NBA: Who Are The Best Perimeter Defenders?
By Eric Saar
Who are the best perimeter defenders in the NBA?
That elite perimeter defender is that final piece on a championship team. They already have their superstars, who can score at will, their shooters who spread the floor and their role players who play their part.
Now they need that perimeter defender to get stops when they are most needed.
In the NBA there only a handful of actually good perimeter defenders. Let’s take a look at these players and see which ones who are truly elite.
Criteria
How do you quantify an elite defender? There are a few criteria that help us define what it is.
Reputation
Who has the reputation as a “lockdown” defender? Usually, a defender of this caliber just slows down whoever he is guarding, holding him to less than his average number of points per game. They make the offensive player work hard for all their points, getting in their face, playing a physical style.
When the game is on the line, this is the player a team goes to for a stop. These players have a long wingspans, usually are bigger, with great lateral quickness, an above average basketball IQ and the hustle and determination to make it all count. Due to their physical attributes these players are versatile, able to usually defend four of the five positions.
Assignment
These athletically-gifted players are assigned the LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryants of the NBA as their defensive assignments. They take pride in their defense, unlike a lot of players. They know they just have to slow the opposing player down, but try their hardest to stop them completely.
Stats
After taking those players that have a reputation for being elite perimeter defenders, we’ll look at steals per game, blocks per game, and opponents’ field goal percentage at the rim, as an all-encompassing look at what that particular player is doing on the defensive side of the ball.
The Players
A list of great defenders includes: Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler, San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard, Phoenix Suns’ P.J. Tucker, Memphis Grizzlies’ Tony Allen, Golden State Warriors’ Andre Iguodala.
Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls)
Butler is the 6’7”, 220 pound up-and-coming superstar defender for Chicago. He’s only 25 with three years of NBA experience out of Marquette. While he still scores decently in different ways, most of his energy is spent on defense, as he takes the opponent’s best scorer by himself, leaving Derrick Rose and others to take the scoring load.
Butler averaged 1.9 steals per game, a half a block per game and only allowed 47.5 percent shooting at the rim. That’s pretty good. Especially that percentage at the rim for a smaller player.
He’s good and is only going to get better.
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
What can you say, he’s the reigning Finals MVP. Leonard is a soft-spoken, but definitely not soft Spurs guard. At 6’7” and 230 pounds with a ridiculous wingspan and his strength he keeps players in front of him. No one gets past him.
He averaged 1.7 steals per game, and 0.8 blocks per game with an opponent field goal percentage at the rim of 52.1 percent. Of all the players known as elite defenders, he’s probably the best scorer and most relied upon on that end. So, we need to take his stats with a grain of salt.
P.J. Tucker (Phoenix Suns)
Tucker is the most unknown of this group as he has burst on the NBA scene more recently. Tucker is listed as 6’6” (more like 6’4” or 6’3”) and 224 pounds, but plays much bigger than that. He plays with more grit, determination, heart and emotion than nearly the entire NBA (except of course Kevin Garnett). He gets all the loose balls, after forcing the loose ball from an elite scorer in a key situation.
He averaged 1.4 steals and 0.3 blocks per game, while his opponent’s field goal percentage at the rim was 50.5 percent. Elite compared to most, but okay compared to the other elite defenders.
Tony Allen (Memphis Grizzlies)
Allen is 32 and on the back end of his career, but still comes up big when needed. His motto is “Grit and Grind” and is known as “The Grindfather”. He never backs down from a challenge and gives it his all. He is 6’4” and 213 pounds, but you’d think he was bigger.
His averages last season were 1.6 steals, 0.3 blocks and an opponent’s field goal percentage at the rim of 50.7 percent. He was and sometimes is so good in certain situations, he can make the offensive player make mistakes, taking them out of what they wanted to do. That’s huge for a defender.
Andre Iguodala (Golden State Warriors)
Iguodala is quite athletic. At 6’6” and 215 pounds, and with the athleticism at his disposal, he can stay with anyone faster than him and his tremendous strength lets him bang down low with those bigger than him.
He averaged 1.5 steals per game and 0.3 blocks with an opponent’s field goal percentage at the rim of 51.1 percent. That’s pretty good.
Who’s the best?
From the stats, it appears the Bulls’ Jimmy Butler is the best wing defender in the league in terms of reputation and metrics. That stands to reason as the Bulls are generally such a defensive juggernaut under head coach Tom Thibodeau. He’s so young, he hasn’t even hit his prime yet. He could get even better, which is scary to the rest of the league.
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