Looking at his defensive rating it is clear that Giannis has given up trying in defence since he won DPOY. Every year he gets worse. (Lower is better for defensive rating.)
Other than racking up the easy defensive rebounds when nobody else is around….nada. It becomes clear when we look at any defensive metric which is multi factorial, for example the top 10 this season in Stable Rebounds/75 1. Kevon Looney 2. Isaiah Hartenstein 3. Steven Adams 4. Jonas Valanciunas 5. Andre Drummond 6. Ivica Zubac 7. Karl-Anthony Towns 8. Domantas Sabonis 9. Donovan Clingan 10. Walker Kessler.
Up there on the top right are the kings of defence. Rim protectors who also score well in D-Lebron (an all inclusive defence metric.) Giannis is nowhere, less steals, less blocks, less offensive rebounds, less everything. Here are the top in defensive rating this season, a good mix of various positions:
The Top 10 in Post Defense as per basketball index:
- Domantas Sabonis
- Jakob Poeltl
- Wendell Carter Jr.
- Nikola Vucevic
- Deandre Ayton
- Georges Niang
- Jusuf Nurkic
- Clint Capela
- Trayce Jackson-Davis
- Victor Wembanyama
And here is rim protection in the effective defensive percentage in relation to rim contests. Giannis has stopped almost everything in order to stat pad this season.
Next time some idiot starts shouting “MVP” when Giannis does something cool, maybe rethink it. He is now missing so many games he is out of that competition for this season and probably out of the scoring lead too.
DATA SOURCES NBA.COM STATMUSE.COM BBALLINDEX
