There’s a 10 minute section in today’s *The Dunker Spot* podcast with Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr on the Mavs – [YouTube link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQpcn1CzwDE&t=375s) for those who don’t care much for podcasts.
There was a particularly interesting stat I’ve not heard anywhere before, [starting here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQpcn1CzwDE&t=814s), transcribed below:
>So far this season as we are recording, we record on Monday afternoons, he \[Luka\] has defended the most isos in the League this year: 46. On those possessions in which the team tries to attack Luka in isolation they are generating 0.83 points per possession, which is an elite number defensively.
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>And if you filter that for just direct play so the guy who’s attacking Luka shoots or passes it to somebody who immediately shoots — 0.88 points per position, which is also an elite mark.
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>That’s not me saying Luka should make all defence — but, he’s not hurting you right now so just want to sprinkle that in there.
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If this keeps on, this sure bodes well for Mavs’ future, and it really illustrates that
1. there are many facets to defence
2. that at least Luka can be good at least at the facet most relevant for playoffs
3. that other teams are trying to go at him, hence the volume
4. it’s early in the season.
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A few other things raised in the segment:
* Luka + Kyrie feels more natural this year than last
* Offence keeps DJJ and Grant open to shoot
* starting lineup \~neutral by NetRtg and average by DefRtg, but they only shoot 32.5% from 3 — with time, shots that fall in other lineups should fall here and that would make it +ve by NetRtg
* Josh Green plays his way into the starting lineup but then stops playing as well — coming off the bench fits him better, especially when playing with Kyrie and Exum
* Defensive effort seems better, more like the WCF season
by sercialinho
7 Comments
The thing about Josh Green, didnt I see a statistic in this sub where the three man line-up with Josh, Luka and D-Live has an insane +/-?
That’s super encouraging about Luka (more than) holding his own when attacked so far this year. Could see he was doing well but wouldn’t have guessed it was elite. Something to keep an eye on as the season progresses and we play more dangerous offensive teams/players.
I think Luka can get to where Dirk was on defense when he puts in effort. Not a great help defense guy, but someone whose size and smarts allows them to be a good defender esp in iso situations
Luka buying into the new direction the team wants to take has been massive, but we all knew the dude could at least play solid defense when he wanted to. We’ve watched him battle in the playoffs, he’s a BB genius with a big frame and long arms, the only issues he’s ever going to have there are effort and the fact that he’s just not going to have the footspeed for some guys in a 1v1.
Without seeing any stats the eyeball test told me Lukas defense in iso has been great. I’ve thought to myself more than once this season that Lukas defense is looking solid. He’s good at using his size to absorb the attackers contact with his body and halt the drive. I believe against Orlando a couple of times he picked up banchero on a switch and stifled him completely.
Tim McMahon in shambles about luka playing defense.
Haven’t watched any live games this year only highlights. But watched a majority of live games over past couple seasons.
From what I have seen, we almost always double when Luka gets iso’d. So does this stat say that we do great as a team helping Luka when he gets iso’d? Or is this stat saying when Luka doesn’t get help he’s doing an elite job defensively? I assume the former