LostCause
04-18-2020, 02:08 PM
It's unfortunate the season was interrupted as it was, because we were very likely on pace to have the first player win the MVP and DPOY since Hakeem Olajuwon almost 30 years ago. With all the great seasons we've had recently, this one was on pace to be the greatest when taking into account offense and defense that we've seen in ages
I won't make the argument for Giannis winning MVP. His impact on both ends and having the best team in the league speaks for itself. As do his statistics. However I will talk about Milwaukee's historic defense that he anchored
In past discussions I've cited rDRTG to illustrate dominance of a defense across era's. If you don't know what it is, it's Relative Defensive Rating. Basically you take the Defensive Rating of a team and compare it to league average that season, so you get a clear picture of how dominant a defense was against every other team in the league. The closer to 0 a teams rDRTG is, the closer to league average that team is. Make sense? So up to the suspension of the season, the Bucks were sitting at an rDRTG of -8.5. In NBA history, only 8 other teams accomplished the feat of having an rDRTG of -8.0 or higher. Bill Russell's Celtics took 4 spots (With some of them being a ridiculously -10 rDRTG) and the other 4 are KG's 08 Celtics (-8.6), Duncan's 04 Spurs (-8.8), and Ewings 93 (-8.3) and 94 Knicks (-8.1). Here's an image reflecting this in the 3-pt Era (It also includes teams that came close to -8.0 like the 14 Pacers (-7.4). The 04 Pistons were at -7.5, btw
https://i.ibb.co/4WB9j3P/MSUBUmJ.png
The anchor of this historic Bucks defense? Giannis. He holds players to 41.8% shooting at the rim, which is the best in the league
https://stats.nba.com/players/defensive-impact/?sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT&dir=-1&CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*3
If that wasn't enough, he also has the league best DFG%, holding opponents he guards to 36.1%
https://stats.nba.com/players/defense-dash-overall/?sort=D_FG_PCT&dir=-1&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PerMode=Totals&CF=D_FGA*GE*500
He's arguably the league's best defender in isolation
https://stats.nba.com/players/isolation/?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TypeGrouping=defensive&sort=PERCENTILE&dir=1&PerMode=Totals
It's a level of defensive domination we haven't really seen in a long time. Couple that with his efforts actually spearheading a historically great defense AND his contributions on the other side of the ball and there's little argument against him being deserving of both MVP and DPOY this season, joining extremely rare company with the feat
Thoughts?
I won't make the argument for Giannis winning MVP. His impact on both ends and having the best team in the league speaks for itself. As do his statistics. However I will talk about Milwaukee's historic defense that he anchored
In past discussions I've cited rDRTG to illustrate dominance of a defense across era's. If you don't know what it is, it's Relative Defensive Rating. Basically you take the Defensive Rating of a team and compare it to league average that season, so you get a clear picture of how dominant a defense was against every other team in the league. The closer to 0 a teams rDRTG is, the closer to league average that team is. Make sense? So up to the suspension of the season, the Bucks were sitting at an rDRTG of -8.5. In NBA history, only 8 other teams accomplished the feat of having an rDRTG of -8.0 or higher. Bill Russell's Celtics took 4 spots (With some of them being a ridiculously -10 rDRTG) and the other 4 are KG's 08 Celtics (-8.6), Duncan's 04 Spurs (-8.8), and Ewings 93 (-8.3) and 94 Knicks (-8.1). Here's an image reflecting this in the 3-pt Era (It also includes teams that came close to -8.0 like the 14 Pacers (-7.4). The 04 Pistons were at -7.5, btw
https://i.ibb.co/4WB9j3P/MSUBUmJ.png
The anchor of this historic Bucks defense? Giannis. He holds players to 41.8% shooting at the rim, which is the best in the league
https://stats.nba.com/players/defensive-impact/?sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT&dir=-1&CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*3
If that wasn't enough, he also has the league best DFG%, holding opponents he guards to 36.1%
https://stats.nba.com/players/defense-dash-overall/?sort=D_FG_PCT&dir=-1&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PerMode=Totals&CF=D_FGA*GE*500
He's arguably the league's best defender in isolation
https://stats.nba.com/players/isolation/?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TypeGrouping=defensive&sort=PERCENTILE&dir=1&PerMode=Totals
It's a level of defensive domination we haven't really seen in a long time. Couple that with his efforts actually spearheading a historically great defense AND his contributions on the other side of the ball and there's little argument against him being deserving of both MVP and DPOY this season, joining extremely rare company with the feat
Thoughts?