Hey, at least Dame is better than Isaiah Thomas, according to ESPN's Defensive Real Plus Minus (DRPM) stats. Dame comes in 74th out of 90 PGs with a -2.03 DRPM. Number 90, at a whopping -4.46, is Isaiah Thomas. In fact, Thomas is 450 out of all 450 players in the entire league when it comes to DRPM. For comparison purposes, Chris Paul comes in No. 1 among PGs with an amazing +3.59. http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/1 Among Shooting Guards, CJ comes in at 85 out of 97 with a DRPM of -2.11 . Who's No. 97 you may ask? Allen Crabbe, at -2.99. Any wonder why other teams' guards feast on the Blazers?
Dame reads screens as bad as anyone in the league and then runs into them full speed. He jogs behind the screen because he has been taught that once you have been beaten by screen you force the player into the midrange to let the big try and recover for you. Poor reading of screens and defensive philosophy isn't an effort issue. It's bad defense nevertheless but it's not because of effort.
Damian Lillard is simply a bad defender. He always has been, he always will be. No amount of telling him to try harder is going to fix that. We're not going to be a good (by which I define as consistently top 4 in the conference) team with him on it unless the rest of the team can cover for him defensively. When he was in a backcourt with Wesley Mathews it worked well enough. With CJ or Crabbe, it doesn't. My guess, which I base on nothing, is that we trade Dame this offseason.
Unfortunately, I would guess it is more likely we trade Crabbe and CJ. The other question is who donee put next to Dame? We don't seem to have any 2s that can defend and I don't think Turner is the answer.
I am going to go out on a limb and say your guess is not going to be correct. Adding a better defensive PG is not going to make us better unless that PG can put up big numbers on offense as well. Who would be getting for Dame? Almost every top 4 team in both conferences has a scoring PG and other than Westbrook, none are that special on D. Kyrie was considered a horrible defender until the addition of Lebron. Isaiah Thomas, Wall, Kyrie, Lowry, Steph, Parker, Harden.......not that great of defenders individually.
Portland was a pretty good defensive team when Turner was moved to the starting lineup, and was guarding the opponents main ball handler.
There really not a defense point guards in this league except Paul. But we got look at this there also a lot great offense point guard in this league. It really about overall team defense that we are not very good at so it not Dame is bad or CJ it the whole unit is bad playing together. So that goes some on the players and some goes on the head coach. I am not taking away that Dame and CJ not defender because they are and it more noticeable when you have average defender behind. Maybe Nurk will help and ET comes back but we just have to see.
No doubt he would help the defensive end. You would just have to change the dynamic and probably make him the primary ball handler since he can't hit well from three. It could work, but would require some adjustments on offense.
The offense wasn't half bad with three players who didn't hit well from three for those 10 or so games they were together. Yet to see what it looks like with Nurk instead of Plumlee. We'll see, because I don't think Turner is going anywhere.
How is it measured? Avery Bradly comes in 70th for shooting guards, Klay at 48 , Evan Turner comes in at 44, Pat Connaughton comes in at 41. So do we play Pat? Interesting they have Aminu listed as a SF and he plays PF this year.
Good question. I can't find a really good explanation of the exact algorithm used to calculate DRPM, but here's a pretty good article on it: https://sports.vice.com/en_au/article/why-an-all-in-one-defensive-stat-is-still-the-nbas-holy-grail I suspect that, like most of these advanced stats, there are holes in the methodology, but it gives a general idea about a player's defensive impact.
Thanks for that article. It confirmed my suspicions. A few excerpts: Since the ultimate end result of good defense is preventing points, DRPM looks primarily at the same things: Did a team score? Did a player score? Who was on the court when a team scored? But DRPM can also miss the mark. Avery Bradley, an All-Defensive First Team selection last season, is ranked No. 91 (out of 95!) among shooting guards in DRPM. Some of this is because Boston's splashy summer free-agent signee, Al Horford, missed time early this season due to injury; without Horford's imposing presence around the rim, Bradley doesn't have as much carte blanche to hound opposing ball handlers, which negates one of his defensive calling cards. That doesn't mean Bradley has regressed that much as a defender since last season, just that his particular skillset is overlooked by DRPM. "In the future, we'll see more defensive data thanks to SportVU cameras. "We essentially know ... which defender is guarding which offensive player," said Charlie Rohlf, the product manager for STATS, the company behind the NBA's player-tracking cameras. "We have determined that algorithmically for the entire game." Do they really know that? For teams who like to switch a lot......they have no clue who is guarding who when the basket is scored. DRPM seems to be better for evaluating a team, rather than an individual player.
Haven't even read any of the replies but fuck me dude, these threads are out of control. WHO IN THIS FORUM HAS SAID DAMES DEFENSE IS GOOD?!?! NOBODY. Everybody knows it's bad, what do you want us to do? show up at his home in Lake O and fucking wait and talk to him about it? Bitching,bitching, more bitching. Another day on the forums...
Instead OP wants to be a fucking baby about it, "I'm just gonna post every day in this forum because wah its all about me" Nobody wants to see those shit posts, sorry yes dame is a garbage can, get rid of everybody, sound the alarm, press red button, nuke the world.
Cippy needs to be held accountable for his posts. I'll show up at his home in Lake O and wait and talk to him about it.
