Coach’s Corner: Simple Measure of Defensive Quality

Throughout my coaching career, I looked at different stats to try to evaluate our defensive efficiency:

Points allowed per game- It is a no-brainer. If your defense is good, you don’t let the other team score. A problem with this stat is that it is dependent on the tempo of the game. If you want to allow fewer points per game then slow down offensively and give the other team fewer offensive possessions.

Stats measuring effective pressure defense- Pressure teams are going to want to keep track of turnovers forced and number of fouls. 

Stats measuring philosophy of “no easy baskets”- Teams with this as a primary emphasis will want to chart points in the paint, offensive rebounds, fastbreak points. 

Points Per Possession- This is probably the stat that best measures a team’s defense. It won’t tell you what the weakness is but it will show your strength or weakness. 

Opponent’s Two Point Shooting Percentage

While all of these are good and valid ways to measure what your goals are defensively, I listened to two different discussions on analytics that both brought up the same point. The most consistent stat when it comes to good defense is the opponent’s two point shooting percentage. 

Obviously you will play some bad teams where even if you are a bad defensive team, the opponent will shoot a low 2 FG%. But if you look at the 2 FG% over the course of the season, you will find the 2 FG% of your opponents will be a dependable measure of the quality of your defense. 

If you think about it, it makes sense— 2 FG% will be impacted by….

1- Transition defense giving up easy scores.

2- Post defense giving up inside scoring.

3- Giving up offensive rebounds.

4- Not defending offensive sets and giving open looks.

5- Not playing good enough defense to challenge shooters.