Buy or Sell: steals and blocks stats doesn't tell you how good or bad a player is on defense?

i just think is ignorant when somebody says, this player is a great defender because he averages this amount of steals

Look at Dirk in 2004 for example, he averaged 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks that year, yet he was a sub par defender during that time

he has averaged around .8 steals and just less than 1 block in the last couple of years, but anyone who has seen him play knows that he's much better on Defense than what he was when Don Nelson was coaching the mavs

2011-09-06T15:50:50Z

even Phil Jackson talked about dirk's improvements on the defensive end

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/mavericks/post/_/id/4677951/theres-now-a-capital-d-in-dirk-nowitzki

Anonymous2011-09-06T22:15:40Z

Favorite Answer

AGREED bruce bowen,tony allen and raja bell are all great defenders but their stats dont show crap to prove that

JM2011-09-06T15:57:30Z

Buy.

Dirk has improved every year as a defender. On ball defense and team defense are also major factors when it comes to defense and are actually more important than just blocks and steals. People tend to overrexaggerate and say Dirk's a bad defender. But truth is, he held Pau to 14ppg and 42%fg in the playoffs and when he was injured the Mavs gave up more points. Rick Carlisle said it was because he's a good team defender. So the people we see on forums saying "Dirk plays no defense" just display a lack of knowledge for the game. Dirk now is a much improved defender over Dirk in the Nellie days. He's not a great defender, just solid.

Bruce Bowen and Battier are the best perimeter defenders of this decade and they don't have a lot of blocks and steals. They use on ball defense and good footwork along with timing to keep defenders from getting clean shots. There's much more to defense than blocks and steals stats.

dorn2016-11-30T09:52:31Z

i might agree one hundred% with you that the form of steals would not supply a real degree of a participant's velocity, and has greater to do with the potential to verify a glass's flow, understand the count variety, and know a thank you to get a sturdy leap. touching directly to getting a sturdy leap - There are adult men who're super out of the blocks, which makes them sturdy basestealers, yet some truly quickly runners do no longer consistently get a sturdy leap. Rickey wasn't consistently the quickest in the pastime, yet he had a rapid first step, could desire to verify the pitcher, and knew a thank you to slip. in case you pick info that "slower" runners can steal in the event that they are clever, seem at Kevin McReynolds. He became no longer a velocity demon, yet he went 35-for-36 in tries during the 1987-88 seasons. He merely understood what went into base-stealing. on the different end is a baby like Gathright, who's clearly a severe velocity burner yet is barely efficient seventy two% of the time. together with his burners, he could be doing a minimum of seventy 5%. ultimately, you will possibly pick a guy who's the two quickly and clever, and to me that became personified via Tim Raines. i think that is why he became efficient on 80 5% of his steals.

Anonymous2011-09-06T18:24:17Z

True, look at Deng and Durant. Durant had like 1 steal and 1 block per game and Luold Deng has not even 1 block but hes a way better defender than Durant

Anonymous2011-09-06T16:50:45Z

Very true, blocks and steals are only a part of defense, the majority of the time, it doesn;t happen.

You should be judged mostly on whether you let the players on the other team score or not.

Show more answers (3)