Defense and Hustle Tracking: 2023 - 24 season

[AHF]

1 hour ago, JeffS17 said:

Can't take any defensive stat seriously that has Dame at the top lol

Is this the fg% they allow to the man they are guarding?  

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, JeffS17 said:

Can't take any defensive stat seriously that has Dame at the top lol

Dame plays with one of the best defensive frontlines in the NBA. Dame simply has to keep people in front of them and force them into shooting jumpers.

If he gets beat, the Bucks have 2 big guys who can challenge any shot in the paint and at the rim.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

15 minutes ago, AHF said:

Is this the fg% they allow to the man they are guarding?  

Yes.

[JeffS17]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Dame plays with one of the best defensive frontlines in the NBA. Dame simply has to keep people in front of them and force them into shooting jumpers.

If he gets beat, the Bucks have 2 big guys who can challenge any shot in the paint and at the rim.

Yeah, exactly, I think thats the correct way to frame this stat.  Would be more interesting to see eFG% and TS% though cus scheme is going to dictate ao much of this.  Even then, single defensive stats always require immense context.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

 

2 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

Yeah, exactly, I think thats the correct way to frame this stat.  Would be more interesting to see eFG% and TS% though cus scheme is going to dictate ao much of this.  Even then, single defensive stats always require immense context.

The TS% from a individual defense perspective, I can't find. But the other stuff is available.  You can even see video box scores of the shots defended, which is why I post the link for Hawks games that I'm posting info from.

What I haven't been posting, is the individual defensive numbers from where people shoot from the court.

For example, this Hawk has the best defended FG% from 3 point range, at 31.8%.   That player ... is Trae Young. The worst, is Garrison Matthews at 45.7%.  Bogi gives up the most 3s per game with 1.8 made threes per game.

Here are the best - worst - most DFGM from other areas

> 15 ft ( min 3 DFGA per game defended )

• Best - Young ( 34.6% )
• Worst - Bey ( 43.5% )
• Most DFGM - Hunter ( 2.2 @ 38.8% )

 

< 10 ft. ( min 4 DFGA per game defended )

• Best - J. Johnson ( 50.7% )
• Worst - Young ( 63.8% )
• Most DFGM - Capela ( 4.5 @ 57.3% )

 

< 6ft ( min 3 DFGA per game defended )

• Best - J.Johnson ( 51.3% )
• Worst - Young ( 68.2% )
• Most DFGM - Capela ( 4.1 @ 59.4% )

 

Overall ( ranked by FG% with DFGM listed )

Main rotation players only + Matthews Bros

• J. Johnson ( 43.6% @ 6.6 DFGM )
• W. Matthews ( 45.6 % @ 2.3 DFGM )
• Murray ( 46.9% @ 5.9 DFGM )
• Bogi ( 48.2% @ 6.1 DFGM )
• Young ( 48.9% @ 6.6 DFGM )
• Hunter ( 49.7% @ 6.3 DFGM )
• Okongwu ( 49.9% @ 6.2 DFGM )
• G. Matthews ( 51.6% @ 2.6 DFGM )
• Capela ( 52.6% @ 7.0 DFGM )
• Bey ( 53.8% @ 4.5 DFGM )

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by TheNorthCydeRises

[Diesel]

Well, I guess that means the secret is out for all to see...

When your defensive frontcourt is good/great... the backcourt will shine.  Period.  People are downing Trae and DJ because of our defense.  The effort is there.   DJ's style of defense is gambling.  Trae makes far less mental mistakes than previous seasons.   We just don't have the help at the 3,4,5 to make them look as good as they are playing.   With JJ back, that changes a little.  But OO hasn't stepped up and Clint is playing very well but our rebounding is horrid.

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Sacramento ( 12/29 )

 

Defense

https://www.nba.com/game/sac-vs-atl-0022300431/box-score?type=defense

 

 

Re-watching clips of the game are always interesting to me.  Let me look at Clint first.  I want to see how 9 assists and 8 three pointers were attributed to him.

