Diving Deep into Defensive Roles

Since I have nothing better to do on a Friday, I wanted to highlight where we went wrong this season as far as defensive roles are concerned and maybe how we can improve. Just another way to look at the problem we all know, but hey its fun! So let’s get into it.

A quick summary of the defensive roles that exist in the NBA game include: Point of Attack, Chaser, Low activity, Wing-stopper, Helper, Mobile Big (switch defense), and Anchor Big (drop coverages). These can be found in detail here ([https://www.bball-index.com/defensive-roles/](https://www.bball-index.com/defensive-roles/))

You can find which players played which defensive role for the majority of the minutes they played and how good they were at it using the Lebron advanced stat here ([https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-application/](https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-application/))

Now here is a breakdown of the players that remain on our roster and the primary defensive roles they played this season.

Damian Lillard (Low activity Defender and was not good at it. Curry plays the same role on defense and advanced stats don’t hate him as much because his defensive rebounding and steal numbers are higher. Could go a long way for the team if Dame grabs an extra rebound a game and just pushes it in transition).

Anfernee Simons (Point of Attack. LOL. He sucked at it. You’re going to be in bad shape when Ant is playing PoA defense for majority of his minutes. Poor nurk).

Jeremi Grant (Point of Attack. He wasn’t that bad but he was still a negative. Interesting because he has always primarily played the Helper role through his career and has been a positive defender. He was not very good at PoA defense obviously so his defensive role needs to be adjusted back to mainly as a helper and some wing stopping minutes next season).

Jusuf Nurkic (Anchor Big. He was very good at this and has been for several years despite our PoA defense not being good and the numbers show that. His problem mainly is that he only plays 27 minutes a night so that leaves about 20 minutes of a very important role in the hands of a not-so-impactful big. And when he misses time during the season, we aren’t in good shape at all).

Drew Eubanks (Mobile Big. Blazers switched with him more often and he was good at it. His numbers were comparable to Isaiah Jackson, Isaiah Stewart, and even Al-Horford while playing this role. He isn’t good offensively but he showed himself to be a capable backup big defensively).

Shaedon Sharpe (Low activity. He was not good but acceptable since he was a rookie and we mainly tried to hide him on defense as he was learning during the season. But his potential is so great because he can be a PoA/Chaser/Wing Stopper/less so Helper defender. I might be getting carried away here but his potential versatility on D gets me turned on. Very intrigued to see his defensive role next year)

Matisse Thybulle (Wing stopper. Simply amazing. He usually plays PoA and wing stopper roles and is one of the best at it. I’m a solid believer that he needs to be back on this team. Every contending team needs this guy).

Trendon Watford (Mobile Big. He was a negative in this role but he wasn’t as bad as some of the other backup bigs. I sadly don’t think he’s going to have a consistent role because he’s not good as a big and too slow for Help defense as a 4).

Jabari Walker (Helper. Now he was not good at this but he was also not terrible as a rookie. I do see him surpassing Trendon within the next year or two and being our 8th/9th man if his 3 point shot is respectable enough and he can continue to be a good enough Help defender. Important roster piece).

Notes: Gary Payton and Josh Hart were PoA defenders that were very good at it but do not remain with us. I do not see #1 prospect Cam or a host of other players we brought in being back next season. Knox is a maybe but his offensive game is roughhh but has potential as a Helper/Wing stopper.

**What we need this off-season**

\-Assuming Grant is coming back, he will need to play the primary Helper and secondary Wing-Stopper role which he has been good at. Please don’t make him play PoA defense Chauncey.

\-Ant very likely needs to be replaced by a much better Primary PoA and secondary Wing Stopping defender. Since Jaylen isn’t realistic, we are left with Mikal or OG Anunoby. OG is actually the much better defender amongst this group but Mikal has the better offensive game. I think you can potentially go OG if Bridges is not available, hoping Sharpe can replace Ant’s offense.

\-Simply put, Sharpe needs to step up into his defensive role. The team goes no where if Sharpe remains a weak link on defense. He has to play an engaging role probably primarily as a Chaser on shooters and secondary PoA/Helper.

\-The center issue. This to me is actually the most puzzling issue that we face. Nurk is very good defensively. But he just doesn’t play enough. Either you find someone similar or better (costs a lot more) or you stick with nurk and get some impactful big guys on the bench (probably the more feasible option) so you can have good 48 minutes of Big defense. Either way, some names to keep in mind of impactful anchor and mobile bigs that could be had and could fit on the roster: Wendell Carter, Draymond (hehe), Goga Bitadze, Drummond, Dwight Powell, Moses Brown, and Chimezie Metu.

**Defensive roles on a contending team should look something as follows.**

Dame (Low activity, chaser)

Sharpe (Chaser, PoA and being good at it)

OG/Mikal (PoA, Wing Stopper, Helper)

Grant (Helper, Wing Stopper)

Nurk (Anchor Big)

6th man like Alec burks (Chaser, PoA)

Backup 4 (ideally a good Helper and wing stopper. Likely just Jabari/Trendon)

Backup 5 (Anchor Big that can keep the team afloat when nurks out)

Eubanks (backup to the backup 5. Will definitely need him in the season. Good at this role).

Matisse the beast (PoA specialist, Wing stopping demon, helper guru). The swiss army knife on defense. Use him as you wish according to lineups.

by illogicalkilla