Top five defenders on the Celtics

[Csfan1984]

KO is teams best or second best defender. What is wrong with everyone. When he is allowed PT he will lock down his opponent and take them out a whole series or more. Just ask Kevin Love

[viulo]

1 Bradley
2 Smart
3 Johnson
4 Jerebko
5 Crowder

Not sure if Smart shouldn't be lower. People talk about the troubles of Bradley against big SGs, but Smart has much much much more trouble against fast PGs. Fortunately, when they play together, it isn't really an issue.

[Joe Green]

1 Bradley
2 Smart
3 Johnson
4 Jerebko
5 Crowder

Not sure if Smart shouldn't be lower. People talk about the troubles of Bradley against big SGs, but Smart has much much much more trouble against fast PGs. Fortunately, when they play together, it isn't really an issue.

Finally - someone else who is a Jerebko fan on this post. Unfortunately - however, you are way too high on AB. He is TOO small to cover NBA 2 guards and even gets abused by big PG (Jarret Jack has his games vs. the Celtics circled on his calendar)

[coffee425]

I think a name that's not appreciated for his defense is Evan Turner. During key 4th quarter possessions last year, he always had to D up on the opposing scoring wing like Derozan and Gordon Hayward. Not to mention that he's versatile enough to guard 2 wing positions and grab 5 boards a game.
Having he and Crowder play as bigs in the small lineup was one of my favorite defenses to watch

[DarkAzcura]

1 Bradley
2 Smart
3 Johnson
4 Jerebko
5 Crowder

Not sure if Smart shouldn't be lower. People talk about the troubles of Bradley against big SGs, but Smart has much much much more trouble against fast PGs. Fortunately, when they play together, it isn't really an issue.

No defender is really perfect. I have Smart way above any other defender on this team because he has the least about weaknesses on that end of the floor. Kinda crazy honestly considering he was a rookie, and this defense ended up being ranked 12th. Defensively, Bradley, Smart, and Crowder fit really, really well together. I love it.

My top 3 would be Smart, Bradley, and Crowder just for their fit. Beyond that? I don't feel like anyone sticks out in particular. JJ was much better defensively than advertised so maybe him. Amir is awesome defensively so he should be there, but we haven't seen him play with the team yet.

KO also surprisingly ranks out much better on defense than most would credit him for, but I wouldn't put him in my top 5..

Anywho...

http://www.vantagesports.com/story/VUg6gSYAADAKl1nV/exit-interview-marcus-smart-developed-into-one-of-vantages-elite-defenders

Smart really improved in most facets as the year progressed.

[D.o.s.]

I think a name that's not appreciated for his defense is Evan Turner. During key 4th quarter possessions last year, he always had to D up on the opposing scoring wing like Derozan and Gordon Hayward. Not to mention that he's versatile enough to guard 2 wing positions and grab 5 boards a game.
Having he and Crowder play as bigs in the small lineup was one of my favorite defenses to watch

Selective memory ftw.

[mmmmm]

Here are all the 5-man units that we played at least 20 minutes as of Game 53 (the first game with the complete final roster, including Isaiah, JJ & Luigi) and their offensive, defensive & net rating (points surrendered per 100).   For the sake of this thread's discussion, they are sorted by defensive rating.

Some of the results may run counter to what some of you believe about some of our players:

    5-man-unit      minutes  ORtg  DRtg  NetRtg
 1. MS+AB+ET+JC+TZ   21.0    124.4  87.5  +36.9
 2. IT+MS+JC+JJ+KO   26.3    124.5  90.2  +34.3
 3. IT+AB+ET+BB+TZ   30.1    121.1  93.2  +27.8
 4. MS+ET+JC+BB+TZ   31.7    110.2 101.8  + 8.4
 5. IT+AB+ET+JC+TZ   41.0    104.5 103.7  + 0.8
 6. MS+AB+ET+BB+KO   40.4    106.0 103.8  + 2.2
 7. MS+AB+ET+BB+TZ  271.3     97.2 104.4  - 7.2
 8. AB+ET+JC+BB+TZ   46.6    104.7 104.7    0.0
 9. IT+MS+JY+JC+JJ   21.7    120.9 109.3  +11.6
10. IT+AB+ET+JC+BB   37.1    118.7 116.2  + 2.5
11. MS+AB+ET+JC+BB   29.4    127.0 142.1  -15.1


Unfortunately, the sample sizes are small for several of these lineups.   And definitely way too high for one of them (if you look at the ORtgs, you should understand why I say that).

Still, if you look closely, you can find some interesting bits of information here.

Only two of the lineups posted a negative NetRtg.   Neither of those had IT4 on it.

Marcus Smart was on our best defensive lineup (albeit with the tiniest sample size) and also on our worst defensive lineup.

In fact, the only difference between our best defensive lineup and our worst was swapping Zeller for Bass.

Zeller was the center on 6 of our 8 best defensive lineups and all 8 had a 7 footer, either Tyler or KO at center.  Our two worst defensive lineups (by a huge margin) both had Bass as the center.

With the exception of the aforementioned 'best' lineup that was only 21 minutes for Marcus, swapping Isaiah in for Marcus did NOT, surprisingly result in worse defense.  The opposite, in fact.  In particular, note lineup pairs (10 & 11) and (3 & 7).

Isaiah and Marcus were each on 3 of the 5 best defensive lineups, including one that had both of them on it.

Overall, one can't help but wonder why we gave such a huge portion of minutes to lineup #7 (the starters) when it was one of the only combinations that was clearly NOT working.

[slamtheking]

Here are all the 5-man units that we played at least 20 minutes as of Game 53 (the first game with the complete final roster, including Isaiah, JJ & Luigi) and their offensive, defensive & net rating (points surrendered per 100).   For the sake of this thread's discussion, they are sorted by defensive rating.

