The old adage goes that “defense wins championships.” You
don’t hear it just on the professional level, but anybody who has played an
offense vs. defense team sport at any level has heard it. Frequently, however, it’s
potent offenses that succeed in the NBA. Whether it’s LeBron James and the Big
Three in Miami, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City, or even Dirk
Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks, high-powered offenses get media coverage
and sell tickets.
So what is really more
important to have a successful franchise: offense or defense? Clearly, a
combination of both is essential but in this analysis, I’m looking to delve
into the idea of seeing which side of the ball is more effective to focus on.
To do that, I’m going to focus on two main barometers of success in the NBA: playoff teams and
championship teams.
First, here’s a look at the team offense and team defense
ratings of every NBA champions from 1991 to 2013.
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Team offense and defense ratings of NBA champions relative to the rest of the league. 1991-2013 |
All 16 playoff teams are more difficult to represent
graphically in a longitudinal manner, but here’s one way that helps show the
trend. In this graph, I’ve taken the difference between the amount of top-16
offenses and top-16 defenses that actually made the playoffs. For example, in
2013, 10 of the top-16 offenses in the league made the playoffs and 13 of the
top defenses made the playoffs (represented in this graph by a net value of +3
for three more top-16 defenses than offenses).
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Difference between top-16 ranked defenses and top-16 ranked offenses making the 16 NBA playoff spots. 1991-2013 |
In this light, defense is clearly more important to making
the playoffs. In 15 of the 23 seasons represented here, there was at least one
more top defense in the playoffs than offense. Only three times (1991, 1992,
and 1998) were there more offenses than defenses.
To combine what these two graphs say: defense may get you to
the playoffs, but once you’re there, there’s little that can be said about
whether a great offense or defense can predict a team to win it all.
This year could provide a very good case study with Miami Heat
ranking currently as the most efficient offense (via ESPN’s John Hollinger) and
the Indiana Pacers the best defense. A LeBron vs. PG24 matchup in the 2014 NBA playoffs is definitely in the
forecast.
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