Los Angeles Lakers: Has LeBron James improved defensively?

Statistics suggest that Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has improved defensively but is that truly the case? We’ll take a look at the facts.

There is a running assertion that Los Angeles Lakers‘ star LeBron James has become one of the best defenders in the league. ESPN’s Rachel Nichols stated that James was one of the best defenders in the league during The Jump’s NBA trade deadline special because he was the leader in defensive real plus-minus.

Some of that shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the improvement we saw in his defensive metrics from last year. He currently leads all active players in defensive real plus-minus, with a DRPM of 4.94, whereas last year, he finished 51st with a DRPM of only 1.83.

Why LeBron has seen an improved in defensive real plus-minus

His improvement is misleading; however, as there are multiple ways you can manipulate this stat. According to ESPN, defensive real plus-minus estimates a player’s impact on a team’s defensive performance by using points allowed per 100 defensive possessions.

The use of “team” is the key here. The difference between now and last year is merely the players that they put around him and the amount of effort they are exerting. Last year, the Lakers starting lineup was moving at a rate of 3.855 mph.

This year they are moving at a rate of 3.905 mph. James has seen the opposite trend, exerting less energy due to the (better) defenders around him. His defensive speed is down 0.2 of a mile from last year, where he saw an average speed of 3.35 mph.

Los Angeles Lakers vs Memphis Grizzlies

James shared the court with Brandon Ingram last year, who struggled to get around screens. A prime example of this can be found during a road game against the Memphis Grizzlies; when  James was standing between the right-wing and paint watching Ingram attempt to defend Mike Conley on the other side of the court.

Conley held the ball on the left-wing for a couple of seconds until Jonas Valančiūnas came up to set a screen. As Valančiūnas set the screen, he hit Ingram with his left shoulder, which forced McGee to rotate over and defend Conley.

Once this happened, Ingram was supposed to guard Valančiūnas for the rest of the possession. Unfortunately, Ingram stayed with Conley allowing Valančiūnas to roll to the basket for an uncontested dunk.

Los Angeles Lakers vs Denver Nuggets

It has been a completely different story this season as the team has surrounded him with better defensive players. With better defenders on the team, LeBron James can choose to defend the worst offensive player on the other team without having to worry about the opposing team scoring.

We saw this in the team’s last game against the Denver Nuggets where James was able to stand between the right corner and the paint without moving to guard Torrey Craig, who is not a 3-point shooting threat.

As James stood between the right corner and the paint, Danny Green was busy trying to stop Gary Harris from getting an open look. Harris ran from the left corner to the free-throw line to receive a dribble handoff from Nikola Jokic.

During this process, Green had to fight through a Jeremy Grant screen to be in a position to guard Harris for the rest of the possession. Once, Harris completed the dribble handoff, and he drove to the right to get separation from Green. Consequently, Green kept his feet to the left to keep Harris in front of him.

The process continued until Harris reached the baseline and attempted a layup. Harris’s layup would end up being blocked by JaVale McGee, who left Jokic open at the free-throw line to help Green.

How LeBron can improve his defensive effort

Therefore, it is misleading to call James one of the best defenders based on a single statistic. If James were genuinely interested in improving his defensive effort, he would invest more time in help defense. For example, James could easily have one or two steps to the right to help Green with Harris as the play unfolded in front of him.

Those one or two steps could have forced Harris to pass the ball to Craig, who is a 31.8 percent three-point shooter. More importantly, if James rotated over, the team can maintain defensive integrity as McGee would have stayed closer to Denver’s best offensive player, Nikola Jokic.

Although DRPM suggests LeBron James has improved defensively, the film says he hasn’t changed his defensive habits.