Who is our best defender?

[Fafnir]

Perk

I think Perk's our best one on one defender of his opposing player. But overall KG is superior, though the gap will have closed a lot if Perk keeps being such an awesome help defender and avoids fouls once KG is back.

[wdleehi]

KG is the best defender not because what he can do to the guy he is defending, (well, that's a huge part) but the leadership he shows on defense that got the rest of the guys to raise their defensive intensity.


Perk
Wallace
Pierce
Rondo


can also get at it on the defensive end.

[Bankshot]

Perk

I think Perk's our best one on one defender of his opposing player. But overall KG is superior, though the gap will have closed a lot if Perk keeps being such an awesome help defender and avoids fouls once KG is back.

I thought that's what we were talking about, who was the best at defending their own position?

[jdpapa3]

I think that RIGHT NOW after KG's knee surgery that Perkins might have eclipsed him, but if he comes back at 95% of the player that he was, then KG will still be #1.

[Fafnir]

Perk

I think Perk's our best one on one defender of his opposing player. But overall KG is superior, though the gap will have closed a lot if Perk keeps being such an awesome help defender and avoids fouls once KG is back.

I thought that's what we were talking about, who was the best at defending their own position?

He said one on one defender. I viewed that to include situations where you're forced to guard someone else.

KG is a much better defender when he's forced to switch or help and is thus matched up against another teams SF/C/SG/PG.

[BudweiserCeltic]

KG is the better defender. The only thing Perk guards better are centers that pound the ball inside. In all other scenarios pretty much KG is better. He can guard effectively a multitude of positions, he can guard the post, the perimeter, etc.

As for Rondo "Second Team Defense" is crap to me. He really only got there because of the amount of steals he gets. This is where he's good at... doing full court presses and half court traps, playing the passing lane, and sneaking up behind big men on the post to strip the ball away from him. He also has good hands on him to reach in.

But sadly, the thing he fails at is the most important aspect of a defender, particularly a perimeter defender, particularly from the PG position, and that's keeping his man in front of him, stopping PG from getting to the paint... stopping penetration. He has been consistently subpar in this.

[BballTim]

KG is the better defender. The only thing Perk guards better are centers that pound the ball inside. In all other scenarios pretty much KG is better. He can guard effectively a multitude of positions, he can guard the post, the perimeter, etc.

As for Rondo "Second Team Defense" is crap to me. He really only got there because of the amount of steals he gets. This is where he's good at... doing full court presses and half court traps, playing the passing lane, and sneaking up behind big men on the post to strip the ball away from him. He also has good hands on him to reach in.

But sadly, the thing he fails at is the most important aspect of a defender, particularly a perimeter defender, particularly from the PG position, and that's keeping his man in front of him, stopping PG from getting to the paint... stopping penetration. He has been consistently subpar in this.

  So when you say he's subpar at this, I assume that you mean that he's below average? That many, if not most of the other pgs in the league are better at it than he is? That I could turn on most any game when the season starts and see a pg who's better at keeping opposing pgs out of the lane than Rondo?

[BudweiserCeltic]

KG is the better defender. The only thing Perk guards better are centers that pound the ball inside. In all other scenarios pretty much KG is better. He can guard effectively a multitude of positions, he can guard the post, the perimeter, etc.

As for Rondo "Second Team Defense" is crap to me. He really only got there because of the amount of steals he gets. This is where he's good at... doing full court presses and half court traps, playing the passing lane, and sneaking up behind big men on the post to strip the ball away from him. He also has good hands on him to reach in.

But sadly, the thing he fails at is the most important aspect of a defender, particularly a perimeter defender, particularly from the PG position, and that's keeping his man in front of him, stopping PG from getting to the paint... stopping penetration. He has been consistently subpar in this.

  So when you say he's subpar at this, I assume that you mean that he's below average? That many, if not most of the other pgs in the league are better at it than he is? That I could turn on most any game when the season starts and see a pg who's better at keeping opposing pgs out of the lane than Rondo?

Does it matter what I mean? He's just not good at it regardless of what rationalization you can come up with. If many PGs in this era suck at it is of no consequence to me.

