
