http://danrosenbaum.blogspot.com/2005/07/defense-for-big-men-what-do-adjusted.html Dan Rosenbaum stats guru has ranked the best and worst players on defense for Center & Power Forward. 2 Rockets make the list: Top Five Centers: 1. Ben Wallace 2. Dikembe Mutumbo 3. Theo Ratliff 4. Jason Collins 5. Joel Pryzbilla Bottom Five Centers: 1. Primoz Brezec 2. Marc Jackson 3. Predrag Drobnjak 4. Mark Blount 5. Eddy Curry Top Seven Power Forwards: 1. Tim Duncan 2. Kevin Garnett 3. Nick Collison 4. Tyson Chandler 5. Nenê 6. Andrei Kirilenko 7. Rasheed Wallace Bottom Seven Power Forwards: 1. Matt Bonner 2. Cliff Robinson 3. Antawn Jamison 4. Juwan Howard 5. Austin Croshere 6. Antoine Walker 7. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Other positions to be posted later. Glad to see Stromile Swift is not on the worst list. Also interesting to see AW & SAR on the worst list.
Tyson Chandler, Nenê, and Nick Collison over Andrei Kirilenko? Joel Pryzbilla and Jason Collins over Yao Ming?
Ak47 is a great shot blocker but I think you have to factor in his post defense...since he is a bit of tweener for a 4. But Nick Collison? Where did this guy come from...I guess he had to put a white all-american somehwere on these lists.
Uh, Kirilenko's a 3, firstly. And secondly, he's only behind Artest at that position. Heck, overall defensive impact he's probably well ahead of Artest, too. Collins in top 5 centers, Blount in bottom 5? Neither belongs in those spots. Cliff Robinson in the bottom 7 power forwards is ludicrous. That guy was closer than most to making a few all-defensive teams back in the day. Yeah, he's old now, but there's still no way he belongs there.
What about Drew Gooden or Vlad Radmanovic, those are two players i've heard ragged on by many for their poor defense.
Kirilenko's "down stats" are still better than Collison/Nene/Chandler. Ridiculous. AK is DEFINITELY top 10 in the L in D, arguably top 5: Artest, Wallace, Prince, Marion...
Slow down guys. First off, this is a statistical ranking, he's not claiming that any of these players are better or worse. He's pointing out what the statistics tell us and letting us make the decisions on our own. Secondly, he qualifies the Collison positioning in his post. While Cliff Robinson may be one of the more underrated defenders of the last 20 years, he stunk last year. Absolutely stunk, and these rankings are from 2004-05. His rebounding was as poor as its ever been (something like a 7 reb rate) and he couldn't chase anyone around at his age. Because he never bulked up, and couldn't rely on his quickness anymore, he had to rely on his length against a series of NBA bigs that continue to get taller and taller. KG may have called him the best defender in the league, but that was probably in 2000 or 2001, when Robinson was routinely destroying him while with the Suns. I've never seen anyone guard KG better, but that was a long time ago, and there's a reason Robinson fell off the map with Frank and the Nets last year. And this is in terms of effectiveness, not easy stats like blocks and steals. AK47 had a great November, but played the most of his minutes with a knee brace and an improving but still dodgy MCL. Because the rankings were for THIS YEAR, he fell off a bit. Collins is a very underrated defender and Przybilla is an absolute force off the ball.
Sorry man. I know this is based on stats. But It's really hard for me to believe his method is correct. The guy put Ostertag before Yao in his player ranking system last year by his method based on stats.
So? Yao in his 2nd year was hardly a defensive force to be reckoned with. He made some great plays, but also many blunders. Ostertag, despite looking being an absolute stiff against the Dream all those years, is not a bad defender. KellyDwyer is correct. Because these are 1-year stats, there would some strange results. AK47 is a better defender than Collison, Nene, or Chandler. But it's absolutely believable that he did not play to his normal standards last year.
