On the other hand, New Orleans was one of the worst defensive teams in the league4 in 2013-14 in large part because they couldn’t protect the rim. Opponents shot 61.3% on shots < 5ft.5, as in some combination of poor interior presence (Davis’ preferred partner, Ryan Anderson is, to put it mildly, not a rim protector) and porous perimeter defense, New Orleans was unable to protect the basket area6.
Enter Asik. Even sulking through much of the season following the well-chronicled failure of the Asik-Dwight Howard twin towers experiment, Asik was one of the very best paint defenders in the league in 2013-14, “saving” the 8th most points per minute of the 80 big men playing 20+ MPG. Asik was only slightly more effective at forcing misses when he contested shots (47.7% shooting allowed as compared to the 48.9% allowed by Davis), but he was much more studious at being in position to challenge shots, with a contest%7 of 51.3%8 against Davis’ 29.9%9.
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