Who are our best defensive Players? Rank our team on defense as they are. . not IF THEY TRY . . . or any special circumstances just as they are NOW Rocket River
They are of no use if they do not try, that will just makes watching them frustrating, like watching t-mac play.
Man i have a feeling this thread is gonna cuz a lot of thrashing and name calling. It's too hard to do everyone IMO, but ill do our starters. Chuck, Shane, Yao, Tracy, Rafer. Yao and Tracy are interchangeable.
Shane Chuck Yao Snyder Rafer Bonzi others either cant play defense because they are physically limited or they dont care about defense because they think the best defense is offense.
Chuck Hayes is the best defender on this team. No doubt. He is hell on post players and if you think this team has trouble with guard penetration now watch how often Chuck disrupts guards trying to get to the rim. Without him it would be a layup drill for opposing guards. Shane may be a better team defender but I think the fact that Chuck is down low more due to him guarding PFs puts him in a better position to disrupt the opposition.
I hope not Chuck seems to be the most focused on his Defense Shane tries hard but remove his flopping . . .which the refs seem to be doing . .and he is averae I think Yao's defense maybe a bit underrated. He does change shots Scola tries hard too . . . have not seen enough of Dikembe to say for THIS YEAR Bonzi and maybe snyder maybe our best defensive guards I need to see more of each though . . . but Backcourt defense is our weakest position IMO Rocket River
My list: Yao Chuck Shane Bonz Francis Chuck Hayes quickly comes to mind when thinking about defense. He seems like the most improved player in our roster since his first starting job at defense. Yao is our best defensive player.. he may not be as fast as the other guys but he changes the way the offense play (ie all those changed shots inside). Shane is a little bit overrated with his D. I think he just plays really smart. Bonzi and Francis are pretty decent because of their hustle.
Battier Chuck . . Yao Mutombo Rafer McGrady . . Scola Bonzi Francis James Then all the rest Battier defends the perimeter and in the paint which is why I rank him on top for defensive versatility.
I was gonna put Tmac under Yao, Chuck, Battier.. but because of his poor showing so far this season he is gonna be iso-ed by me.
It's hard to come up with a ranking, because how good you are defensively can really depend on the matchups. For instance, Chuck works great defensively against most teams, but there are some players he's just going to have a tough time defending one on one. His team defense is generally superb, though. Yao, in particular, can be great against some teams, and just terrible against others. Over the course of a season, I think Chuck and Shane will have the best net impact on our defense than any other player. Yao, overall, is a force because of his presence in the interior. Amongst our small guards, I think Rafer is easily the best. Tracy is decent 1 on 1 when he tries, but he's not someone you depend on to make the help rotation or play transition defense. Actually, for the most part, you can depend on him to not do those things.
There is defensive rating of players in basketball-reference.com. There is also some articles in 82games.com about defensive ranking. This is one of the link for one of such an article in 82games.com http://www.82games.com/nichols2.htm The writer basically gives equal weight to 3 defensive indicators to rank the players in 06/07 season. It's not exact science. But the ranking does reflect well the general perception of players in their defensive abilities.
Here's my ranking, based on individual defensive ability: 1) Shane Battier 2) Chuck Hayes 3) Rafer Alston 4) Luther Head 5) Dikembe Mutombo 6) Yao Ming 7) Bonzi Wells 8) Kirk Snyder 9) Luis Scola 10) Steve Francis 11) Mike James Not enough action to judge: Brooks, Novak, Landry.
shane and chuck have the most defensive impact day to day, with yao right behind them. when tracy wants to play defensive he can shut down a player as well anyone else in the league, but he's just not committed to it.
Shane - A (93), He's a great help defender, puts in maximum effort, very intelligent, and is sort of like having a coach on the court. He's not going to shut people down. If he was NFL cornerback, I think he would be in mode of a Ronde Barber type player. Doesn't really have world record breaking speed, dominate one on one coverage, or great hops, but he would be really smart, doesn't blow big plays, and is always in the right spot of the formation or defense and knows how to adjust to other players blowing assignments or coverages. He's not going to be a Deion Sanders (Scottie Pippen, Tayshaun Prince) or a Mel Blount, some one who is just physically more dominate than his opposition. Hayes - A- (90), He's very good defender, I think who is cherished by people who are into the Rockets or watched him play at Kentucky. But unknown, by most of know world, because not really highlight real type player. He can guard any PF in the league...any one. I think he might struggle a bit with smaller (quicker) pfs or small fowards playing out of position. He reminds of a poor man's Dennis Rodman without the tats, attitude, edge, and the great rebounding skills. Good Defenders, not great or has the potential to be great T-Mac - A+ to C, (95 - 79), T-mac can (has) slow(ed)/shut down almost any player in the league, even some superstars. I think he has always had the potential to be one of the best in the league, but he doesn't seem to always bring it Mutombo: B (86), Even at the age of 50, he is a better defender than Amare, Ericka Dampier, and few other odd centers who think they have this aura of greatness. Mutombo was the real deal on defense and in the league. If he were in his prime today, he would be the best center in the league defensively, hands down. He'd be about 96 to 98 on defense. Yao: B (86.5), He's good (underrated) defender, he plays the post as well as anyone. He has learned some of the nuances of defense, like altering shots (not necessarily blocking shots), staying out of foul trouble, and not falling for cheap tricks. You have to remember he's lumbering type of center, like Mark Eaton and Tree Rollins. Both were very good defenders, but they did struggle against smaller players and even more agile/quicker speed driven centers. I see Yao's defense being on par with those two, maybe little better or worse. I give Yao brownie points for being able to go toe to toe with Shaq in his prime. People say that he's too slow to be a good defender, not true at all....you really don't have to be fast and agile to be a good defender....it's more about being in the right place and making good decisions. I don't think people should expect him to be Ben Wallace or Dwight Howard chasing guards back out to perimeter and blocking point guard shots out on the wing. Bonzi - B(81), Decent, could be better, maybe expecting too much because the Portland and Memphis days were a few years ago. James - B (83), He's good defender. Not great, not horrible. Rafer - C+ (79, 85-73), sometimes Rafer can be a really good defender, other times that is certainly not the case. It's like 4 on 5. Francis - C+ (78), See James, not quite as good though. Scola - C (75), I don't think he is great defender, but not bad one either. I think when he gets more adjusted to the NBA speed and rules, he will definitely be in the 80s. I thought he was good in the FIBA. Head (73), He just can't really stop anybody, but he's decent. Snyder (65), Defense is not one of his strong suits.
I see that people still underestimate Rafer. By the numbers ... Code: Players Ranked By Defensive Rating Player On Off Net Hayes, Chuck 99.00 105.14 -6.14 Alston, Rafer 99.92 105.39 -5.48 Mutombo, Dikembe 98.40 102.57 -4.17 Scola, Luis 100.81 103.32 -2.51 Battier, Shane 102.28 102.45 -0.16 Head, Luther 102.52 102.27 0.25 Francis, Steve 102.67 102.26 0.41 Yao, Ming 102.48 101.81 0.67 Every other person on the team has a positive net rating, which means they hurt the team defensively when they're on. Yes, that includes T-Mac, who is currently the worst at 5.06. Proves two things: 1. T-Mac is not giving the effort he should on defense 2. Rick Adelman isn't using Yao as effectively on defense as JVG did last year.
