A Statistical Comparison of Whiteside to Nurk

[ABM]

https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/8/...tyle-comparison-portland-trail-blazers-roster

Hassan Whiteside will replace Jusuf Nurkic as the Blazers’ starting center for much of the season — how might that impact the team?

The Portland Trail Blazers’ biggest move this summer was their trade for Hassan Whiteside, the Miami Heat’s longtime starting center. Whiteside will presumably start for the Blazers until Jusuf Nurkic is healthy, and will play a crucial role for the Blazers, as their depth at center is rather weak (depending on your view of Zach Collins as a power forward or center). He’s going to get all the minutes he can handle, and will need to perform to help keep the Blazers afloat in a tough Western Conference. After Nurkic had an All-Star level campaign last year, Whiteside will have big shoes to fill. Here’s a look at how Whiteside compares to Jusuf Nurkic in some statistical areas, highlighting some of their differences (and similarities) as players.

Rebounding and Defense

First off, let’s take a look at some traditional big men statistics for Nurkic and Whiteside through their careers thus far.....(continued)

 

[Orion Bailey]

https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/8/...tyle-comparison-portland-trail-blazers-roster

Hassan Whiteside will replace Jusuf Nurkic as the Blazers’ starting center for much of the season — how might that impact the team?

The Portland Trail Blazers’ biggest move this summer was their trade for Hassan Whiteside, the Miami Heat’s longtime starting center. Whiteside will presumably start for the Blazers until Jusuf Nurkic is healthy, and will play a crucial role for the Blazers, as their depth at center is rather weak (depending on your view of Zach Collins as a power forward or center). He’s going to get all the minutes he can handle, and will need to perform to help keep the Blazers afloat in a tough Western Conference. After Nurkic had an All-Star level campaign last year, Whiteside will have big shoes to fill. Here’s a look at how Whiteside compares to Jusuf Nurkic in some statistical areas, highlighting some of their differences (and similarities) as players.

Rebounding and Defense

First off, let’s take a look at some traditional big men statistics for Nurkic and Whiteside through their careers thus far.....(continued)

Great article. I think the one thing missing is the players around these two. They def have an impact on the style of play as well as asst numbers.

 

[BBert]

However, Nurkic’s higher steal rate along with the rebound and block rates does say something about the way each player plays defense. Whiteside is a classic “drop-back” big man, a player who likes to hang near the basket so he can block shots and collect rebounds.

So Whiteside doesn't play defense, he just cherry picks blocks and rebounds, resulting in higher numbers in those areas than Nurk, who does play defense?

 

[VanillaGorilla]

So Whiteside doesn't play defense, he just cherry picks blocks and rebounds, resulting in higher numbers in those areas than Nurk, who does play defense?

I don't think it's fair to say he doesn't play defense. It's just different defense than Nurk. Sure there can be arguments about which is better, but Whiteside absolutely plays defense and rebounds.

 

[wizenheimer]

"However, Whiteside a worse defender overall"

I think the author of the article came to some conclusions about defense based upon bias rather than numbers.

start with the fact that an important component of defense is securing the defensive rebound. Whiteside is significantly better at that than Nurkic. And last season Whiteside had a better DRPM than Nurkic. Now, Whiteside was on a little better defensive team according to defensive rating. But, while Nurkic's defensive rating was 5.5 points better than his team (105 vs 110.5), Whiteside was 8.6 points better than his team (99 vs 107.6)

I'd also wonder about how measurable rim protection was on team impact. Both Whiteside and Nurkic were pretty good but Whiteside sure appeared to be better:

http://conormclaughlin.net/2019/02/nba-rim-protection-in-2018-2019/

all things considered, Nurkic is probably better overall, but defensively, I think Whiteside might have the edge

 

[tlongII]

Before he got hurt Nurk was playing some of the best center defense I’ve ever seen. We won’t replace that early. Just gotta roll with it and we’ll be okay.

 

[mook]

It's interesting to compare Whiteside and Nurkic, but what's actually much more relevant in determining our likelihood of succeeding is how well Whiteside replaces the starting center we had for the end of the regular season/post season.

Kanter was widely regarded as one of the very worst (if not the very worst) defensive centers in the NBA. He's a black hole in the post and he's an outstanding rebounder. We went 6-2 in the regular season with him starting, and 8-6 in the playoffs with him as a starter. (In the last two games against GSW he was benched.) In other words, we were way, way, wayyyyy better than anybody had a right to expect when you take into account his shitty defense.

Look at the stats. Now Whiteside may pad his stats some. And Whiteside is an even worse black hole on offense than Kanter (3.9% vs 6.6% career assist%). But they are both excellent finishers (both have career .58 TS%) and rebounders (Whiteside 24.5% vs 19% TRB). On offense and rebounding, these guys are more alike statistically than they are different.

But defense? You're talking about going from a lifetime DRTG of 108 (Kanter) to 98 (Whiteside). People can argue over how meaningful that number really is in context of overall team defense, but when you look at the list of guys with a career DRTG under 99, it ain't too shabby. Only 17 people have done it. (Weirdly, the list doesn't count Whiteside on it?)

Portland basically replaced Enis Kanter with Enis Kanter + Defense. We went 14-8 with Kanter as our starting center, or .636. That pencils out to 52 wins over a year.

How good can this team be after we swap Kanter for Kanter + Defense?