", Monday through Friday, host Pablo Torre brings you an inside look at the most interesting stories at ESPN, as told by the top reporters and insiders on the planet. And he did it by shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting. Jordan's player efficiency rating was 25.8, the NBA 's second best that year. He locked down dozens of great scorers thanks to his hard work and skills. Hakeems defensive rating of 98 career long is quite impressive. 1985. Some of the more important rule changes that should be considered include; some of the players on this list, such as Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, played before the three-point shot, blocks, and steals stats were officially recorded. He finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Dikembe Mutombo, Payton and David Robinson -- 10 years after his first and only DPOY award. Because those are the little differences between winning and losing.". He was a versatile center who could often switch on the opponent's guard/forward and stay against him out on the perimeter, which is not easy for bigger players to do. 0.44 ) That's a thing very few have excelled at. t Despite having a size disadvantage, Michael Jordan repeatedly wins his defensive matchups in the paint against Charles Barkley. L @Neil_Paine, NBA (1152 posts) IF THERE'S ONE thing that "The Last Dance" has demonstrated, it's that Michael Jordan was nearly impossible to guard. V All of this helps explain why Jordans Bulls finished in the top five in offensive efficiency every season from 1989-90 to 1996-97, except for the two Jordan spent playing baseball.5 When your best player is taking on a historic share of team possessions while also averaging nearly 1.2 points on each of those possessions, youre going to have a historically great offense. A The Dream impresses even on the stat sheet. A . Find out more. R S Alabama defensive back Jordan Battle was drafted in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals. That is fantastic. P = Career PER Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James, Players from different NBA generations and Career PER, "NBA & ABA Career Leaders and Records for Player Efficiency Rating", 2012-13 Hollinger NBA Player Statistics - All Players, Jordan proclaims he could beat LeBron in prime. Of course, theres also been a lot of mythology built up around MJ over the past three decades, and The Last Dance is sure to add to it even as the movies director, Jason Hehir, says he took steps to humanize Jordan. a That made Jordan one of the better playmakers in the NBA, even as he simultaneously led the league in scoring 10 times during the 11 seasons he played between 1986-87 and 1997-98. How did a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from North Carolina, who wasnt picked first OR second in his draft class, come to dominate a league whose best players had disproportionately been big men over the three decades before he arrived? The formula adds positive stats and subtracts negative ones through a statistical point value system. o All-NBA 2nd Team. Michael Jordan had a defensive rating of 102.7 in his career. Welcome back to the "Greatest Ever" series, as we continue with the rankings of the game's finest man-to-man defenders in NBA History. f And certainly he deeply influenced every player who came after him. Jones was a tenacious and versatile defender who hustled, worked hard, was aggressive on his man and had offensive skills too. His ability to contain his man has been phenomenal, but underrated in the eyes of the most fans since he plays efficient, yet unattractive basketball to the casual fan. i Hollinger responded via a post on ESPN's TrueHoop blog: Berri leads off with a huge misunderstanding of PERthat the credits and debits it gives for making and missing shots equate to a break-even shooting mark of 30.4% on 2-point shots. F Jordan overwhelms Bad Boy Pistons on defense, MJ strips Malone to set up Finals-winning shot, Jordan handles Barkley in the post (0:29), Michael Jordan also dominated the NBA on defense, 'That was crazy, no cap': How one wild sequence helped the 76ers steal Game 1, 'Aggressive' Harden takes over as 76ers stun C's, Suns' Paul leaves G2 loss with left groin tightness, Horford: Celtics let up defensively with Embiid out, Butler gets treatment on ankle; still iffy for G2, LeBron 'locked in' as rivalry with Steph resumes, Calipari thanks Bryants for package honoring Gigi, 'It's going to be epic': Stephen Curry and LeBron James face off -- again, Tigers coach fumes at Zaire v Dwyane comparisons after loss, Pregame chats, language arts and 'a lot of fines': Inside NBA player-ref dynamics, Dennis Rodman wants to set the record straight on Scottie Pippen, The Michael Jordan I knew is about to be revealed to the world, The Bulls put Pippen on Jackson to prevent him from posting up, Recipient of Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award. The Bulls put Pippen on Jackson to prevent him from posting up. He was an athletic, strong, skilled and quick defender that would often guard the opponent's top scorer while still lighting up the scoreboard. NBA MVP, All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, All-Rookie, Hall of Fame . The Pittsburgh Steelers follow the script: The Steelers take Joey Porter Jr. to open up Day 2 of the 2023 NFL Draft. R c Kobe Bryant has more career points than Michael Jordan, but Jordan was the better