Michael Jordan was a 6'6, 195-215lb freak of nature. He made this assumption because he forgot that PER is calibrated against the rest of the league at the end of the formula. In the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, Michael Jordan gets a series of steals and blocks en route to the Bulls' first-ever NBA Finals appearance. It was a textbook example of how Jordan used mental lapses by other players even Hall of Famers! All-NBA 2nd Team. "He got me a couple of times," says former New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing. + They didnt start giving out all-defensive team honours until his last year in the NBA in 1969, so hes only a one time winner. He took over games, even without scoring more than 15 points. Its something of a loaded question, the kind of which has launched a million RealGM forum debates. E Duncan was an incredible NBA rim protector for decades, but outside of the paint, he didnt really have much of an impact. 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. During the 2000's, no one else played better perimeter defense than the great Bruce Bowen, who is known for his ability to defend. The Bulls put Pippen on Jackson to prevent him from posting up. F F R V If you combine the 1997 and 1998 Finals, the Jazz failed to score 90 points in 11 of the 12 games they played. 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. All calculations begin with what is called unadjusted PER (uPER). . Im gonna figure out how to make those my strengths. And he did it.. Do you have a sports website? Let me also mention that Jordan's scoring average is 5.1 points more than Bryant. 3 u ] Not Charles, not Clyde [Drexler], not anyone.". 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. ) Scottie Pippen: 10 x All Defense, 1 x STL Champ. 2 For example, Bruce Bowen, widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the NBA through the 200607 season, routinely posted single-digit PERs. P "But it was the defense that made Chicago special. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Payton is one of the best defenders Michael Jordan ever played against, as he helped force Jordan to his worst scoring and shooting Finals series (27.3 points on 42 percent from field). It was personal. Behind Smart, the Celtics led the NBA in defensive rating (106.2) and points allowed per game (104.5) and held opponents to the lowest field goal percentage (43.4) and three-point field goal . g Prior to the 201314 season, LeBron James was on the verge of surpassing Michael Jordan's career PER to take the number one spot. Per Game Per 48 Min Totals Advanced Add Info Stat Key P Jordan ended his career with the Bulls in poetic fashion: nailing the game-winning jumper over Bryon Russell in Game 6 of the Finals, his shooting motion frozen in time. O 0.44 Duncan is the epitome of defensive excellence. Defense should be valued and regarded just as highly as offense, no matter how difficult that might be. Pippen surprisingly never won a defensive player of the year award throughout his career, however, he was widely regarded as the most feared defender in his era. He had a nice IQ that he used in order to beat multiple players, and he was a versatile stopper who could switch to defend everything from the 1 to 4 positions. t ( [5][6] As the metric is averaged over the length of a player's entire career a decrease in efficiency later in his career means a player can move down in the ranking; Jordan's PER took a big hit in the final two years of his career when he returned to the game with the Washington Wizards, posting 20.7 in his penultimate season and 19.3 in his final season, compared to his career high of 31.7 (Jordan's PER was 29.1 without accounting for his Wizards years). ] An exasperated Jordan, who missed 16 of his 23 shots in that game, waved off his teammates and guarded Walker for the final minutes. ] 1985. {\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)}. ) Jordan played 1071 regular season games in his career, scoring an average of 30.1 points per game, along with 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.3 steals. T ( ) {\displaystyle \ PER=\left(uPER\times {\frac {lgPace}{tmPace}}\right)\times {\frac {15}{lguPER}}}. T He was most known for his phenomenal defense on Michael Jordan during the Pistons' title runs during the late 80's and early 90's. Although slightly higher than Leonard, 102 is still a very good NBA defensive rating. Sports may be shut down, but Michael Jordan is as relevant as hes been in a long time. ( Jordan and Co. always seemed to ratchet up the intensity, especially during the playoffs. E He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009. Everyone remembers the drive, pull-up and arguable push-off as Jordan freed himself from Bryon Russell and drained the championship clinching jumper. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. That should be scary for all other teams. The sun was really hot that day. He owns the greatest single-game performance ever2 according to Basketball-Reference.coms Game Scores. Despite the difficulty and inherent inefficiency of Jordans shot selection, he still managed to make an impressive 51 percent of his career 2-point attempts, notably higher than such similarly midrange-focused players as Bryant (48 percent), Carmelo Anthony (47 percent), Russell Westbrook (47 percent) and even Dirk Nowitzki (50 percent). [ T E [8] Several news features focus on comparing the two players by using the PER metric. R He finished his playing career with two seasons with the Washington Wizards and went on to become the owner of the Charlotte Hornets. It's you, Reggie and the 100 picks we're going to set for him.'" He was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, and made seven All-NBA Defensive teams, including five first team appearances. 