It is time to make a case! Battier for defensive player of the year!

i do not think bell is elite defender, a good one yeah but a really cheap one and one who flops a lot...and yes battier flops at times to exagerrate the contact made but 9/10 he is in the proper position to make the play. bell flops at times even when there isnt contact i have never seen battier ever do that.

oh and honestly if this about true defense then artest would win it every year

i just think its a shame battier never made either defense teams when like the likes of larry huges and raja bell have.

 

I don't know, but it says alot when team USA's coach K picked battier specifically for defensive purposes, yet he never makes it on the all-defense team.

shane needs to to be respected.

Oh and for the fan boys who love stats like steals and blocks, we should look at how shane does when he has to guard the bests and compare their nights to their averages. i think the only guy that kinda owned shane was lebron, right?

 

Shane Battier should be CDPOY along with Carl Landry.

 

He may not have the quick feet of Bowen, but he is just as smart and fundamentally sound. He may not be a good athlete, but certainly can defend pretty well one-on-one by just using his good anticipation skills (which is a tribute to his film studying habits) and a good knowledge of where everyone is. Even though he is not a physical freak by any means, he hardly ever gets beaten, and when he does, he knows to make the player go to the help defensive side. And very surprisingly, he gets a lot of blocks for a guard too.

Shane Battier, I think, is one of the most underrated players and defender in the league.

 

Players like Larry Hughes only make the All-D team because they get a lot of quick steals, despite their marginal one-on-one defense (I'm talking about Kidd and Iverson here)

 

4th in DPO when Battier has NEVER been selected to either the 1st or 2nd All Defensive Team? Link please 'cause I doubt you're correct.

The coaches select the All Defensive Team. They and their staff watch enough film prepping for each game. I'm confident the decision is made on more than "stats".

Battier is the NBA version of "The Emperor has No Clothes". All "nice guy" lip service...no votes. He's a smart team defender with limited 1on1 lockdown ability.

 

You're right. It's also made on media exposure (which is a function of market size) and team success. And I would guess that most head coaches (the ones handing out the votes for the defensive teams) watch significantly less tape than their staff. My understanding is head coaches tend to concentrate more on what their players are doing. It's typically up to their scouts and assistant coaches to put together reports on other teams when preparing for games. Also, while very good team defenders are extremely valuable to a defense, unless they are dominant big man shot blockers I don't know how much coaches really game plan for them.

As for DPOY voting, I don't believe Battier ever finished better than 10th while in Memphis. He was 5th last season.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2007.html#dpoy

 

The Rockets are 2nd in defensive efficiency this year. Why is that? Are T-Mac and Yao elite defenders? Scola? Can Alston shut down his opposing PG? Yeah it's a team effort but the guy we have on the other team's superstar every night is the one and only Battier. He even managed to outscore Carmelo that last game, and Carmelo got so frustrated at the end he had a couple loose ball/offensive fouls I recall. Battier might never win DPOY, but for our team he is the MVP of the defense, this generation's Mario Elie. No one in the league really has true "lockdown" ability--maybe Artest but he's so inconsistent based on his mood that it doesn't even out properly--you can only hope to contain the other team's star and make them work for every shot. Notice how, regardless of what the other team's star is doing, our opponents' overall shooting percentage night in and night out is significantly worse than their season average? And then they blame it on having an off-night. Yeah. Battier says, "You're welcome."

 

Nevermind. If some people had it their way, we'd be a team full of rangy athletes who can run up and down the court in transition, convert on tons of alley-oops, and collect a high number of steals/blocks. To hell with discipline and team chemistry -- it's all about athletic ability and individual talent. In other words, we'd be the Denver Nuggets.

Thankfully, we have people in charge of this team that actually know how to build a winning team.

 

Yao's PER allowed is pretty elite, if memory serves. Alston's is pretty damn good as well...surprisingly, the positions Houston defends best are center, small forward and well...point guard.

But maybe it's not so surprising. Rafer's underrated like that.

Case in point, watch Bobby Jackson on defense. Then watch Rafer. I mean, the guy can't shoot for crap, but Rafer brings a lot to the table that his 30%ish FG doesn't show.

 

I think "some people" have a name.

His name is Billy Knight.

 

Without Battier's defense we wouldn't have won half our games this year. He is definetely a very big contributor to this team. Is he the best defensive player in the NBA? I don't think so, but you could make a strong argument that he is one the top 5 defenders in the league. I guess we will just have to wait and see if he gets the respect he deserves.

 

winning 15 in a row requires defense, alot of it. Battier should definitly be nominated.

 

The Nuggets were a terrible defensive team last season, too.

Camby is 2nd in rebounding at over 14 rpg and 1st in blocks at 4 bpg. Both of those stats are considerably up from last season when he won the award. Howard is 1st and 4th in those same categories.

One of those 2 guys will win Defensive Player of the Year unless something drastically changes in the last few weeks.

 

Adelman has finished runner-up for COY three times! He also earned Coach of the Month honors at least 5 times. It is not far-fetched at all to think Adelman could win this award.

Also, see Mike D'Antoni and Don Nelson.

 

definitely!
but ,i hope we can get a atest style boy that we can cool down james and kobe,your option?

 

"For our team, Shane Battier is excellent at hearing opponents calls during the game and knowing what is going to happen before the opponent runs the play and letting our coaching staff know. That type of advantage could be the difference between 2-3 possessions a game and determine the outcome."

Brian Windhorst, Advance Scout for Houston Rockets
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-0/The-life-of-an-advance-scout.html

There are always certain players that are bad matchups with any defender...even so called lock down defenders. KG is great with most, but then has a hard time on Lamar Odom of all people (length and stride). Bruce Bowen just gets away with numerous hacks in my opinion...he's great, but also gets away with a lot.

If you watch a lot of game film, there really isn't a defense "stopper" out there in the League who can be counted on 100% to shut the other star down on his own. It's always a team thing...always...and even when the defense does everything right, it doesn't guarantee a stopping the opposing offensive stud.

 

What a great read, thanks Kim,

naismith

 

Battier should at the least get on the All-Defensive team.