Elfrid Payton took some responsibility for the team’s poor defense Saturday. His numbers show a player who has struggled to fit in well on that end.
The Orlando Magic upped their defensive intensity too late Saturday. The one time they did and actually got a stop, the officials wrongly took it away. But it did happen and the Magic should have had a chance to tie the game.
Elfrid Payton was switched onto Dwyane Wade after Evan Fournier‘s strong defense went for naught. He pressured Wade down the floor and Wade needed a Hassan Whiteside screen to free himself up.
Payton’s pressure was the kind of change the Magic needed in that game. It was not that Fournier was not providing pressure or making things difficult for Wade. Wade was making shots and a change was needed.
Scott Skiles was not changing his lineup this deep into the game and so Payton became the logical choice. It was also strategic.
While Payton was successful in (essentially) getting a stop, it was a rare occurrence both for him and his team.
The Magic had their worst defensive rating of the season in Saturday’s loss — 124.0 points allowed per 100 possessions according to NBA.com and 129.2 points allowed per 100 possessions according to Basketball-Reference. At least part of it could be traced directly to the play from the point guard, Elfrid Payton.
Skiles specifically singled out the defense from the point guard position for the key defensive breakdowns. He elaborated Sunday after practice that constant breakdowns on the ball were leaving the team scrambling. Too often during the game, players had a free run down the middle of the lane.
It was stark though to hear Skiles single out a position group. He said the little mistakes setting off the defense in the Heat game came “particularly from the point guard position. It’s really hurting us.”
Payton agreed head to do a better job.
“I got to do a better job. We all got to do a better job from top to bottom.” –Elfrid Payton
“I got to do a better job,” Payton said. “We all got to do a better job from top to bottom.”
No doubt, the Magic have to do better after the Heat game. Payton specifically got burned throughout the game.
Goran Dragic broke out and had one of his best games of the season with 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting. It included a killer 3-pointer that gave the Heat a five-point lead late in the game after Payton got sucked in on a Dwyane Wade drive only to see him dish it back out to Dragic.
The Magic had a defensive rating of 131.5 with Elfrid Payton on the floor. It was not one of Payton’s strongest games.
Payton despite a reputation as a decent defender has not been particularly good so far this year. The Magic have a 101.3 defensive rating with Payton on the floor this year. That number is more in line with their current average than their season average.
Individually, Payton is not playing well on his man. According to NBA.com, opponents shoot nearly seven percentage points better than the average on shots less than six feet against Payton (66.7 percent) and nearly six percentage points better than the average on shots less than 10 feet (59.6 percent). Nearly 30 percent of all shots Payton defends come within 10 feet.
Things are not all bad for Payton on the defensive end.
The pick and roll is one of the most important plays for point guards to defend and Payton has done decent there.Payton faces the pick and roll on 43.1 percent of his possessions. Opponents post 0.72 points per possession against Payton as the ball-handler in pick and rolls. That puts him in the 68th percentile in the league.
Payton’s reputation as a good defender is a fair one. On the ball he is typically very good. Teams do not look to attack Payton in isolation. Opponents attack Payton in the isolation just 7.6 percent of the time and they get 0.44 points per possession. Opponents are shooting 2 for 16 in such situations.
This is both a small sample size and success in that small sample size (for example, Victor Oladipo gives up 1.09 points per possession in isolations but has only faced it on 7.8 percent of possessions, but many would qualify Oladipo as a good isolation defender). But Payton does well.
There are also limitations with the data too. SportVu, the program NBA.com uses for these statistics, may measure who is defending who differently than we might by watching the film itself. Payton could be getting beat initially and may no longer register as the defender, thus skewing the numbers and the shots he has defended.
They have to be taken with some grains of salt.
There is one number though from Payton that has become emblematic of the team’s entire problems. Many players share the same problem.
Payton currently allows 1.00 points per possession while defending spot-up jumpers, giving up a 53.9 percent effective field goal percentage. Evan Fournier and Victor Oladipo are worse defending spot-up jumpers.
Orlando is still struggling some with close outs and getting out to shooters. These numbers also suggest the defense crashes in to stop dribble penetration and then is late to the perimeter.
It is hard through any of these numbers to pinpoint one cause. They all seem to suggest Payton has had his struggles defensively and the team has struggled while he is on the floor.
Next: Assessing Scott Skiles' Coach of the Year candidacy
This, of course, does not make him a bad defender. But, as he said following Saturday’s game, the defense starts with him. And he certainly has to show some improvement.