Andre Roberson season review: The defensive master

First Team All-Defense

Last season Roberson received second team all-defensive honors. This season, Dre appeared in less than half his team’s games making it unlikely he repeats or moves up to first-team defense.

Whether an analytic junkie or a simple NBA packrat it’s likely you already knew Andre’s value before the injury. During his exit interview, Dre alluded to the fact his injury probably helped casual fans see his worth to the team. Later, in his answer, he said he blocks out that noise and only worries about what goes on within the team.

Furthermore, numbers never lie, the statistics depict how valuable Roberson was to the Thunder’s defense. Among lineups to play 300 or minutes OKC’s starting lineup which included Dre ranked second in Defensive Rating (DRTG).

*Defensive Rating (DRTG) measures the number of points allowed per 100 possessions by a team. For a player, it is the number of points per 100 possessions that the team allows while that individual player is on the court.

The starting lineups DRTG of 95.9 would easily rank first over the course of the season ahead of the Boston Celtics league-leading 101.5 DRTG.

In 1,142 minutes while Westbrook, PG, Melo, and Adams were on the court without Roberson the DRTG elevated to 110.6. If sustained for the entire season the mark would tie with the Phoenix Suns for worst in the league. The same Suns who just won the lottery draft securing the top pick in the 2018 NBA draft. The rating is striking considering the company it puts them in.