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Monday, April 19, 2010

Pistons' Charlie Villanueva named one of the NBA's worst defenders

Blogger Haralabos Voulgaris of Alone in the Corner recently put together his 2010 All Non-Defensive team of the worst five defenders in the NBA.

Piston Charlie Villanueva was named to the first team along with Minnesota’s Jonny Flynn, Houston’s Kevin Martin, Sacramento’s Andres Nocioni and Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani. Piston guard Will Bynum was named an honorable mention.

Voulgaris isn’t breaking any news by saying Villanueva is not a good defender, but naming him one of the five worst in the league is taking it to a new level.

“There was a quote early in the season where John Kuester stated that until he had a few weeks to be around Charlie V, he didn’t really know just what Charlie could do — presumably this was a compliment,” Voulgaris wrote. “I think given another four months or so he’d likely restate the above, but not in a complimentary fashion.

“Charlie V’s one-year adjusted defensive rating has him at a -6.13, he scarcely keeps his man in front of him and doesn’t defensive rebound particularly well.”

Not exactly high praise for Villanueva and this isn’t just Voulgaris’ opinion. Voulgaris uses a complex database to select the team, a database he discussed with ESPN’s TrueHoop blog.

“In the basketball analytic world (stat geeks) people talk of Offensive and Defensive Efficiency (points per possession),” Voulgaris told TrueHoop. “I take it a step further and break down the efficiency of different types of possessions. Possessions off of turnovers, made baskets, missed shots (broken down a step further types of missed shots), etc.

“As I mentioned, once you have the data you can begin to do all sorts of cool things with it.

“The NBA has an interesting application on their site called “Hot Zones” that shows you how a player shoots from a certain spot on the floor. I can give you the same information but I can break it down with much more detail.

“Take Kobe Bryant for example, we have every shot he (and every other player in the league) has taken in the last five seasons.

“How does Kobe Bryant’s shooting chart look when Bruce Bowen is on the floor (guarding him). How does it look with Shane Battier? (I know, small sample size, but you get the idea).

“How does it look with X lineup for the Lakers, or how does it look with just Gasol on the floor, and on and on.”

I honestly have never heard Voulgaris or his blog before stumbling on this article with an assist to PistonPowered's Twitter account. But it sounds like he took a lot of time and effort into creating this team. Hopefully Villanueva will put as much time and effort into becoming a better defender in the offseason so he won't have to read more articles like Voulgaris'.

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