New Orleans Pelicans: In Appreciation of Derrick Favors
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans: Derrick Favors anchors the defense.
So let’s see how Favors defensive stats stack up against the rest of the league.
He ranks 134th in DWS across the entire NBA, just between Bruce Brown and Aaron Holiday. That low of a ranking may not sound great, but he’s ahead of Draymond Green by this mark and both played about the same number of games this season. If ranking ahead of a five-time All-Defense and the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year is bad, I don’t want to be good.
When looking at Favors against the rest of the NBA the games played factor always needs to be taken into account. By WS/48 Favors ranks 57th between Eric Bledsoe and Jakob Poeltl and ahead of Jayson Tatum (77th with .147).
It’s a little surprising to see Favors and Peoltl that highly rated considering they’re not talked about anywhere near as often as either Bledsoe or Tatum when it comes to impact on their teams.
What about the rim protection that Favors brings? His one block a game doesn’t sound very high but it’s the most on the team and the 43rd best in the league, ahead of guys like Marc Gasol, Al Horford, and Robin Lopez all three of whom are known as defensive stalwarts.
Another way to look at this is by block percentage, which is the percentage of two-pointers blocked by a player while they’re on the floor. If we look at this Favors records a block in 3.4% of his time on the floor.
That seems small but that places him ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Gasol again, not bad for a guy who shares the floor with a 6’6″ power forward.
Add that up and you’ve got the base of a player who profiles at least as a defensive anchor.
But what about his offense?