Could Victor Oladipo make an all-defense team?

Victor Oladipo recently took over the league lead in steals. Defense is more than just steals, but could Vic make an NBA Al-Defense team?

Defense is insanely hard to quantify in the NBA. It is challenging to account for opponents shot quality, height difference, and much much more when evaluating how effectively a player plays on the defensive end.

We have some defensive metrics: steals, blocks, defensive rebounds, and deflections, for example, that can show a player having an impact on the less glamorous end of the floor, but it doesn’t always mean that player is a good defender. With Victor Oladipo recently taking over the league lead in steals per game, I figured it was time to break down how good of a defender Oladipo has really been this season.

Make no mistake, steals are incredibly important plays and should not be demeaned. Oladipo’s steals show a combination of anticipation skills and quick hands, a deadly merge for a player of his build.

He feasts on slow dribblers. His impeccable timing with his reach-ins grant him so many steals; he frequently pokes his and in when the bouncing ball is at a nadir:

What that type of steal represents is a two-fold important play. On one hand, it gets a stop which is the ultimate goal of defense; and it doesn’t even relinquish a shot. The added bonus is that it leads to a transition opportunity, which was cut from the clip because Oladipo committed a charge, but you get the idea.

The other type of steals Oladipo frequently grabs is anticipation steals as he jumps in a passing lane when opponents make a lazy or predictable pass. These situations show off the defensive acumen he has acquired starting from his time at Indiana University. His hours in the film room analyzing and memorizing opponents sets make him aware of every situation, and when the timing is right, he strikes:

Like his reaches, these swipes lead to fast breaks regularly. This pattern shows up on the stat sheet. The Pacers rank third in the league in fast-break points per game at 15.0 thanks to Oladipo. Of those 15 points, 12.6 come with the steal-master on the court, showing that his defense usually leads to good offense.

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But defense is more than just steals. It’s actually a lot more than just steals. Can you stop your opponent from scoring? Can you deter a pick and roll? How often do you play quality help defense? These questions all matter just as much as a steal and Oladipo’s stats look different in some of these areas.

Arguably the most important aspect of defense is on-ball defense. Simply put: can you stop your matchup from scoring when he has the ball. One of the most simple ways to investigate a players on-ball defense to look at how well they defend isolations.

For Oladipo, the answer is very well. The guard concedes just .63 points per possession on isolations, which puts him in the 90.3 percentile league-wide. Essentially, Vic is better than nine out of ten players defending the ball by himself.

Watch the job he does here on Jonathan Simmons. He slides he feet, keeps his hands engaged, and doesn’t falter when Simmons changes speeds. Once the Magic wing got to the rim Oladipo was right on him to deter his shot:

The quick hands he showcases with his steals manifest themselves in his iso D, as he keeps his extremities engaged and involved with his opponent. Combine that with his quick feet, and he is a tough man to beat in isolation.

Two other play types that Victor Oladipo defends frequently as a guard are pick-and-rolls and handoffs. Combined, Vic defends these types of plays almost four and a half times per game.

He is excellent at shutting down both. They are similar actions, with a screener being used as a fulcrum for a ball-handler to navigate around and create space. On handoffs, Oladipo defends better than 73.1 percent of players; allowing just .77 points per possession. On pick and rolls, Dipo concedes just .73 points per possession, which puts him in the 79th percentile.

He never gives up on the play. When Avery Bradley went around a screen AND received a handoff on the same possession here, Dipo fights through both and is right with Bradley when he receives the ball. The shot has to go up faster than Bradley would like, and there’s a hand in his face. Clunk:

Put all of this evidence together, and it is clear that Victor Oladipo is great at defending most actions that opponents put him through. His defensive field goal percentage, just 44 percent, is .8 percent lower than the field goal percentage that his average matchup boasts, showing that he forces his opponents to miss more often than an average defender would.

Off-ball defense is a different story. Dipo often gets caught being too aggressive and helping too much — both to get a steal or swat a layup. This makes him ineffective when guarding spot-up shooters, he is often too far away to get out and properly contest the jumper. On these play types, Oladipo surrenders 1.05 points per possession, which plants him in the 40.6 percentile.

He lays just slightly too far off of JR Smith here when defending just one pass away, a common theme when Oladipo gets beat by spot-up shooters:

Off-ball defense can be just as important as on-ball defense, and Oladipo doesn’t get a pass for being great at one and not so good at the other. But he certainly tries hard all the time, that shows up just about everywhere, and it certainly does in transition.

There are few stats that reflect transition defense, and NBA.com’s transition defense page literally tells us nothing. But you can watch Dipo and see how effective he is stopping the break; he never gives up on any play even when he is at a disadvantage in numbers:

One Pacer. Three Spurs. Advantage, Victor Oladipo.

Putting all of this evidence together and we can see that Oladipo is clearly a positive influence on the defensive end. Despite occasionally falling asleep off the ball, he can shut down his matchup and take the ball away whenever he wants, as shown by his current franchise-record streak of consecutive games with a steal. The question is: Is his whole body of work on defense good enough to merit a spot on one of the NBA’s all-defense teams?