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Basketball Prospectus Rates Kobe as League's Second-Best Defender

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Grading individual defensive performance - not just blocks and steals but the whole of a player's game at that end of the floor - is one of the most difficult things that hoops analysts attempt to tackle. It hasn't been solved and remains more art than science. But Bradford Doolittle, one of the geniuses over at Basketball Prospectus, has developed a thoughtful and sophisticated model to do just that, and today (in an article you can reach through the link above) he listed who he calculates to be the NBA's 17 best individual defenders this season. Three Lakers make the list. Lamar Odom checks in at #15, Ron Artest at #11 and Kobe Bryant all the way up at #2, just behind Dwight Howard. Bradford's piece is a good read if you're into statistical modeling. Or just, you know, basketball.