Some of the results may run counter to what some of you believe about some of our players:

    5-man-unit      minutes  ORtg  DRtg  NetRtg
 1. MS+AB+ET+JC+TZ   21.0    124.4  87.5  +36.9
 2. IT+MS+JC+JJ+KO   26.3    124.5  90.2  +34.3
 3. IT+AB+ET+BB+TZ   30.1    121.1  93.2  +27.8
 4. MS+ET+JC+BB+TZ   31.7    110.2 101.8  + 8.4
 5. IT+AB+ET+JC+TZ   41.0    104.5 103.7  + 0.8
 6. MS+AB+ET+BB+KO   40.4    106.0 103.8  + 2.2
 7. MS+AB+ET+BB+TZ  271.3     97.2 104.4  - 7.2
 8. AB+ET+JC+BB+TZ   46.6    104.7 104.7    0.0
 9. IT+MS+JY+JC+JJ   21.7    120.9 109.3  +11.6
10. IT+AB+ET+JC+BB   37.1    118.7 116.2  + 2.5
11. MS+AB+ET+JC+BB   29.4    127.0 142.1  -15.1


Unfortunately, the sample sizes are small for several of these lineups.   And definitely way too high for one of them (if you look at the ORtgs, you should understand why I say that).

Still, if you look closely, you can find some interesting bits of information here.

Only two of the lineups posted a negative NetRtg.   Neither of those had IT4 on it.

Marcus Smart was on our best defensive lineup (albeit with the tiniest sample size) and also on our worst defensive lineup.

In fact, the only difference between our best defensive lineup and our worst was swapping Zeller for Bass.

Zeller was the center on 6 of our 8 best defensive lineups and all 8 had a 7 footer, either Tyler or KO at center.  Our two worst defensive lineups (by a huge margin) both had Bass as the center.

With the exception of the aforementioned 'best' lineup that was only 21 minutes for Marcus, swapping Isaiah in for Marcus did NOT, surprisingly result in worse defense.  The opposite, in fact.  In particular, note lineup pairs (10 & 11) and (3 & 7).

Isaiah and Marcus were each on 3 of the 5 best defensive lineups, including one that had both of them on it.

Overall, one can't help but wonder why we gave such a huge portion of minutes to lineup #7 (the starters) when it was one of the only combinations that was clearly NOT working.

the 2 takeaways I get from this are:
- We did a good thing dumping Bass for Amir and Lee.
- This coming year should provide a much better sample size to see where the better line-ups are.  Marcus is a far superior defender and swapping out him and IT between line-ups didn't provide a consistent result in terms of NetRtg in terms of improvement one way or the other.  The more consistent indication seems to be IT overall raises the offensive rating and Smart drops the defensive rating.

[jpotter33]

Here are all the 5-man units that we played at least 20 minutes as of Game 53 (the first game with the complete final roster, including Isaiah, JJ & Luigi) and their offensive, defensive & net rating (points surrendered per 100).   For the sake of this thread's discussion, they are sorted by defensive rating.

Some of the results may run counter to what some of you believe about some of our players:

    5-man-unit      minutes  ORtg  DRtg  NetRtg
 1. MS+AB+ET+JC+TZ   21.0    124.4  87.5  +36.9
 2. IT+MS+JC+JJ+KO   26.3    124.5  90.2  +34.3
 3. IT+AB+ET+BB+TZ   30.1    121.1  93.2  +27.8
 4. MS+ET+JC+BB+TZ   31.7    110.2 101.8  + 8.4
 5. IT+AB+ET+JC+TZ   41.0    104.5 103.7  + 0.8
 6. MS+AB+ET+BB+KO   40.4    106.0 103.8  + 2.2
 7. MS+AB+ET+BB+TZ  271.3     97.2 104.4  - 7.2
 8. AB+ET+JC+BB+TZ   46.6    104.7 104.7    0.0
 9. IT+MS+JY+JC+JJ   21.7    120.9 109.3  +11.6
10. IT+AB+ET+JC+BB   37.1    118.7 116.2  + 2.5
11. MS+AB+ET+JC+BB   29.4    127.0 142.1  -15.1


Unfortunately, the sample sizes are small for several of these lineups.   And definitely way too high for one of them (if you look at the ORtgs, you should understand why I say that).

Still, if you look closely, you can find some interesting bits of information here.

Only two of the lineups posted a negative NetRtg.   Neither of those had IT4 on it.

Marcus Smart was on our best defensive lineup (albeit with the tiniest sample size) and also on our worst defensive lineup.

In fact, the only difference between our best defensive lineup and our worst was swapping Zeller for Bass.

Zeller was the center on 6 of our 8 best defensive lineups and all 8 had a 7 footer, either Tyler or KO at center.  Our two worst defensive lineups (by a huge margin) both had Bass as the center.

With the exception of the aforementioned 'best' lineup that was only 21 minutes for Marcus, swapping Isaiah in for Marcus did NOT, surprisingly result in worse defense.  The opposite, in fact.  In particular, note lineup pairs (10 & 11) and (3 & 7).

Isaiah and Marcus were each on 3 of the 5 best defensive lineups, including one that had both of them on it.

Overall, one can't help but wonder why we gave such a huge portion of minutes to lineup #7 (the starters) when it was one of the only combinations that was clearly NOT working.

I think it's pretty statistically sound under these numbers to suggest that playing small at the 5 really hurts us defensively. JJ and BB are both plus individual defenders, but out of position at the 5, which is a position much more about team defense than individual defense, we were pretty bad defensively. It's going to be really interesting to see how well AJ can improve us there.