Battle Of The Bigs: Part One
The race for Defensive Player of the Year is over for nearly every big man in the league. But with these two — things are just starting to heat up.
It’s no secret that Rudy Gobert and Draymond Green are the league’s most spine-chilling defensive juggernauts among bigs. The most proficient offensive players become transfixed by the mere presence of these two guys.
Gobert and Draymond have some different styles of play to their defensive repertoire. Draymond has more of an effect on wing players with his ability to switch out onto the perimeter. Gobert is like a prison warden in the paint. He seals it off and literally deters players from driving in and attempting an ill-advised layup.
Voters are going to have a tough time voting between the two this year. It may just come down to personal preferences. One thing is clear, Gobert and Draymond are head and shoulders better than the rest of the field of cute potential candidates. So how do they do it? How did Green and Gobert separate themselves from the pack? Let’s take a look…
Draymond Green
When he’s not busy warping the genitals of his opponents, Green is playing masterful defense. One of Green’s strongest qualities as a player is far and away his versatility on both sides of the ball. He’s like a spring-loaded swiss army knife with hands that are even quicker.
One of the luxury’s of being such a nimble defender is being able to play free safety on defense. Green’s defensive instincts allows him to roam around the court attempting to pick-off the passing lanes. Not that he does this often, or even needs to gamble on low risk rewards, just that he can afford to. Watch how quickly Green closes out on Bjelica during this sequence.
Notice how Green never leaves his feet when he closes out on the perimeter. Not only does this NOT take Green out of the play, but now he can recover and stay hip-to-hip with Bjelica.
Draymond’s awareness on defense is good — really good. It’s like his eyes are locked in on his defender while a secret set just surveys the court for 48 minutes.
In this sequence, Green is able to read McConnell’s eyes as well as catch Stauskas cutting back door. At the last second, Green cuts off the passing window and jumps in to pick off McConnell’s fastball from the top of the key. This is just one of several clips that displays Draymond’s remarkable aptitude for reading the opponent’s offense.
There’s a litany of things Green does right defensively. Whether it’s making the correct rotations, timely switches, reading the passing lanes, he does it all. Does he stack up when it comes to numbers? The advanced stats sure do say so. Green currently ranks 1st in deflections, 2nd in DRPM, 1st in defensive rating, and 1st in DBPM. He’s also holding opponents to shooting 43.9% at the rim which ranks 4th among all players defending at least six shots at the rim per game.
Draymond has been pretty vocal throughout the season about how much this award means to him. “That’s something that I want to win.” Green told ESPN “And if there’s anything I’ve ever been selfish about, it’s that award. Like, I want that award” Draymond is tired of playing second fiddle to Kawhi Leonard — the guy who has a chance to be the first player to three-peat since Dwight Howard.
This year it feels like the stars have aligned at the right time for Draymond. You could argue his best defensive game of the season came against Philadelphia last week where he posted an absurd 20–9–8–3–6 stat line. There’s a strong chance Kawhi may suffer from voter’s fatigue from winning the award the last two years. Lastly, Green’s defensive numbers this season is arguably better than his last two season’s where he finished as the runner up.
The season is coming to a close and coaches are still trying to figure out how to mitigate Green’s impact on defense. No amount of rejiggering offensive schemes or tinkering with lineups can effect this unicorn. Draymond is simply a one-of-a-kind player. For someone who elicits an unhealthy amount of distasteful criticism, his game is strikingly beautiful.
All statistics via stats.nba.com unless otherwise stated.
