The broad theme this week is “impact.” First, the different ways offense and defense influence the game and why that leads to offense getting compensated at a far higher rate. Second, some praise for Draymond Green, who is finding ways to be a positive influence on the floor despite the complete collapse of his offensive production as measured by standard statistics. Third, a worry about the impact, or lack thereof, Kristaps Porzingis is having defensively.
Stiffing stifling defense
Earlier this month, David Aldridge revisited a long-running topic of NBA discussion: The degree to which offense is better compensated than defense. DA and his interlocutors get at a number of reasons why this has been the case, but I wanted to add a bit more based on both my observations of how teams operate and some statistical context. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are four of the most important reasons for the continued imbalance in compensation.
Offense…