• 5 assists coming from Sabonis, mainly from pick and roll action. Even Len had an assist from the PnR.
• 8 defended 3 pointers by Capela, which Quin actually talked about in the press conference.  Look at this sequence though:

 

Not sure what happened on the previous Hawks possession, but all 5 Kings are in this screen shot, with Bey and Trae trying to stop Duarte from scoring at the rim.  JJ is closing in as well.  No Capela or DJ pictured.  Not sure why.

 

Clint and Dejounte are late getting back, but Bey and Trae successfully prevents Duarte from scoring.  Duarte passes it to Monk at the rim, but JJ is right there. Monk immediately turns and fires the ball out to Fox.  Capela is starting to enter the picture. 

 

Capela with a good challenge to Fox's 3.  DJ is now entering the picture.  Pay attention to the paint.

 

Do you see it?  What do you think is about to happen?

 

How about now?

 

Sabonis is perennially one of the best rebounding big men in the league.  You have 2 Kings on the right side of the basket. But no one puts a body on him.  This is easy pickings for Sabonis.  And the irony of Trae being the only Hawk trying to box someone out here, is mind boggling to me.  Bey, who should've stayed on the other side and box out Sabonis, is now behind JJ?

 

So despite preventing a layup, and a great contest on a 3 pointer by Capela, we still give up an offensive rebound that leads to a score. DJ with a weak swipe to try to knock the ball out of Sabonis hands, that wiffs.  JJ tries to defend Sabonis as he's going up, but you're not stopping him at point blank range.  LOL . . and look where Bey is now.

 

That is our season so far in a nutshell.

 

Good job by Trae with 4 steals.  He and DJ did give up critical 3 pointers in that 4th quarter though.

Bogi got torched for most the night.  The athletes he was trying to guard were just too much for him.

 

Hustle

https://www.nba.com/game/sac-vs-atl-0022300431/box-score?type=hustle

 

 

DJ overall didn't play a bad defensive game at all.  Lots of deflections for him.  Trae had a few deflections that lead to him getting steals.  Capela contested the most shots.  JJ, for him, had an extremely low contested shot rate.

Overall team contested shot rate was very low:  27 out of 85 shots = 31.8% shots contested

[SalvorMallow]

5 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Sacramento ( 12/29 )

 

Defense

https://www.nba.com/game/sac-vs-atl-0022300431/box-score?type=defense

 

 

Re-watching clips of the game are always interesting to me.  Let me look at Clint first.  I want to see how 9 assists and 8 three pointers were attributed to him.

• 5 assists coming from Sabonis, mainly from pick and roll action. Even Len had an assist from the PnR.
• 8 defended 3 pointers by Capela, which Quin actually talked about in the press conference.  Look at this sequence though:

 

Not sure what happened on the previous Hawks possession, but all 5 Kings are in this screen shot, with Bey and Trae trying to stop Duarte from scoring at the rim.  JJ is closing in as well.  No Capela or DJ pictured.  Not sure why.

 

Clint and Dejounte are late getting back, but Bey and Trae successfully prevents Duarte from scoring.  Duarte passes it to Monk at the rim, but JJ is right there. Monk immediately turns and fires the ball out to Fox.  Capela is starting to enter the picture. 

 

Capela with a good challenge to Fox's 3.  DJ is now entering the picture.  Pay attention to the paint.

 

Do you see it?  What do you think is about to happen?

 

How about now?

 

Sabonis is perennially one of the best rebounding big men in the league.  You have 2 Kings on the right side of the basket. But no one puts a body on him.  This is easy pickings for Sabonis.  And the irony of Trae being the only Hawk trying to box someone out here, is mind boggling to me.  Bey, who should've stayed on the other side and box out Sabonis, is now behind JJ?

 

So despite preventing a layup, and a great contest on a 3 pointer by Capela, we still give up an offensive rebound that leads to a score. DJ with a weak swipe to try to knock the ball out of Sabonis hands, that wiffs.  JJ tries to defend Sabonis as he's going up, but you're not stopping him at point blank range.  LOL . . and look where Bey is now.

 

That is our season so far in a nutshell.

 

Good job by Trae with 4 steals.  He and DJ did give up critical 3 pointers in that 4th quarter though.

