Gorgui Dieng

[Coolbreeze44]

would you guys say Aldrich is clearly better defensively though?

I would

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

would you guys say Aldrich is clearly better defensively though?

I'd say neither one of them have been that good defensively from what I've seen. It's like saying who's a better shooter, Ricky Rubio or Kris Dunn?

[Monster]

An article about Deing with some actual journalism.

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/12/02/timberwolves-gorgui-dieng-karl-towns-andrew-wiggins-tom-thibodeau

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

would you guys say Aldrich is clearly better defensively though?

Well, when he plays the defense is 110.3 (110.1 when off), 54.6 % eFG by opponents. Dieng : 109.5 ( 111.3 when off) and 52.5% eFG. Aldrich has DRPM of 1.36 compared to 2.34 of Gorgui's.
So numbers don't support this claim. I would say outside of the last several games Aldrich looked worse even by the eye test.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

would you guys say Aldrich is clearly better defensively though?

I'd say neither one of them have been that good defensively from what I've seen. It's like saying who's a better shooter, Ricky Rubio or Kris Dunn?

While I appreciate the humor in this analogy, I just don't agree. Rubio and Dunn both look terrible shooting, and rank near the bottom of their class statistically in shooting accuracy. You can't say the same about our two centers and their defense. While I agree that Gorgui's defensive numbers (which rank him very, very high) make his look better than I see him, to compare his defense to Ricky's shooting is to conclude that basketball analytics have absolutely no value at all...in fact, to conclude that they are actually completely counterintuitive. There are too many smart people concluding on the value of statistics for me to leap to such an extreme conclusion. While I don't think Gorgui ranks among the league leaders in defense like the numbers say, he at least has become an adequate defender. And as for Cole, I will say this: when he is on the defensive side of the ball, good things regularly happen. Despite the limited offensive abilities of our second unit, they consistently have performed better than our starters in plus/minus...and I attribute much of that success to the gritty defense of Cole and Kris Dunn.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

My point was that neither have been good defensively, in my opinion, and we're splitting hairs. Rubio and Dunn are both poor shooters, but does anyone feel like arguing who's been the "better" shooter? That's how I feel about it. To me, it's just a meh debate topic. Hopefully we can revisit it when our defense finally comes around.