Our Big Three rank last or near last in defensive RPM

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I realize this is one of those mystery stats that sometimes leads to mystifying results. But right now we're 29th in the league in team defense, so the fact some of our guys are ranked nearly dead last should be no surprise.

Here is their league ranking in Defensive "real" plus/minus, by position:

Point guard:
Kris Dunn - 4th
Ricky Rubio - 8th
Zach LaVine - 83rd (don't know why he's classified as a PG)

Shooting guard:
Brandon Rush - 25th

Small forward:
Shabazz Muhammed - 66th
Andrew Wiggins - 81st (dead last among NBA small forwards)

Power forward:
Gorgui Dieng - 5th
Nemanja Bjelica - 17th

Center:
Cole Aldrich - 28th
KAT - 68th (dead last among NBA centers - even lower than Okafor!)

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Wow, just wow. I hate to say it, but the results match my eye test for the most part. On balance I have been pleased with the defense of our PGs, I'm higher on Gorgui's defense than some of you and I also have noticed a big improvement in Belly's D this season...at PF and SF. But I scratch my head when I read positive reports here about Zach and Bazz's D...I think they have both been terrible and deserve their poor ranking.

The one number that surprises me and doesn't jive with what I am seeing is Wiggins. We know that his effort is inconsistent and he also doesn't seem to take advantage of his athletic advantages, but I am surprised to see him ranked so low. I see him as slightly below average when he is matched up with SFs, but far above average when he is guarding SGs...his last in the league ranking doesn't make sense to me.

[Coolbreeze44]

Wig has done a damn good job staying in front of his primary opponent, really good. It's everything else in a defensive scheme he's terrible at. He's the anti Corey Brewer. No awareness, lack of anticipation, and a stunning lack of getting in passing lanes. Take a risk once in a while Andrew! Impose your will on the opponent at the defensive end!

[60WinTim]

And just to pile on...

Darren Wolfson ?@DWolfsonKSTP 27m27 minutes ago
Maybe it shouldn't be odd, but this is: KAT/Wiggins last by wide margins at C & SF in defensive real +/-. Stat worthy of attention? #Twolves

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wig has done a damn good job staying in front of his primary opponent, really good. It's everything else in a defensive scheme he's terrible at. He's the anti Corey Brewer. No awareness, lack of anticipation, and a stunning lack of getting in passing lanes. Take a risk once in a while Andrew! Impose your will on the opponent at the defensive end!

I would argue he hasn't always been great at this either, but yes, his brightest moments defensively are almost always in situations where he's iso-ed on someone one-on-one.

You hit the nail on the head in terms of all the other things.

Again, we can argue that Wig's lack of taking charges is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of defensive rebounding is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of steals is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of getting back and matching up quickly in transition is a nit-pick. But when it's ALL of these things combined that are issues, it's no longer a nit-pick. It's a huge problem.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

You simply can't have your two starting wings in the Bottom 5 of their position defensively AND one of your bigs there too. It's way too much defensive incompetence to overcome for everyone else. And these are the guys we're supposed to build around!!!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Dieng is a guy I've been critical of defensively, but his high ranking in DRPM has had me taking a second look at him. I was impressed with the way he defended last night. He is by far the most vocal guy on our team defensively. He's also starting to take some of his team mates to task for not doing their job. We saw that last night when KAT didn't "help the helper", as Dieng was containing the guard while Rubio recovered from a screen, but KAT never collapsed to take away the easy basket for the roller. Dieng immediately looked at KAT and put his arms out, as if saying "WTF!?".

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Great posts, guys...yeah, it's clear that offense (and even ricky's shooting) is not the problem. It's all about our defense failing, and almost all of the blame needs to go to our future...the Big 3. What's most frustrating to me as that all three of them were considered very good and sometimes even elite defenders in college. What gives? We're all invested in this team, and we know things will never be better if our core can't play defense, and I think we all need to know why these three guys are so bad.

Coaching? I don't know. Both Sam and Thibs came out of the box saying they were going to focus on defense, but the Big 3 continue to get worse.

Natural ability: I think we can reject this one. All three are gifted athletes who came out of college with good reputations.

Experience: This is probably the biggest factor, along with possibly coaching. Even when the Wolves were playing good basketball at the end of last year, the defense was still frustrating. It's even more frustrating that there has been no improvement this year under the tutelage of a coach with a defensive reputation. We need to start seeing improvement soon.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LST, I think the reasons for our big three problems on defense are three fold:

1. Age and Experience - Defense and team defensive concepts in the NBA is as complex as it gets, especially for bigs. Look at Dieng....he started to get better defensively in Year 3, but now appears to be really hitting his stride, in Year 4 at age 27. It takes a while.

2. Role - With the Wolves, they all three have had to carry heavy loads offensively, since Day One. Wiggins was our #1 option practically out of the gate. LaVine had to learn how to be a PG at first, and since switching to SG, he's now become one of our main options for scoring. KAT has also been one of our main options for scoring since Day One. None of them had the luxury to start in this league as role players, where defense is emphasized the most.

3. Poor anticipation skills - This mostly applies to Wiggins and LaVine. I don't think it can be fixed either since it's an athletic trait. Both of these guys seem to always be a beat behind when reacting to things defensively. They never take charges, rarely get steals, and are slow with rotations. They are the anti-Brewer and anti-Rubio in this respect.

To me, the only fixable thing here is #1, but when you are starting at such a low floor, how much higher can one go based on just growing older and gaining more experience? That to me is a the big concern. We can't have three guys go from horrible to just OK-ish. That won't be good enough.

[Coolbreeze44]

Wig has done a damn good job staying in front of his primary opponent, really good. It's everything else in a defensive scheme he's terrible at. He's the anti Corey Brewer. No awareness, lack of anticipation, and a stunning lack of getting in passing lanes. Take a risk once in a while Andrew! Impose your will on the opponent at the defensive end!

I would argue he hasn't always been great at this either, but yes, his brightest moments defensively are almost always in situations where he's iso-ed on someone one-on-one.

You hit the nail on the head in terms of all the other things.

Again, we can argue that Wig's lack of taking charges is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of defensive rebounding is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of steals is a nit-pick. We can argue that his lack of getting back and matching up quickly in transition is a nit-pick. But when it's ALL of these things combined that are issues, it's no longer a nit-pick. It's a huge problem.

Q, I tend to really focus on Wig in the defensive zone. What I see is he is very, and I mean very good at manning up and defending "his" guy. The problem starts as soon as somebody lays a pick on him. He has trouble fighting through screens and he is an unwilling help defender. He's also a speed bump in transition, except he rarely slows anyone down. But I'll take him any day one on one no matter who he's guarding in the half court.