Bogi got torched for most the night.  The athletes he was trying to guard were just too much for him.

 

Hustle

https://www.nba.com/game/sac-vs-atl-0022300431/box-score?type=hustle

 

 

DJ overall didn't play a bad defensive game at all.  Lots of deflections for him.  Trae had a few deflections that lead to him getting steals.  Capela contested the most shots.  JJ, for him, had an extremely low contested shot rate.

Overall team contested shot rate was very low:  27 out of 85 shots = 31.8% shots contested

Excellent post dude, thanks for sharing.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I'm still lol @ this picture.  How do you have 4 guys around the rim, but your opponent with 2 guys at the rim have the best position to grab the rebound?

Quin has to kill the small starting lineup.  Bey may have a super hero body, but he's still little and not a great athlete.

I'm sorry, but Bruno would've at least put a body on someone.  Can't say that OO would've, due to his 3 rebound performance last night.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is our season so far in a nutshell.

 

This is all kinda bad. What are we doing? EVERYBODY watching the ball and flat-footed.

If this wasn't so painful to watch, it would be a comedy show. 

Bey, good grief  

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Washington

1/13

 

Defense

https://www.nba.com/game/was-vs-atl-0022300543/box-score?type=defense

 

 

Wizards definitely made it a point to attack DJ an Trae on the perimeter, with the way they play.  Trae held up better on defense than DJ, but both had their deer in the headlights moments trying to stop the 2 on 1 fast break, or seeing balls fly over their head, even when they're back on defense.

DJ's defensive possessions on made FGs are depressing to watch.  Everything is going right at the rim and he offers little to no resistance.  How many charges has DJ taken this year?

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=DEF_FGM&EndPeriod=0&EndRange=28800&GameID=0022300543&PlayerID=1627749&RangeType=0&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular Season&StartPeriod=0&StartRange=0&TeamID=1610612737&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

 

 

Hustle

https://www.nba.com/game/was-vs-atl-0022300543/box-score?type=hustle

 

 

Low energy game defensively from DJ with no steals and no deflections.  Extremely rare from him.  While Bogi didn't stop anybody, he did contest 7 of the 8 shots attempted on him ( they made 5 ).  7 Box outs for rebounds is high for us.  That number usually hovers around 2 to 4.

44 out of 97 shots contested = 45.4%

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Reset of defense YTD

Once again, here's what the categories mean

• DFGM and DFGA - Defended field goals made and attempted against that guy
• DFG% - Defended field goal % that guy gives up
• FG% - Field goal % of the TEAM while that guy is in the game.

 

NOTE:  League average FG% is 47.4%

 

Individually, only JJ and Wesley Matthews play defense at the league average.  It may be unfair to judge the other guys based on that criteria, and instead, judge them on what DFG% at their position is.  Looks like I can break it down further, so let's look at it right quick.

 

Centers ( Starters ) - List is filtered by games played, to take out some of the noise of guys who may have only played a few games at starting center.

To me, this is a damning statistic on Capela.  The vast majority of NBA starting centers are below 50% DFG.  But on this list, Capela is at a whopping 52.4%.  Is this him not getting back in time to stop a guard or forward going to the rim?  Is that him not being able to defend a shot after an opposing big gets an offensive rebound?  Is that Capela not being able to guard his man in the post? 

I think the answer is YES to all.

The worst thing is seeing Okongwu as a starter.  He posted the worst DFG% out of all the guys on this list, although I think one of those games he started, was against Embiid.

 

Centers ( bench ) - Once again, filtered by games played

 

While Okongwu is defending shots a little above league average, there are a ton of backup bigs who are defending much better than him.  Is that an indictment on OO, or the scheme that he's playing?  Could any of these other guys play better defense than OO, if put in our scheme?

I'm in too deep into this.  So I'll break this down into multiple pages for the forwards and guards.

All of this will also give you insight on the type of defensive players we may can possibly target, especially when you're talking about the bench guys, if ownership can't make the huge splash.  But those bench guys must also be able to play a little offense.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Forwards ( Starters ) - Filtered by games played ( minimum 20 games played, but I will add Hawk players like the Matthews Bros, if they haven't played 20 games yet ).

