Defensive Player of Year award a hard case to crack
Of all the awards the NBA hands out at the end of the season, Defensive Player of the Year is probably the hardest to quantify.
The boxscore is limited when it comes to defensive stats. A bunch of blocks or steals isn't always a good thing. And players do not defend in a vacuum. If a great defender is surrounded by four awful defenders, neither he nor his defensive numbers are going to look very good. In the same manner, good defensive teammates can make a bad defender look better than he actually is.
We see evidence of the strength-in-numbers aspect to defense when we look at the league's top 10 defenders, according to team defensive efficiency with them on the floor.
There are five Bulls and three Celtics in the top 10. And if you lowered the minutes minimum to 900, Chicago's Omer Asik (90.7 in 908 minutes) and C.J. Watson (92.0 in 983 minutes) would be the top two.
Chicago (97.1 points allowed per 100 possessions overall) and Boston (97.5) are the two best defensive teams in the league. And while there are guys on the list above that deserve DPOY consideration, their defensive success is more about team principles and mentality than one player's influence.
Still, when you compare his team's defensive efficiency when he's on the floor with it when he's on the bench, Brewer stays at the top of the list.
Biggest difference, team defensive efficiency, player on floor vs. off floor
Player Team MIN On Off Diff
Ronnie Brewer CHI 1652 92.6 101.0 -8.4
Tim Duncan SAS 1955 99.0 106.6 -7.6
S.Livingston CHA 1260 100.0 106.6 -6.7
Josh Smith ATL 2546 102.0 108.6 -6.6
CJ Miles UTA 1806 104.1 110.6 -6.6
Eric Maynor OKC 1089 99.2 105.7 -6.5
Kyle Lowry HOU 2398 104.5 110.9 -6.4
Ronny Turiaf NYK 1047 102.6 109.0 -6.4
Darrell Arthur MEM 1485 99.3 105.5 -6.2
Nick Collison OKC 1374 100.1 106.0 -5.9
Minimum 1,000 minutes
Biggest difference, team defensive efficiency, player on floor vs. off floor