scorer between the two. He could run over to play help defense and still catch up to his man. i ] At under 280 pounds, he's on the small side for an interior lineman but he has speed (a 4.79 40), which Moore said is becoming more important among interior defensive linemen because . Each player will get a grade out of five in each category depending on their accomplishments. He outranks Jordan in career Defensive Win Shares, believe it or not, and his 4.0 Steal Rate in those two non-Jordan seasons were the highest ever for a player 6-8 or higher, by miles and miles. G t He returned to basketball in March 1995. He knew everyone's game and that helped a lot, which made him even stronger in one-on-one matchups, as he was called to guard the opponent's best big men and forced them into their worst nights. Or that Jordan had a strong supporting cast with multiple Hall of Famers (including Jackson as coach) and hyper-efficient role players (Steve Kerr, Horace Grant, etc.). His offense was perhaps equally good to his defense. Charlotte stunned Chicago in Game 2, 78-76. The way he moved, anticipated and invented ways to score based off what he saw on the defensive end he never cheated the process.". And he still managed to get to the line roughly once out of every three shots he took from the field, making 84 percent of his free throws. Indeed, Jordan had a 101 defensive rating in the 1996 and 1997 playoffs. P The fact that Pippen was able to average the most steals per game in the NBA in a season is so impressive considering he is a forward. *Includes players listed as guard/forward at Basketball-Reference.com. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Over his career, he averaged 30.2 pace-adjusted4 points per 36 minutes, easily the most of any qualified player since 1977. Jordan was in town as a member of the Dream Team to play exhibition games in the Tournament of the Americas. T Bill Russell was the symbol of great defense, who successfully revolutionized the concepts of defense on the court and was the game's very first lockdown defender. He expected his teammates to do the same. Sometimes when you analyze historical legends with modern metrics, the results can leave you disappointed. R Jordan matched up with, among others, Reggie Miller, an assignment he once complained was like "chicken-fighting with a woman" because of Miller's slender frame. And no one relished that assignment more than Jordan. Kobe finishes nowhere near Michael Jordan (3.1%), Chris Paul (3.2%) or John Stockton (3.5%). F ) R o g See trending Especially on the defensive end. Michael Jordan had a defensive rating of 106.8 in his rookie season in 1984-85. He was indeed in the top class of lockdown defenders, who often forced scorers into bad days. The lower your defensive rating is, the better. He could play in third gear and be better than most. Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Basketball Reference Database. + + It's an unforgettable image, but what people often fail to remember is how the Bulls first got possession. What better way to keep track of the ball than guarding the guy with the ball? V L m He was one of the most feared lockdown defenders to ever step on a NBA hardwood. And indeed, Chicago had three seasons 1992, 1996 and 1997 where its offense cleared the league average by 7 points per 100 possessions. Jackson warned his Pacers teammates about Jordan's uncommon defensive resolve. And he found a way not only to become a great defensive player, but the best defensive player in the NBA. S B [ That just adds to the greatness of Payton's superb defense. O His recovery skills were exceptional. At 6'4", Moncrief possessed excellent footwork and had a nice vertical jump that gave him above average ability to block shots. He finished sixth in Defensive Rating, third in Defensive Win Shares, first in Defensive Box. Scores from any date in BAA/NBA or ABA history, Frequently Asked Questions about the NBA, WNBA and Basketball, Basketball-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREE. ( But in the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, Jordan turned the tables on the Bad Boys. a PER takes into account positive results, including field goals, free throws, 3-pointers, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals and negative results, including missed shots, turnovers and personal fouls. P ( His career field goal percentage is 49.7% and he is 32.7% from 3-point range. Best RAPTOR defensive plus/minus ratings for . O All columns may be sorted by clicking the column name. Having a lockdown defender is always useful. His shot-blocking skills are so great. Chicago Bulls (36) t Journeyman guard Gerald Wilkins was once nicknamed "the Jordan stopper," yet in 39 career matchups, Jordan averaged 30.8 points on 50.8 shooting from the field. Defense should be valued and regarded just as highly as offense, no matter how difficult that might be. He was also tenacious, and had quick hands which he used to get steals. O Plus his ability to block shots was awesome too. + A The sun was really hot that day. In the 1987-88 season, Michael Jordan led the league in scoring with 35 points a game, was named the defensive player of the year, and won MVP. ] D V R B Hollinger's work has benefitted from the observations of sabermetric baseball analysts, such as Bill James. Jordan was also named to the NBAs All-Defensive Team nine times, winning Defensive Player of