 

Is it the scheme?  Or our players just that bad on defense?

If you want to overlook some of the big guys on this list who also play center ( the F-C ), you can, and just concentrate on the forwards and G-Fs

My guy Siakam has been horrible on defense this season.  I still say his offense will offset or even eclipse some of his defensive deficiencies, but this isn't a good look at all for him and his quest to get a max deal.

The SF and PF spots are filled with either highly skilled guys who can do it all on offense, or spot up 3 point corner 3 shooters.  So you must be able to defend at all levels when playing the 3 or 4 spot.

And that brings us to our guys.  12 and Bey are below league average defenders, which we all know.  It's just disappointing that at least one of these guys can't defend at league average.  With the problems our guards have, and the fact that our centers can't guard at league average either, the team defense as a whole is severely off when our other frontline guys are poor as well.

But once again, is this a scheme issue or an individual defensive issue?

Edited January 14 by TheNorthCydeRises

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Forwards ( Bench ) - Min 20 games.  Rotation Hawks players < 20 games added.

 

Quin better make sure that it isn't his overall defensive scheme that isn't the real problem.  There are some legit defensive players on this list who are posting bad defensive DFG% . . . while there are guys who we know aren't tough defenders, that are posting good metrics on good teams.

Hey front office guys.  I know you all love Quin.  But if he's implementing something that his guys can't do, it is what it is.  He should adjust his scheme until he gets the players he wants.  If you have a QB that is slow as molasses, you can't run an option style football offense.

Ressler, Landry, and Kyle better be 100% on point that QUIN isn't the issue with this team.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Guards ( starters ) - Min 20 games. 

 

For proportion purposes, I should've been highlighting the guys who were giving up 49%+ on the DFG%, in red, instead of starting it at 50%+. 

• Below 46% DFG% = good
• Between 46% - 49% DFG% = average
• Above 49% DFG% = bad

No sense in trying to hide Trae, DJ, and 12 as being bad defensively this season, just because they're not giving up 50%.  They're at the lower end of the spectrum, so they need to be in red.  When you look at the guys in green, you see the taller guards or traditionally very good defensive guards.  Caruso and Smart seem to always stand out in this category.

Point of attack defense has definitely been an issue for this team, but it seems to be a team wide problem.  What can the coach do to fix this?  Good coaches make adjustments to fix team issues.  What adjustments have Quin made this season, to fix these issues?

Edited January 14 by TheNorthCydeRises

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Guards ( bench ) - same criteria, with rotation Hawks players added

 

**** copy/paste from my snip isn't loading right now for some reason ****

When I can get it to load up, it's going to show a wild array of good and bad defenders.  Not a lot of average defenders.  The majority are either good or bad.  And unfortunately, most of our guys are bad.  Only Wesley Matthews stands out as being a good POA defender.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Guards ( bench ) - same criteria, with rotation Hawks players added

 

**** copy/paste from my snip isn't loading right now for some reason ****

When I can get it to load up, it's going to show a wild array of good and bad defenders.  Not a lot of average defenders.  The majority are either good or bad.  And unfortunately, most of our guys are bad.  Only Wesley Matthews stands out as being a good POA defender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's what I'll say about Wesley Matthews and the way he plays defense.  He gets up on you and doesn't sag back.  From a defensive standpoint, he forces the offensive man to do something, rather than waiting for the offensive man to dictate what he should do on defense.

When you look at how our other guards play defense, that's a huge difference.  When DJ does it, he's looking for a poke away steal, rather than actually keeping his man from going by him.  We've seen Trae do it vs guys that he knows can't get by him.  Bogi does try to body people at times, but they can go right by him once they get a step.

Wesley plays defense the correct way.

 

Edited January 14 by TheNorthCydeRises

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Dallas 1/26

 

Defense

https://www.nba.com/game/dal-vs-atl-0022300634/box-score?type=defense

 

 

Hustle

https://www.nba.com/game/dal-vs-atl-0022300634/box-score?type=hustle

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Defense got better...Offense got worse...Trae, Bogi and Bey didn't shoot well from mid January.