KHardly any other sport is so statistically underpinned as basketball. Gone are the days when the players who score the most points are automatically perceived as the best. While for many years it was primarily offensive performance that was presented in increasingly differentiated statistics, meanwhile defensive efforts have also come into focus. Finding criteria for their measurability was not easy. But in the meantime, the North American professional league NBA has created a catalog that challenges even experts in its complexity. The offensive statistics of the opponents, especially their shooting quotas, no longer have to serve as the most important indicators for one’s own defensive performance.
In modern basketball, a top-level defender must be able to take away both the shot and the move to the basket from an opponent. Since no basketball game ends 0:0, it is immediately obvious that this claim can only be implemented to a very limited extent. Nevertheless, a good one-on-one defense is the basis for successful defensive work in view of the ever-increasing offensive qualities. If a player is beaten in his direct duel and the team has to rotate as a result, the attackers’ ball movement is usually so good that a high-percentage finish is the result.
If a team wins three of the five one-on-ones, they are likely to win the game. If a team wins four individual duels, the chances tend towards 100 percent. That’s why there are coaches who immediately assign a new opponent to defenders who are beaten one-on-one. If that doesn’t work either, change the player.
Skills in high demand
The idea is that you show your opponent that you’re better than them by not allowing them to score in a one-on-one duel. There are no official figures for this yet, but teams are very likely to check them internally. Such negative statistics are not necessarily in the interests of the NBA marketing machine.
Unfortunately, the league does not publish any numbers (positive or negative) on how well players defend when they switch in a situation, i.e. take over the opponent from a teammate. This tool is becoming increasingly popular, and the ability of physically strong guards and agile long players to minimize size and speed disadvantages in these moments is in high demand.
Magic mark of 100 points
But then what are the defensive numbers that are currently being recorded – independently of the teams’ internal and external statistical service providers? In addition to the ball wins (steals) and blocked throws that have been added to the offensive statistics that have been kept from the beginning over the course of time, the NBA maps a large number of other defensive values, which it records both for teams and for individual players with total volume, but also in detail per game, per minute or per ball possession.
It is based on the principle of possession evaluation developed by college coach Dean Smith in the 1960s. For his teams at the University of North Carolina, he formulated the goal of not allowing more than 75 points per 100 ball possessions. Due to the introduction of the three-point line and the further development of the game, this number is utopianly low today.
Anyone who manages to concede less than 100 points per 100 possessions is excellent. In North America, no team can do that at the moment, Boston delivers the best value with 105.8. In the players, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Isaiah Hartenstein sits at 104.6. A few weeks ago, the German was the only player among the magic 100 with a score of 99.4.
In addition to what is now the most important defensive benchmark, the NBA also measures how often passes are deflected, as this changes the rhythm of the attacking team. It is recorded what percentage of defensive rebounds a team or a player taps. How many offensive fouls does a player accept, how many free balls does he get, how many throws does he make more difficult in total, how many of them from two and how many from three, how often does he block his opponent before the defensive rebound? The NBA now makes all these figures available.
In Germany the league is not that far yet. But in the end you can’t represent all defensively relevant attributes objectively anyway. Test batteries are possible for lateral mobility, anticipation and reflexes, but how do you measure pride, tenacity or cleverness?
The author was coach of the year twice in Germany.
