Spencer leads Tristan in defensive rating, defensive win shares, defensive rebounding, and more than 2.5 times the block rate. They are tied on steal rate.
Are you seriously trying to make the case that Spencer Hawes is a better defensive player than Tristan Thompson? Do you really not understand how bad Spencer Hawes is on that end of the court? Let's put some perspective on your outstanding use of advanced stats.
Spencer leads Tristan in defensive rating
Defensive rating is a great indicator for how a team's defense performs while a certain player is in a game, but it doesn't hold up as a great comparison between two individual players.
Yes, Hawes posted a lower defensive rating at 106 than Tristan's 108. But let's add some context to those numbers, because throwing out the defensive rating alone doesn't do anything for me. TT has an offensive rating of 110 to go along with his defensive rating of 108, making the Cavs an estimated 2 points better per 100 possessions on the court than off. With Hawes on the court the Cavs had an offensive rating of 108 with the aforementioned 106 defensive rating, meaning Hawes/TT had roughly the same net difference on the game when on the court.
Now, for some more context. Tristan Thompson played about a quarter of the season with Andrew Bynum. The team was absolutely terrible in that stretch, their offensive rating (96.8)* and defensive rating (110.5)* with Bynum/TT on the court was absolutely terrible. That's going to drag his numbers down, not to mention the fact TT started more games with Alonzo Gee at 24 (where he averaged about 20 minutes a game) than Hawes did (6). Bynum/Gee were just absolutely fucking terrible this year, advanced stats and the eye test both confirm this to be true.
*NBAwowy.com - Bynum/TT played 724 possessions together, with the Cavs scoring 701 points while giving up 800.
For the season TT and Hawes both had exactly 2.3 defensive win shares. How's that better than Tristan? Thanks for leaving out offensive win shares (TT- 3.4 Hawes- 2.2) as well, seems pretty selective when using stats that are almost
never used exclusively without the other. Others might call it cherry picking. But then again it doesn't help your argument that at 21 and 22 Tristan already produced more combined Win Shares than Hawes has ever produced in a season.
Again with the selective numbers. Looking at defensive rebounding alone is pointless, and it's not even like Hawes is wildly more productive at grabbing defensive boards per game (6.1 to 5.9) than TT. Hawes' Defensive Rebounding % is also only slighter higher (23.6 to 21.5) as well.
When looking at Total Rebounding %, a much better indicator of a player's actual rebounding ability, Tristan comes out ahead at 16.3% to Hawes' 14.5%. That's a slight dip from last year's number for TT (17.5%), but 16.3% actually equates to Spencer Hawes' career best in TRB%.
more than 2.5 times the block rate
I can't fight this one. Spencer Hawes has been a much better shot blocker than Tristan has been this year. There's reasons why Tristan rarely blocks shots anymore though, chiefly being rarely playing at minutes at C anymore. Here's a post from a few weeks back that highlights the biggest reasons Tristan isn't blocking shots at a respectable rate anymore (his block rate of 3.3% from his rookie season playing as a 20-year-old is actually the exact same as Hawes' career block percentage):
When Tristan played about half his time as a center for us his rookie year (45%) he actually blocked shots at a decent rate (1.6 per 36), which is very similar to the rate widely considered rim protector Derrick Favors has right now (1.8 blocks per 36). I don't think the ability has suddenly disappeared from him, even though his numbers have regressed considerably.
He's just not asked to be the lone rim protector anymore in MB's system. He's getting the vast majority of his minutes as a PF, and he's actually played a higher percentage of minutes at SF (13%) this season than at C (1%). That has him running around the perimeter much more than most rim protectors, and it's a major reason his block numbers have fallen.
Other than opponent FG% at the rim, which I'd hope a 7'1'' center is better than a 6'8'' PF at, no advanced metric designed to show individual ability shows Hawes as a better defender than Tristan.
When looking at opponent PER Tristan (17.4) blows Hawes (20.8) out of the water.
When using Synergy Tristan's physical, sound defense grades out worlds better than the slow-footed Hawes. Tristan ended up giving up .9 points per possession on plays where his man attempted a shot or had an assist, a turnover, or a foul. Spencer Hawes was at 1.07 for the Cavs. That is absolutely putrid, it ranks 454 for all NBA players. That's one of the worst marks in the league, especially considering it's coming from our starting center. You know, the position where most teams expect at least a modicum of defensive ability.
But really, you don't even need advanced stats to tell you Tristan is the better defender. Just pop in any game from the last few weeks of the season. I like what Hawes brings to the table offensively but dear god is he an abomination on the defensive end. John Henson and Kelly Olynyk still go to sleep smiling every night after they made Hawes their personal whipping boy. I'm actually in shock there are posters defending his abilities on that side of the court. Other than being over 7 feet Hawes brings absolutely nothing to helping a team stop the opposition.
Tristan had 32 blocks this season.
Not that it's much better, but he finished with 35.
