thedoper wrote:Q12543 wrote:Latest Ortg/Drtg/Net Rating by player:
Jones - 111.3/102.6/+8.7
Butler - 111.8/104.1/+7.7
Gibson - 111.3/104.1/+7.2
Wiggins - 111.1/105.0/+6.1
KAT - 112.1/106.3/+5.9
Teague - 110.5/107.6/+2.9
Bjelly - 104.4/104.9/-.5
Dieng - 105.4/110.5/-5.0
Crawford - 104.4/112.0/-7.6
The starting unit is starting to gravitate closer together, which makes sense considering how many minutes they play together.
The biggest move here is KAT's defensive rating. Here it is by month:
October - 115.6
November - 106.4
December - 104.5
January (only 4 games) - 95.6
Holy crap, this is a really good sign. He's moved up on ESPN's Defensive RPM board too, albeit not quite as dramatically. He's in about the middle of the pack with a .85 D-RPM. While there is still a long ways to go, that is far better than where he has been in his prior two years.
Credit to KAT and the coaching staff that is working with him to correct some of his flaws. I'm not sure where his defensive ceiling is, but this is a very positive development for this franchise.
Is it also a good sign how much Wiggins Drtg has improved too?
Wiggins is less noteworthy for four reasons: 1) His defensive rating progress has been a bit less dramatic and lumpier than KAT's, 2) KAT has a larger impact on defense since he is our 5, and he was particularly bad to start the year, 3) Wiggins typically guards the lesser of the two wing matchups, so he is not tasked with nearly the same challenge as KAT or Butler, and 4) Unlike KAT, his D-RPM has not moved up that much, as he is still ranked 80th out of 88 players in that metric. KAT has moved from near the bottom to the middle of the pack.
Now do I think Wiggins is a better defender than, say, Jamaal Crawford or Shabazz Muhammed? Absolutely yes, which is why this silliness of bringing him off the bench doesn't make sense to me. But otherwise, I consider him fairly mediocre overall and he plays less of a featured role defensively than our Center, power forward, and other starting wing.