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. D The two hit the links for 36 holes the morning of Team USA's first game against Cuba. G Michael Jordan. He was effective in almost every aspect of playing defense, a thing that cannot be measured by stats. Subscribe to Stathead, the set of tools used by the pros, to unearth this and other interesting factoids. t R ] 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. A R ( Through analytics and video breakdown technology, players are now under a microscope with very little wiggle room to excuse them from being below average defenders. P In the end, one number sums up the players' statistical accomplishments for that season. Rodgers, a four-time MVP winner, departs Green Bay as the Packers' franchise leader in touchdowns (475), completion percentage (65.3) and passer rating (103.6). + 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. [ 1 Just ask James Harden, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, or Trae Young. His defense was so much improved, take a look at his 2008 Finals performance against Pau Gasol as proof. This article will aim to find out who the best defender in NBA history is by comparing some of the greatest defenders to each other using the following categories: Defensive achievements, defensive statistics, defensive impact. Defensive Player of the Year. Jordan is the only player since 1973-74 (when steals and blocks were first recorded) to submit 200 steals and 100 blocks in two different seasons. G Payton and Jordan share the record for the most All-First Defensive Team selections (nine) too, which is an incredible achievement. F The entire playing career for Michael Jordan is displayed below. P To end up with a league-average PER of 15.00, the actual break-even mark in this case is 48.5%, which is exactly what the league average is on 2-point shots this season. That's a thing very few have excelled at. "The thing about him and Scottie was they were big enough, strong enough and athletic enough to challenge a guy like me. 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. Kevin Garnett: 12 x All-Defense, 1 x DPOY. Michael Jordan. Career: School's all-time leader at tight end in catches (180), receiving yards (2,099) and receiving touchdowns (18) 2022: Single-season school record for receiving touchdowns (nine) by a tight end Very few could be argued as better stoppers on their man. His finest moment came in the 1984 Finals as part of the Boston Celtics, where he shut down the much taller and stronger Earvin "Magic" Johnson. A Find out more. F T 1988. B ( P Jordan habitually was knocked to the floor by the team he loathed most, the Detroit Pistons, who punctured his title dreams for three consecutive seasons with a physical, defensive-oriented style. Charlotte stunned Chicago in Game 2, 78-76. O Alexander Hassenstein / Bongarts / Getty Images, Apr. Usually, "imposing his will" referred to Jordan's gravity-defying dunks or artistic layups in traffic. e Or even that defenses were simpler then. ] There you have it. Kawhi has also scored under 100 five times in nine seasons. T Whether these defenders are starters or come off the bench as elite subs, their production goes beyond the statistics and often. 0.56 [ Neil Paine was the acting sports editor at FiveThirtyEight. l That made him only the second-best sixth man of the 80's behind Kevin McHale. "Michael knew exactly what we were doing," says Armstrong, who was a reserve on that Hornets team. 0.44 R The weakest part of Michaels game on the offensive end was his shooting, Phil Jackson says in the spellbinding documentary Michael Jordan to the Max. So he obviously mastered something that everybody said he couldnt do when he came out of college. 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.). Garnetts impact goes beyond versatility as well. Hakeems defensive rating of 98 career long is quite impressive. Michael Jordan had a defensive rating of 102.7 in his career. 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. 1 ( R Michael Jordan Stats and news - NBA stats and news on Chicago Bulls Guard Michael Jordan . Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. R At 6'4", Moncrief possessed excellent footwork and had a nice vertical jump that gave him above average ability to block shots. O 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. i m g P Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. But thats only half of what made Jordan so great. Arguably the best player in the NBA history, Michael Jordan was a dominant defensive guard for his entire career. ( The Hornets didn't win another game in the series. Dumars possessed excellent footwork, had nice basketball instincts, skills and determination to defend with a style like few have in this league. However, there isnt a definitive best defensive player ever. Actually, if we took a player that was completely average in every other respect for the 200607 seasonrebounds, free throws, assists, turnovers, etc.and gave him a league-average rate of shots, and all of them were 2-pointers, and he shot 30.4%, he'd end up with a PER of 7.18. 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. He expected his teammates to do the same. Leonard is currently the best two-way player in the NBA and has been over the last half-decade. PER strives to measure a player's per-minute performance, while adjusting for pace. Jordan played all 82 games, so a 5-point differential 82 times comes up to a pretty wide margin. He was indeed in the top class of lockdown defenders, who often forced scorers into bad days. ] Regardless of how skilled the players are on the offensive end, without solid defense, there will always be the argument of hes not a complete player. Active players are listed in bold. "You'd beat him with a move," Jackson says, "and before you know it, he was right back there in front of you. T V [ ] Michael Jordan and Gary Payton both won defensive player of the year in their career, and were defensive anchors for their respective teams. Because those are the little differences between winning and losing.". G Only 7.2 percent of Jordan's career field-goal . 0.44 R Although Kobe never won a DPOY, he received NBA All-Defensive Team Honours 12 times over his career. But Jordan also had genius-level defensive instincts. What better way to keep track of the ball than guarding the guy with the ball? Pippen, however, only scored under 100 four times in seventeen seasons. "He told me he was going to shut me down," Walker says, "but it was too late. 3 PER largely measures offensive performance.