On paper, the Mavs seem like they should be an above average defensive team with the personnel we added: Josh Green, Derrick Jones Jr., Grant Williams, Dereck Lively, Dante Exum and Maxi Kleber all seem to be pretty good to great defenders. And considering their reputations, Luka and Kyrie are putting in good effort on that end to the point where they don’t seem to be major liabilities. Maybe some will blame Dwight Powell and Tim Hardaway, but…those two guys rated as our two best defenders last year based on some advanced stats like Defensive RAPTOR. Seth Curry is obviously a defensive hole, but he’s not playing a lot of minutes. Hardy was bad last year but the numbers say he’s doing better this year.
So why are the Mavs still in the bottom tier overall (24th in DRTG)?
Let’s start by breaking down each play type to see where our weaknesses are:
| Play Type | Defensive Percentile | Opponent PPP |
|---|---|---|
| Spot Up | 72.4 (9th) | 0.97 |
| Post Up | 65.5 (11th) | 0.94 |
| Off Screen | 48.3 (16th) | 0.98 |
| Pick and Roll (Ball Handler) | 48.3 (16th) | 0.88 |
| Putbacks | 37.9 (19th) | 1.14 |
| Pick and Roll (Man) | 27.6 (21st) | 1.19 |
| Isolation | 27.6 (22nd) | 0.97 |
| Transition | 17.2 (25th) | 1.20 |
| Hand Off | 6.9 (28th) | 1.22 |
Opponent Shooting stats:
| Opponent Shooting (rank from opp’s perspective) | Opponent FGAs | |
|---|---|---|
| Restricted Area | 72% (1st) :( | 25.7 (17th) |
| Non-RA Paint | 50% (5th) | 19.8 (4th) |
| Midrange | 35.7% (26th) | 12.9 (4th) |
| Corner 3 | 32.9% (24th) | 8.2 (15th) |
| Above the break 3 | 38.2% (7th) | 24.9 (20th) |
| Opponent eFG% | 55.9% (3rd) | |
| Opponent 3P% | 36.5% (9th) | 33.4 (8th) |
Other Defensive Stats:
| Stat | Count (Rank) |
|---|---|
| Charges Drawn | 1.3 (1st) |
| Opponent FTA Rate | 0.224 (5th) |
| Opponent TOV% | 15.1 (8th) |
| Contested Shots | 46.8 (14th) |
| Contested Offensive Rebound % | 51.7% (17th) |
| Defensive Rebound Chances (i.e. Mav is closest to the ball) | 59.5 (19th) |
| Blocks | 4.3 (23rd) |
| Steals | 6.7 (25th) |
| Total Rebound Chances | (24th) |
| Defensive Rebounds | 32.1 (25th) |
| Contested 3P Shots | 14.7 (26th) |
| Deflections | 11.9 (26th) |
| Opp Offensive Rebound % | 32.0 (*3rd - [27th from our perspective]) |
| Offensive Rebound Chances (i.e. Mav is closest to ball) | 35.8 (28th) |
| Contested Defensive Rebound % | 14.1% (30th) |
| Contested Total Percentage % | 23.0% (30th) |
We are atrocious at contesting for defensive rebounds and at opponent shooting in the paint and restricted area, and bottom tier in pretty much all of the raw defensive stats (deflections, steals, blocks).
- The fact that we are still top 10 in opponent turnovers is interesting considering how low deflections and steals are, and how much that is forced errors vs. opponent screwups is unknown from the stats.
- The defensive rebounding numbers are kind of damning because our chances at getting the rebound (19th) are better than how many we are getting (25th) or how many contested DREBs we win (30th).
- We are top tier at drawing charges and not giving opponents free throws, but that likely means we are giving them easier looks as well, which is why they dominate us so badly in the paint. They aren’t taking as many attempts in the restricted area maybe due to Lively’s presence, but when they get in there they are scoring.
- We are at least average at contesting shots in general (14th), but it is not translating to a lower opponent effective field goal percentage.
- I am also disappointed that we are good at neither offensive rebounding (27th) nor transition defense (25th). Usually this can be an either-or, depending on which the coach wants to prioritize. Crashing the offensive boards hard can cost you in fast break points, but if you aren’t doing good at either then you’ve got a pretty bad situation.
Clearly a lot of room for improvement here, and it may require more personnel changes to shore this up. Our offense is godly, but without average defense it’s going to be harder to win in the playoffs on offense alone.
I mean Tim hardaway is playing big minutes and he’s a pretty atrocious off ball defender. Dwight Powell can’t protect the rim. We have no size at the 3 and 4 position. Even grant williams is pretty short and ground-bound.
Also, we run a scheme that’s based on help and rotations and running guys off the 3 point line, but we don’t really have the size to contest at the rim with any of our help defenders, and our highest “feel” help defender is kyrie and he’s 6’1”. If we ran a scheme that was based on packing the paint or if we ran a scheme that was based on switching and helping at the rim, the stats would probably be better. For example, against Toronto, if we had just packed the paint and let them shoot 3s, we probably win and don’t give up all those paint points. But I guess the staff wanted to keep our defensive identity and so we were still running Toronto’s players off the 3 point line.
In theory, this scheme should help against better teams by taking away 3 point attempts and funneling teams towards help in the paint where they take a tough runner or floater, but we need more size and length in order to fully actualize this scheme.