Is Tony Parker a better defender than we think?

[Kager]

Saw this on Spurs Nation, I always thought he never took a possession off on D.

Is Tony Parker a better Basketballer than we think?
by Dan McCarney

Compile a list of Tony Parker’s best attributes, and it’s likely defense wouldn’t even make the top 10.

Indeed, Danny Green and Tim Duncan both cited offensive qualities when recently asked what the Spurs are missing most during his seven-game absence. Manu Ginobili took it a step further, outright dismissing the notion that they might be suffering more on defense without their All-Star point guard.

“It shouldn’t be a problem at the defensive end,” he said after Saturday’s 119-113 victory over Cleveland. “If you are not scoring, then I would say, ‘OK, we are missing Tony.’ But at the defensive end it’s just a matter of doing it right and Cory (Joseph) is a defensive minded point guard. So I don’t think it’s about Tony.”

Maybe so.

Defense, more than any other facet of basketball, is a team effort, one an experienced, well-drilled team like the Spurs should be able to execute well without just about any single player not named Tim Duncan. Nor has Parker — saddled with the double-negative of not only being a point guard, but a European one at that — ever been confused with the likes of Bruce Bowen or Gary Payton.
But it’s defense, rather than offense, where the Spurs have suffered the biggest drop in performance.

See the rest at: Spurs Nation its hard to argue with his numbers.

[Jose_TheGenius]

Tony is an underrated defender with his foot speed (especially this year). thing is that Tony plays 30mpg while Neal/De Colo/Joseph/Mills won't see anything close to that and they're not as good of defenders as Tony either. Joseph is the best of that bunch, but he's not seeing TP minutes so the drop off in PG defense is showing.

remember Pop is also playing Joseph straight up against the Westbrook's and Rubio's out there, that's something he likely won't play with Tony since he'd probably put Green on them.

[old timer]

Not mentioned in the article were the turnovers. Seems to me they are way up. No fault of Joseph, though. Turn overs lead to cheap points. Not only cheap points, but they become empty possessions.

Turnover points and fast break points really skew shot percentages and defensive stats.

[thesuspence281]

I dont know that it is as much as TP is a top-notch defender as it is that he makes his counterpart on the other team have to play much harder/faster defense while running through all of the pick and rolls and off the ball screens which may possibly be leading to less effective offense for the opposing point guard.

[Kager]

Thats kind of splitting hairs isn't it? That may be part of what he does but I can't see any reason to say he is not good on the "Defensive end" alone.

[Jose_TheGenius]

Originally Posted by thesuspence281

I dont know that it is as much as TP is a top-notch defender as it is that he makes his counterpart on the other team have to play much harder/faster defense while running through all of the pick and rolls and off the ball screens which may possibly be leading to less effective offense for the opposing point guard.

agreed, it's sort of like the "Bowen Factor"

Bruce was always a good defender during his run here, but on offense the best player on the other team would usually "hide out" on defense by guarding him on a switch (Kobe, Nash, etc.)

Parker's defense is underrated, but his offense is also a very good defense like you've said

[katyspursfan]

So I guess we can just call Parker the team's best overall player?

Or is the team defense suffering because of the effort expended at the offensive end? It's actually weird to type that.