And another late addition - Paul George, who's defensive prowess we're trying to equate with Josh Jackson, has a standing reach of 8'11", higher than Kawhi Leonard and Lebron James at 8'10"...Jackson is at a miniscule 8'3", as mentioned in the other thread.3rdside wrote:Don't mind me but a late addition to the above .... I forgot to mention how much hand size is important in all of this, kawhi has massssive hands. I'd say he gets at least 1 inch of extra wing span over guys his size because of them, in some (most?) cases probably an inch and a half.3rdside wrote:NBA Defensive Team Appearances:Split T wrote:Wingspan is definitely helpful, but it's not going to keep Jackson from being a good defender. Jackson isn't going to the combine, so we might not get any new measurements, but his pre college measurements were 6'8 with shoes and a 6'10 wingspan. Other comparable players:
Jimmy Butler 6'8/6'8
Gordon Hayward 6'8/6'8
Andre Iguodala 6'7/6'11
Paul George 6'9/6'11
Shane Battier 6'9/6'10
Joe Johnson 6'8/6'9
Most of those guys are really good defenders.
- Jimmy Butler - 2nd team x 3
- Gordon Hayward - N/A
- Andre Iguodala - 1st team x 1, 2nd team x 1
- Paul George - 1st team x 1, 2nd team x 2
- Shane Battier - 2nd team x 2
- Joe Johnson - N/A
So agreed on Jackson. Iguodala, on the basis of your measurements, probably qualifies as having excess wing span, leaving George as the only 1st teamer, so they're mainly very good, rather than great, defenders.
Looking at the DPOY list below, Joakim Noah is 6'11" and has a span of 7'1" so either the 'abnormal excess wing span over height' theory doesn't work, or there's extra parts to it:
1. The taller you get, the narrower your shoulders become i.e. there is a correlation between the two. Therefore as a taller player, you're likely to be in the paint where your priority is blocking and deterring shots and it's your standing reach that helps with this. Shoulder width has no impact on standing reach but it does on wing span. As such, it seems you can be an elite defender with only a moderate excess of wing span over height but it's very likely you're going to be a tall, paint player.
Paul George is a bit of an outlier.
2. As the players get shorter, the excess wing span over height becomes greater as you're now adding increased shoulder width on top of long arms. Therefore to be an elite, shorter, defender (Artest, Leonard, Pippen etc), the longer your wing span will be relative to guys your size as steals, defensive deflections and smothering become your priority, and wingspan - sideways reach - helps with this. This supports the theory.
Ben Wallace in the list below is just a sick beast.
2001–02 Ben Wallace 6'7" / 7'2"
2002–03 Ben Wallace
2003–04 Ron Artest 6'7" / 7'2"
2004–05 Ben Wallace
2005–06 Ben Wallace
2006–07 Marcus Camby 6'11 / 7'4"
2007–08 Kevin Garnett 6'11" / 7'4"
2008–09 Dwight Howard 6'11" / 7'4"
2009–10 Dwight Howard
2010–11 Dwight Howard
2011–12 Tyson Chandler 6'11" / 7'2"
2012–13 Marc Gasol 7'1" / 7'4"
2013–14 Joakim Noah 6'11" / 7'1"
2014–15 Kawhi Leonard - 6'7" / 7'3"
2015–16 Kawhi Leonard
And if you haven't googled the greek freak's hands already I'd suggest doing that.
Jackson will surely not be an elite defender at NBA level.
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