Memphis Grizzlies: 5 goals for Marc Gasol in 2017-18
By Greg Cassoli
4. Play great defense
Gasol has been the anchor of a very good defensive team for a long time, but some of the data indicates that may be beginning to shift. Defensive metrics are notoriously difficult to calculate, but the truth of the matter is that the Grizzlies actually allowed 1.6 more points per 100 possessions with Gasol on the court.
That’s not a huge difference, but the fact that he was a net negative is a bit surprising. We can turn to context-independent markers to try to tell a different story, but the evidence there suggests that Gasol may be slipping as well. His Defensive Real Plus-Minus, a metric calculated by ESPN that attempts to isolate individual impact, ranked Big Spain 40th in the league, as compared to fellow centers.
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For a bit of context, Gasol ranked 24th and 21st in the past two seasons respectively, and first during the 2013-14 season. Memphis has maintained a very good defense despite his fluctuation, and the real takeaway here may be that it is difficult to evaluate defense, as much as it is that Gasol’s ability is fading.
His physical tools may have eroded a bit, but he still has his brain, and that’s a critically important component of Memphis’ defense. It’s entirely possible that Gasol doesn’t have the quickness to block as many shots or deflect as many passes, and that DRPM is accounting for that, without fully factoring in the influence that his intelligence has on helping his teammates realize where they need to be, both when he plays and when he sits.
Setting a specific goal here is challenging for all the shortcomings of defensive data outlined above, but we’ll go with the following: defend at the equivalent of a top-10 rate, as a unit, when Gasol is on the floor.