Updated SportVU-based Rim Protection Values
Realized it's been a month or so since I last updated the Isolated Rim Protection Metric, so reran the numbers through games of Saturday, March 22. Google doc with the results is here. Nothing terribly surprising in this iteration. Roy Hibbert still crushes the rest of the league in this measure. Robin Lopez continues to show up surprisingly well (2nd in per game value), even though Portland has given up large numbers of paint points all year.
Google Doc Here
That said, opponents are shooting 55% at the rim versus Portland as a whole, but only 42% with Lopez defending the rim. Even with Lopez on the floor, opponents are shooting 54.7% against Portland. Back of the envelope math suggests that opponents are shooting an extremely healthy 68% against on shots he does NOT contest. That exercise suggests a possible next stop is extrapolating similar rates for other big men to see who has large contest/non contest splits. For example, Anthony Davis (who this metric has consistently hated, largely because of his extremely low rate of contesting shots at the rim) is allowing 47.7 FG% on shots he contests at the rim, but opponents are shooting 69.6% on all rim attempts with him on the floor and not contesting. That sounds not good.
Other stuff to note is that Miles Plumlee has continued to slide, some, defensively after a good start. He's still #2 in the league in contests per minute, but is allowing 50.1% on those contests, which is roughly league average. He still grades out in the top 20% or so of defensive bigs on this metric. On the other side of the ledger, Joakim Noah seems to be coming on by leaps and bounds. He started the year looking fairly average, but it seems his defense is ascending almost as much as his offensive and playmaking game have been recently and he is firmly in the top 15% or so of rim protectors over the course of the season.
Other stuff to note is that Miles Plumlee has continued to slide, some, defensively after a good start. He's still #2 in the league in contests per minute, but is allowing 50.1% on those contests, which is roughly league average. He still grades out in the top 20% or so of defensive bigs on this metric. On the other side of the ledger, Joakim Noah seems to be coming on by leaps and bounds. He started the year looking fairly average, but it seems his defense is ascending almost as much as his offensive and playmaking game have been recently and he is firmly in the top 15% or so of rim protectors over the course of the season.
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