the Year in 1988. "He told me he was going to shut me down," Walker says, "but it was too late. An exasperated Jordan, who missed 16 of his 23 shots in that game, waved off his teammates and guarded Walker for the final minutes. ] He was going to make sure that no one could ever think they were in his category. Michael Jordan. t At only 29, he is already a 2 x DPOY and 6 x All Defense. College: Ohio St. (College Stats) Weighted Career AV (100-95-. Pippen was an absolute menace on the defensive end and is the first ever true 3 & D player. Whether these defenders are starters or come off the bench as elite subs, their production goes beyond the statistics and often. That toughness, energy, hustle translated to his team and Celtics fans. But Jordan also excelled as a guard in an era when hand-checking them was legal, when teams like the Bad Boy Pistons could draw up physical defenses specifically designed to pummel the opponents star. t Hakeem also ranks 9th all time in steals. One of the primary observations is that traditional counting statistics in baseball, like runs batted in and wins, are not reliable indicators of a player's value. F O m If a player exceeds these thresholds, and virtually every NBA player does so with respect to two-point shots, the more he shoots the higher his value in PERs. B Scottie Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only other players to reach that milestone once. F E g And during the Bulls' three-year title run featuring Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman, Chicago led the league in defensive efficiency, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. 2 JORDAN DIDN'T MAKE his first All-Defense team until the 1987-88 season, his fourth year in the league. A "I've always thought players who talk trash defensively are far more devastating than the scorers who say stuff," Rivers says. Prior to the 201314 season, LeBron James was on the verge of surpassing Michael Jordan's career PER to take the number one spot. P [ Jordan relentlessly tracked guards Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, pickpocketing them in the backcourt or springing out of his low defensive stance with catlike quickness to flood their passing lanes. Best RAPTOR plus/minus ratings for NBA players with at least 15,000 minutes played since 1976-77, including regular season and playoffs, Source: NBA Advanced Stats, Basketball-Reference.com. He locked in when it mattered the most. [ ( He took over games, even without scoring more than 15 points. c m B If you though Garnetts 12 NBA seasons under 100 was impressive, Duncan had 16. He led the franchise to its fourth . {\displaystyle uPER={\frac {1}{min}}\times \left(3P+\left[{\frac {2}{3}}\times AST\right]+\left[\left(2-factor\times {\frac {tmAST}{tmFG}}\right)\times FG\right]+\left[0.5\times FT\times \left(2-{\frac {1}{3}}\times {\frac {tmAST}{tmFG}}\right)\right]-\left[VOP\times TO\right]-\left[VOP\times DRBP\times \left(FGA-FG\right)\right]-\left[VOP\times 0.44\times \left(0.44+\left(0.56\times DRBP\right)\right)\times \left(FTA-FT\right)\right]+\left[VOP\times \left(1-DRBP\right)\times \left(TRB-ORB\right)\right]+\left[VOP\times DRBP\times ORB\right]+\left[VOP\times STL\right]+\left[VOP\times DRBP\times BLK\right]-\left[PF\times \left({\frac {lgFT}{lgPF}}-0.44\times {\frac {lgFTA}{lgPF}}\times VOP\right)\right]\right)}. F T m All calculations begin with what is called unadjusted PER (uPER). P You throw him at the opponent's most productive and best player, where all night long he produces quality defense, locking him down and forcing him to turn the ball over. For example, if a player has a DBPM of one, he would allow one less point per game. 1988. In the end, one number sums up the players' statistical accomplishments for that season. Let me also mention that Jordan's scoring average is 5.1 points more than Bryant. E Hakeem Olajuwon possessed a rare combination of quickness and strength with unique skills for a seven-footer. Garnett is tied for the second most NBA all-defensive team honours with 12, but he has also won a defensive player of the year award. 17, 2020, "And he was very smart in how he used them. ) D Pippen was athletic enough to defend guys on the perimeter, and strong enough to battle with the big men down low. . Dennis Johnson sat an entire college season on the bench, but he put in hard work to reach greatness as a pro. There you have it. leaned heavily on those now-shunned tactics, Only two qualified players in NBA history, Partisan Gerrymandering Is Legal Again In North Carolina. Making a three pointer is great, but if you cant stop the opposition from scoring a three, youre back at square one. On May 6, 1998, Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team, becoming the first player in history to accomplish that feat nine times. F Kawhi may be silent off the court, but his impact on the court is definitely heard. e 23 never took a play off on either end. 3 Michael could take that initial bump. Rodman was denying him on the left side when Jordan burst from behind on the right, swatting the ball free and taking off up the court to make history -- again. Data Provided By Im gonna figure out how to make those my strengths. And he did it.. I couldn't believe how much energy he had. t No . ( B P O P [ Also note that it is impossible to calculate PER (at least in the conventional manner described above) for NBA seasons prior to 1978, as the league