We get two in the list of five worst....Kanter & Simons. Regarding Kanter: Regarding Simons: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2928418-exposing-the-nbas-worst-defenders
don't have a lot of disagreement with calling Kanter and Simons bad defenders. They certainly are. But they also have a lot more company in the bad defender category than the 3 or 4 other players the article talks about. I'd say the Really-Bad-Defender category is about 73 players (a very scientific process arrived at that number...there's a science in extracting analysis from a colon) in Kanter's case, he's dealing with being a bit of an obsolete big man in the modern NBA. But he also makes enough good defensive plays to at least move him closer to kind-of-bad instead of really-bad. And of course, he offsets a lot of his bad defense by great rebounding and efficient offense for Simons, few players under 21 are not in the bad defender category. There are too many issues like experience, recognition, and physical maturity working against them. Simons checks all those boxes and more. But he probably didn't have to be singled out for these sins, unless he gets demerits for that dumb haircut
I definitely agree with your thoughts on Kanter. I do think he gets a bum rap since he's the only thing between the offensive player and the basket when they head for the hoop (think Lebron, Dame, Westbrick and how they attack the rim). Does that count towards his defensive rating? I'm more concerned with the guards or forwards allowing their man to drive past them and expect Kanter to pick up their cutter while he's also guarding his man.
yeah... not only that, Kanter is posting a 33% defensive rebounding rate which is 4th in the NBA. Clearing the defensive glass is a critical component of defense for a big man
Kanter has been considered among the worst defensive players in the league since the early days of the stretch-4 and stretch-5 craze. It's his play that's the issue, not his style of play. For someone with such active hands on the glass, and coordinated, soft touch on offense, it's bizarre how clueless he is about basic things like keeping his hands up on defense.
I'm all-in with Kanter. I like his hustle and his PER for us is off the charts. The man has had 3 and 5 blocks in 2 games recently. That's as much as Nurk had in his last 8 games he played. Playing center while on D is a thankless job because you're usually guarding your man plus someone else's. I'm probably in the minority on Kanter, but he's shown at his age he can still take over games with rebounding and put backs which is important on a jump shooting team.
Dang I forgot he was an 18 year old rookie... and has played in 10 seasons already. Hat's off to his durability... (Did I just jinx us?)
