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I don't get how Haliburton has avoided the bad defender rep lol
Incredible offensive player of course but literally every advanced stat as well as the eye test sees him as hideous on that end and yet his reputation seems to be neutral to even positive
Because he’s tall and lengthy for a point guard, so people assume he must be a good defender.
I’ve never seen anyone say Haliburton was anything but a terrible defender. This might be the first time I’ve seen someone say he’s just bad
Westbrook currently has the 6th highest defensive EPM in the league…..
I hope people understand how they compute defensive EPM and EPM in general before using it this way cos no way in hell is Westbrook a highly positive defender.
stop! the nets mainly mikal bridges was getting the switch & attacking all night
People who been using EPM to criticize Trae's defense are just gonna switch up and say EPM is a flawed stat
Not sure if he’ll ever be able to fully shake the narrative but it’s been nice seeing him consistently show effort on D. It shows that he’s really committed to improving weak spots in his game.
Defensive EPM is meaningless
A lot of it has to do with his frame.
Stellar analysis
Like he can try on defense but he’s still one of the smallest guys in the entire nba.
Ah, yes...an all-in-one impact metric on a small sample size. Surely the lesson here is not that the impact metric is missing something.
I am once again begging Trae haters to actually watch a hawks game
I think given his size and strength he’s probably more a plus all things considered. His reality in the league is that he is small even when other small players are by and large bigger than most humans.
He tries and that’s what matters
he did play defense harder
Which is funny because I constantly see him get hunted on defense. But sure. I guess.
Personally, I think that Trae is a vastly improved defender eventhough I wouldn't go as far as to say that he's neutral not yet anyway. Single player defensive metrics are imo all flawed and a single one can't make a statement if someone's a good defender or not. It comes down to the eye-test which Trae passes in relation to what his defense has been in the past. Just constantly competing, making smart rotations and holding up reasonably well in tough spots.
Look we aren’t trying to say he’s a great defender, but he’s far from “the worst defender in history” now, he’s clearly trying which is more than you can say about some.
All this to say: Two way Trae is here 😤
Is this even legit? lol showing guys like Giannis and Butler as barely positive defenders which isn’t true at all.
Counter point, the Hawks are a bad defensive team(currently 6th worst in the league) and Trae has the worst defensive rating of all the Hawks players that get significant minutes. Yes looking at defensive rating by itself is flawed(like any other stat), but if the dude that plays the most minutes in the team has the worst rating in the team, it looks bad. Every single lineup he plays with, is worst with him on the floor.
He also has the worst DBPM in the team by a good margin(-2.3, on par with the rest of his career) and 11th worst in the league.
He might be a bit more engaged on the ball, but he clearly isn't helping the team's defense. Part of it is due to being a physical liability out there, part of it is because he simply is not a good defender, like at all.