ESPN talking head Kendrick Perkins went at Kevin Durant on a recent episode of “First Take.” Perk took issue with KD’s back and forth with a fan over the merits of offense and defense in winning a championship. But is still true that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships?
“KD got cooked by a Twitter dude…We all know that defense wins championships.”
In a very clear tweet, KD made it clear what he believes wins championships.
It’s true that you need to be able to get stops to win a championship, but you also need to be able to score on most possessions to win as well.
What Do The Numbers Say About Offense And Defense?
By definition offense and defense are each half of the game. When you possess the ball you are trying to score, when you don’t possess the ball you are defending. Both sides of the floor are equally important.
Looking at the last 10 NBA champions starting with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and ending with the current champion Denver Nuggets, here are their regular season rankings in aORTG: 7th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 5th, 10th, 6th, 17th, 5th. Here are their regular season rankings in aDRTG: 4th, 1st, 10th, 2nd, 11th, 6th, 3rd, 10th, 2nd, 18th.
If we throw out the 2022 champion Golden State Warriors 17th ranked offense (they were much better than their regular season ranking in the playoffs) and the current champion Nuggets 18th ranked defense (they were ranked 4th in the playoffs), you’ll find a commonality.
You generally need to be a top-10 offense and top-10 defense to win a title, if you’re top-5 in both you’re almost assured of getting to the NBA Finals.
Offensive And Defensive Versatility Are The Keys To Winning
Being a complete team wins you championships. But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, so it doesn’t sell as well in movies and when coaches are yelling at players.
What we can say about elite NBA basketball, is if both things are equal, elite offense generally beats elite defense. Look no further than the champion Nuggets.
They played two elite defenses in the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat in the conference finals and NBA Finals respectively. In nine games they failed to score at least 100 points only once. They went 8-1.
It might not be a cool saying but being extremely versatile offensively and defensively wins championships.
