Man, Beat LA just gave me an argument I can use when everyone goes to attack Whiteside in the DKC. Thanks.
And I agree. It's hard to call Whiteside "overrated" defensively when he's clearly not. His Defensive Real +/- maybe dropping, but he's still among the 11 best for his position. He still ahead of Roy Hibbert, Marcin Gortat, Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, Robin Lopez and Andre Drummond. Heck, he's way ahead than Bismack Biyombo, not the Biyombo belongs, it's just that I saw before that people would rather have him over Whiteside.
How can his defense be overrated when he's blocking shots a high rate and he's owning the boards?
Also, I don't get. Basketball-Reference says that Whiteside's Defensive Rating per 100 is 96. Isn't that, I don't know, very good?
BTW, Whiteside FG% (48.3) allowed in the rim, is BETTER than Anthony Davis', ( 48.8 ), DeAndre Jordan's ( 48.8 ), Marc Gasol (48.9), Marcin Gortat (49.3), Tyson Chandler (51.3), Al Horford (50.1), to name a few.
And while we're at it, reboudning wise, Hassan's contested rebounds per game is better than Jordan, Cousins, Gobert, Noah among others. So yeah, he's taking away rebounds, from other Centers.
Again, per basketball-reference, this is during this season, unless I'm misreading something (i'm fairly new to metrics) Whiteside is posting a 96 DTRG, 15 rebounds per 36, 26.2 Total Rebound percentage (ahead of everyone else), 4 blocks per 36, 9.4 Block Percentage (ahead of everyone else). I can't call that "overrated on defense". That's the kind of Center you pay $11-15 million per year if you find one.