On Defense, Youth, Athleticism, the Future of Sabermetrics and Team Culture
“The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” — Bill Russell
Zach Lowe’s Grantland piece about video tracking technology is probably the most important thing about the future of basketball you’ll read this week. But it also contains a point of hoops consilience that ties together continuing thoughts I’ve had about the Rockets for several years.
This point revolves around Jonas Valunciunas:
Valanciunas, like most rookies, misses rotations, overhelps, and commits other sins of positioning on defense. Coaches hate that stuff, and they’ve often nailed Valanciunas to the bench in crunch time in favor of Aaron Gray — a fundamentally sound player who lacks NBA athleticism.
The numbers in large part disagree with that tactic, at least as it relates to Valanciunas’s defense. The Raptors’ defense has been better with Valanciunas on the floor. More importantly, the visualization data shows that Valanciunas is active and athletic enough to make up for all his defensive mistakes, Rucker and his team say.
“With Jonas — yeah, he’s making mistakes,” Boyarsky says. “But who cares?
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