did not keep track of turnovers among other advanced statistics before that year. Per Game Per 48 Min Totals Advanced Add Info Stat Key It would be nice, however, for Kawhi to show some more fire on the court. This final step takes away the advantage held by players whose teams play a fastbreak style (and therefore have more possessions and more opportunities to do things on offense), and then sets the league average to 15.00. O [12], Comparing players from different generations using PER presents several problems, this is primarily due to the rule changes and the changes in statistical data collected from different eras (although many other factors could be taken into consideration, even down to the increased sample size as the NBA grew through incorporating more teams). Live From New York: Will AI Replace This Podcast. The formula is: u Over the years there have been plenty of premier defenders in the NBA who have worn the label of best defender in the NBA. Overall advanced defensive statistics Defensive rating essentially measures how many baskets a player gives up per 100 possessions. They are interchangeable in terms of making the top five, but for this article, they just missed out. ( ( Awards Get viral NBA graphics, memes, rumors and trending news delivered right to your inbox with the Clutch Newsletter. 82: . Main Index . Its impossible to know what, say, Pete Maravich would have done in todays NBA, but his advanced stats are surprisingly mediocre when you look back on them. Michael Jordan's pure scoring ability and remarkable athleticism tend to resonate more when attempting to encapsulate his NBA legacy. But Jordan also had genius-level defensive instincts. S 0.56 Although Garnett was an NBA power forward, he was still athletic enough to defend almost every position on the floor. That should be scary for all other teams. Lets begin by naming the honourable mentions who just missed out on being in the top five. Antoine Walker experienced his forcefulness on opening night of the 1997-98 season. He established himself as one of the best defensive guards in NBA history because of his bulk and rocket-launcher legs, which helped him frequently win battles against players nearly a foot taller. He was an athletic forward who had toughness, nice jumping ability, long hands and footwork combined with nice skills that earned him eight All-Defensive First Teams selections. Dennis Rodman couldn't do many things right, but for everything bad that he did on and off the court, he was an unquestionable success rebounding and defending. Was Jordan actually the greatest ever? We won the game. The guy's attention to detail was impeccable. An unknown player for the youth generations of basketball, Sidney Moncrief was one of the most complete players during the 80's, who also marked that era of competitive NBA hoops with his phenomenal defense. A Compare full careers or single seasons for up to six players Compare group of seasons Ex. Tied for second most ever. MJ was a serviceable deep shooter for his day, particularly for the three seasons when the NBA shortened the 3-point line during the 1990s, but he was no Steph Curry or James Harden. c [8] Several news features focus on comparing the two players by using the PER metric. at t Take, for example, the sequence that set up his iconic final shot as a Bull against the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals. [ P Chicago's opponent, the Utah Jazz, led the NBA in offensive efficiency during the regular season (110.9 points per 100 possession), but was held to just 94.3 in those 1998 Finals. S ( t f R Former Philadelphia 76ers great Bobby Jones was one of the most admired defensive players ever to put a NBA uniform on. What Are His Chances For 2024? ] P "Reggie had great respect for Michael, but he wasn't afraid. So the arguments can go in both directions. 2 Or write about sports? Jordan came back late in the 1995 season, too late to boost Chicagos offensive ranking any higher than 10th and he played below his usual level of efficiency anyway. D MICHAEL JORDAN HYPERBOLE is at an all-time high as "The Last Dance" nears its conclusion, and one favorite mantra is that No. "He got me a couple of times," says former New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing. Each of these NBA players demonstrated defensive excellence throughout their careers, and some still havent even finished their defensive legacy. 2023 ABC News Internet Ventures. And that was not Michael Jordan's fault. Michael Jordan Position: OL 6-6, 315lb (198cm, 142kg) Born: January 25, 1998 in Cincinnati, OH. T Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Gary Payton were all fantastic NBA perimeter defenders. Active players are listed in bold. F A "The thing about him and Scottie was they were big enough, strong enough and athletic enough to challenge a guy like me. ) Kawhi has also scored under 100 five times in nine seasons. g Career: Values are based on current season type (i.e. Clicking on a tab heading will display the specified set of statistics. T ( ) l The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. T + P Very impressive defensive resume from Kawhi. "Their defense," Pacers coach Larry Bird said in the immediate aftermath of the loss, "is relentless.". "Charles Barkley was the MVP of the league that year and Michael just loved the challenge of shutting him down.

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