FiveThirtyEight has created a new defensive metric called DRAYMOND in an effort to find “a better way to evaluate NBA defense”. One of the bigger flaws in many other all-encompassing metrics is that it’s hard to find one that properly rates defense. FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver describes the issue perfectly:
Boston’s Kyrie Irving was regarded as a slightly above-average defender by RPM last year, for instance. But his opponents’ shooting data suggests he’s a big liability instead. On the other hand, Toronto’s Serge Ibaka was an excellent defender based on opponents’ shooting, whereas RPM regards him as just average.