The Oklahoma City Thunder have one of the stoutest defenses in the league right now. Entering Sunday's matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Thunder are third in the NBA, surrendering just 96.3 points per game.
The Trail Blazers sure have taken note of that and likely had planned their game around figuring out how to break down the Thunder’s defense. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts, however, didn’t sound like he circled Thunder forward Carmelo Anthony’s name when warning his players of Oklahoma City’s tenacious defense, per Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman.
Stotts on the Thunder’s success getting steals: “With all due respect to Carmelo, four of their five starters are very good defenders.”
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) November 6, 2017
That may be a little unfair to Anthony. For one, the 33-year-old forward has a better plus-minus rating when he’s on the court than any of the other traditional Thunder starters. While that doesn’t fully demonstrate Anthony’s value on defense, it partly shows that the forward brings more than just offense to the team.
But if Terry Stotts would like to be a bit specific, he could point out to the fact that opponents are shooting 4.5 percent better with Carmelo Anthony on the court.
Anthony has never been known as a defensive stopper cut in the same cloth as a Kawhi Leonard, but he’s arguably not as bad as what Stotts would like to believe.
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