For example, would you being the best player of a team that sucks automatically make you a good basketball player just because you can claim to be the best in your team? Similarly here you can't say that Rondo is good at keeping PGs off the paint and stopping penetration just because there aren't a multitude of good defenders in that position.

Maybe I'm reffering to him being subpar compared to his other skills. Maybe I'm reffering to him being subpar when compared to other historically good defenders. At the end of the day does it matter if he's simply not good at doing it?

[Celtics17]

The fact that there is so much debate here is a great thing. There are really a lot of good examples of why certain players can be considered the best. I still have to go with KG though due to his versatility. Sure he gets burned now and then but who doesnt. I think he can guard any of the front court positions effectively and also stops penetration from SG's and points as well. As far as around the basket though, it's hands down Perk. In my opinion he is not only the best on the team but the best in the league at guarding a player within 4 feet of the basket.

[paintitgreen]

KG?
Gooden abused him last year in Cavs series, Gasol did as well.
My answer is Pierce, but I must say that team defense is a factor too. That block shot on Kobe in Game 4 is my sole best play of the year, you don't see that very often.

Gooden didn't play for the Cavs last year in the playoffs. AV, Ben Wallace, and Joe Smith were their power forwards. Neither abused KG by any stretch of your imagination.

Neither did Pau Gasol.

Check the game logs!

Kevin Garnett
AV
Ben Wallace
Joe Smith

AV scored 1, 3, 5, 12, 4, 4, 5 points against KG. Ben scored 4, 0, 9, 2, 4, 0, 3 against KG. Joe Smith scored 2, 4, 17, 8, 7, 9, 6. Big Z had three big games against us in but tailed off after that. But KG wasn't guarding him at all. He paid attention to LeBron and his man and that's about it.

Pau Gasol was much better. But KG still played better through out the Finals.

Agreed. The idea that Gasol abused KG is just flat out wrong. First, Gasol was often defended by Perk since Gasol was playing center much of the time last year. Second, Gasol didn't abuse anybody in the Finals. He had a good Game 5 (the third straight game in LA, after the comeback game, with Boston up 3-1 and having two more home games leaving the series was all but decided) and did a good job late in Game 2 while the Lakers tried to rally back from a huge deficit, but that's really it. He was well below his average in Games 1, 4 and 6, and just bad in Game 3 (which LA won anyway). Gasol's lack of toughness and relative no show was one of the biggest stories of the Finals last year and cited by many as the key reason the Lakers lost. And the reason he looked so weak was really that he was going up against KG and Perk.

[dirtyeggs]

Perk - he has become a great one on one defender and each year he has gotten better at patrolling the middle and being that help defender (of course KG is that start).  But 1 on 1 I gotta say you can ask for much more than Perk is providing at C.

[NeedForSheed]

KG

[paintitgreen]

Also, I go with KG, even though that is not necessarily his role in this defense as he is the general out there and provides a lot of help. But he tends to do a good job on his man anyway while providing that help.

Within this defense, I think Pierce can be the best man defender, as he showed in the playoffs last year, but he doesn't always do it, as he showed in the playoffs this year.

As for Perk, yes, he can give great man defense on a traditional center like Dwight Howard. But how many traditional centers are there? Ilgauskas killing us last year in a few playoff games was largely the result of Perk being unable to stay with a big man who stays outside. Same thing happened against McDyess quite a bit in last year's ECF. And we weren't raving about Perk's defense against Chicago when Miller was keeping him away from the basket and Noah was cleaning up on garbage buckets often at Perk's expense. Perk will be a tremendous asset against guys like Howard and Shaq, and I think he could probably D up Duncan about as well as Garnett could, but there are a lot of guys who can abuse Perk - more than can abuse Garnett or even Sheed.

[indeedproceed]

In pure terms of defense talent right now I got

KG
Perkins
Rondo
Pierce
Allen

In terms of knowing how to play smart defense at their position I go

KG
Perkins
Pierce
Allen
Rondo

[Edgar]

Dont u think a lineup of

Rondo
Pierce
KG
Sheed
Perk

can easily dismantle any team during 4th quarters.

No boards for ANYone not in green