Isaac
Years ago

Every NBL Team Ranked by their Defence

Defence wins championships.

It's the oldest of sporting clichés but in the modern NBL it’s as true as the day is long.

The good teams have offensive talent, sure, but when push comes to shove you need to be able to defend at a high level if you’re going to have championship success.

With that in mind, here’s every NBL team ranked by their production at the defensive end of the floor.

Full story on NBL.com.au

Number one might surprise you. Number eight won't!

Liam has provided some extra stats here.

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Anonymous
Years ago

i am surprise by the 36ers ranking.

but if you go purely by points against it changes around a bit.

1. Perth 1276
2. Melbourne 1399
3. NZL 1445
4. Cairns 1516
5. Adelaide 1528
6. Illawarra 1538
7. Brisbane 1588
8. Sydney 1773

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Anonymous
Years ago

That theory only works is every team has played the same amount of games.

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koberulz
Years ago

And if they all play at the same pace.

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Melbourne Boy
Years ago

Points per game against being used as an indicator for good defense is for the old people caught in the past, they would think the Warriors in the NBA haven't been a good defensive team over the last few years.

The points per 100 posessions is the simplest and best way to determine how good a defense is.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Normally these types of mainstream articles are horrible and use opponent points per game or total opponent points, like the earlier poster suggests. It's 2018 and we've moved a long way past these stats to measure effectiveness.

Liam employed the best two indicators for defensive effectiveness, opponent eFG% and opponent PPP. He also mentioned great statistics like DRB%. If you have glazed over and have no idea about these past few sentences, search for "basketball four factors" or "advanced basketball stats".

Unfortunately, Liam didn't give enough numbers. The RealGM stats that are provided in Isaac's post help provide the missing information and it allows comparison to previous seasons and leagues. That's where it gets interesting.

Reply #663925 | Report this post

paul
Years ago

"The points per 100 posessions is the simplest and best way to determine how good a defense is."

It's one measure but not a definitive one, because possessions don't happen in isolation, they are often impacted by the previous one and have an impact on the next one.

For example, not allowing any points on a possession but having to take the ball out of bounds isn't as effective as forcing a turnover or bad shot that results in an easy two at the other end.

For teams like Illawarra and Adelaide, getting teams to take quick shots is good because it fuels their offence, even if it means giving up some easy baskets. Over the course of 40 minutes it allows them to have the game played at their preferred tempo.

New Zealand last year were a decent defensive team, but they were coughing up horrible turnovers that resulted in easy oppo scores that made their defensive per possession stats look bad.

Judging the effectiveness of defence is tough because there are so many factors to consider. I think Liam did a pretty good job, it's an interesting discussion at the least.

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Every NBL Team Ranked by their Defence

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