Ed Davis our best defender, Myers much better inside than outside, and Crabbe and Henderson not good defending the three point line (focused too much on helping?). http://www.blazersedge.com/2016/3/3...s-best-and-worst-defensive-spots-on-the-floor
Meyers just has terrible footwork and very slow reaction times. It's a major defensive problem. He'd be fine as a limited minute backup center, look at last year with LaMarcus on the second units. That was the best ball he's played. He's a significantly inferior all around center to Plumlee and Davis so that makes him a third string player here. Even if he was on a team with no center he'd be vulnerable to opponents with quick lineups. Defensive Real Plus Minus (DRPM) ranks Meyers #86 of 97 players. Plumlee and Davis are both in the top13. Crabbe is the most overrated defender on our team. He's not terrible but he's certainly below average while some call him good. DRPM ranks him #77 of 95 SG's. CJ may be surprising to many as he ranks as a good defensive SG with a DRPM of #27. I suspect it may be because CJ makes the correct fundamental play whereas Crabbe gambles for steals. As we'd expect Aminu is ranked up there with a DRPM of 11 out of 76 SF's.
CJ is 9th in offensive RPM among SG's and has an overall RPM of 7th. The players above him are Harden, Butler, Ginobili, Middleton, Klay, Oladipo. Thats it, only 6 guys out of 95! This is CJ's first year as a major rotational player. He has a great work ethic as Dame and is far further along on the defensive end than Dame ever has been. What will CJ do in the next few years? Could he be in the running as the best SG in the league? In overall RPM he is already ranked ahead of Danny Green, Batum, DeRozen, Wes, Fournier, JJ Redick, Ellis, Wade, and Wiggins. Props to CJ!
On Dame's interior defense, I'd argue that isn't really his job. Point guards are going to look relatively bad at that area because they aren't big men. It's the big man's job to protect the paint. Chris Paul, considered to be one of the best defenders at PG is +7.4 within 10 feet, actually worse than Lillard, and he has Jordan next to him. Overall, Chris Paul is +1.9 , Mike Conley is + 1.1 and Lillard is only plus .6%. So I think it's silly to use this stat to paint Dame's defense in a bad light. But it's open to interpetation: a guy that everyone knows as being terrible at defense, Calderon, gives up +15% witin 6 and 9.7 within 10. But he's actually -4% on 3 pointers. Perhaps the inside number has to do with getting beat of the dribble?
That's kind of crazy that he picks up more rebounds than much, much longer guys like Batum and Wiggins. And it's not like Portland gives up a ton of transition baskets by crashing the boards. CJ just seems to be pretty clever at picking moments when the odds are in his favor.
