Who is the best defender that you've watched?

[Im Still Ballin]

Who is the best defender that you've watched? Based on your eye test.

Defense, as we know, is incredibly hard to quantify. Even the analytics community has acknowledged the difficulty of boiling it down to a one-number metric. There was actually a really good article about the issue from 2021:

If You Thought Playing NBA Defense Was Hard, Try Quantifying It

Here's a great passage talking about the frequency of blocks and steals:

This season, a block or steal occurs once every eight possessions leaguewide, meaning each player averages just one block or steal out of every 40 possessions. That leaves 39 out of 40 possessions in which the defender in question doesn’t record either statistic, but he’s still contributing, or not contributing, somehow. This imbalance also hampers other box-score-based metrics like PER, which creator John Hollinger has noted underrates “defensive specialists … who don’t get many blocks or steals.”

All of these overlapping problems mean that judging a player’s defense by his box score statistics is, in the words of Ben Falk, a former executive for the Trail Blazers and 76ers, “like squinting at a blurry picture and trying to find something out of it.”

Albert Einstein never tried to contest Wilt at the rim, but his old chestnut describes the situation perfectly: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

[warriorfan]

without thinking too hard about it and sticking to the modern era i would say

guards - jrue holiday and tony allen
sf - kawhi and pre injury paul george
pf/c - Dwight Howard, KG, Anthony Davis

[CurryOverLebron]

Hakeem Olajuwon

[Full Court]

Holiday and Davis.

[1987_Lakers]

Holiday and Davis.

12 years old confirmed.

[PeroAntic]

Its a tie between Jordan, Pippen and Rodman.

[kawhileonard2]

Kawhi, MJ, Frazier, Hakeem

[fsvr54]

Tony Allen and KG

[Im so nba'd out]

Iguodala



Best I didn’t watch. Bill Russell and pippen

[Full Court]

12 years old confirmed.

Talking current players, moron.

Go back to trying to learn what an advanced stat is.

[Manny98]

Tony Allen and AD

[HoopologyPhD]

Tim Duncan
Great thread BTW, genuine thanks to OP for some original content and not just biased BS.

[Johnny32]

peak lebron and it isn't close.

"LeBron James is better at playing defense than the idealized version of an NBA defender, as conceptualized by an analytic system that factors in everything from the precise positioning of every player on the floor to the individual skill-sets of the players involved on a given play. LeBron James is not fair."

https://deadspin.com/lebron-james-is...ized-456410614

[ShawkFactory]

Ever? Probably Ben Wallace. Agile enough to move around the perimeter if needed but strong enough to not be bullied by even the Shaqs of the world. Had impeccable timing in every aspect and the cherry on top is that he was a true QB on that end.

On the perimeter it has to be Tony Allen for me. Guys like Bruce Bowen and Prince were better at guarding elite wings but Allen could guard PGs too.

[Full Court]

If we're talking ever, I'd have to go with Rodman. His ability to disrupt anyone and everyone was crazy.