Poll of the Day > Heard a little gem when I heard somebody talking about NBA defenses

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bout how team blocks per game aren't always an indicator of good defense. Cause you could make the argument that your perimeter defense is weak and you're allowing too many drives to the basket, so by virtue of that alone your block numbers are going to be inflated

But then I'm guessing there are some defenses that are actually designed to force you towards the paint intentionally where the help defender will step up and block the shot?

I guess you could argue either way
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The ideal way to play is inside out, so there arent many defenses that will lead your team toward the paint.

Now to say that you have a bad defense because you get more blocks is silly because no matter how good your team defense is, teams will get inside to the paint a number of times. If youre stopping those opportunities then youre doing your job.

Idk basketball, but if it were hockey - goals denied isn't always the best indicator of defense, since it doesn't account for number of shots on goal prevented by the defensemen. Ima guess that's what you're talking aboot.

I'd say the best sign of good defense is how quickly you deny the other team's shot clock, or ummm, the number of shots they take divided by the amount of time they hold the ball. If your defense is great, they can't shoot well so they'd hold the ball longer... maybe
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Most traditional stats in sports are terrible measures of actual defensive ability since they rely heavily on counting stats. Somebody can be a bad defender in baseball without committing a lot of errors. A basketball player can get a lot of blocks and/or steals but be a bad defender. A football DB who doesn't get a lot of INTs might be great since it means they aren't throwing in his direction often. Or there is what Lok said about hockey.