Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
You're missing the point where I literally concede that it's a small sample size. I just put 100%, which is entirely factually accurate. If someone else wants to read a ''narrative'' around that, then they can, but that's not my intention. If I wanted to say that Butler put like, 150/150 on Ingram, then I'd literally just say it. I've also pointed out that it's impossible to use BIG sample sizes for Ingram because he just DIDN'T GUARD ANYONE that much.
It's also stupidly disingenuous to compare Ingram's defense there to guys like Klay and Kawhi.
Who were the top 10 most guarded players for Ingram this year? Justin Holiday, Garrett Temple, Tyreke Evans, Avery Bradley, Andrew Wiggins, Chandler Hutchison, Evan Fournier, CJ McCollum, Royce O'Neale, Paul George. That is precisely 2 top tier scorers, in PG13 and McCollum, and I already noted multiple times that he defended those two names well.
Who were the top 10 most guarded players for Kawhi? Trevor Ariza, Justin Holiday, Kyle Anderson, Kevin Durant, PJ Tucker, Iman Shumpert, Khris Middleton, Jimmy Butler, Aaron Gordon, Paul George. There's 4 All-NBA calibre players on that list, and Aaron Gordon is still very, very good.
And Kawhi was guarding them far more frequently than Ingram was. Ingram guarded PG13, for example, for a total of 8 field goals all season: Kawhi guarded PG13 for 18, literally more than twice as many. Remember how Ingram didn't guard ANYONE for more than 11 FGA in a game? Kawhi guarded 5 different guys more than that, and one of them was Kevin Durant.
I'm giving Ingram a lot of credit here. He's shown a lot of potential as a defender, especially on ball. He did a fantastic job on PG13 and McCollum, amongst other names. But can we please not put him in a list with 2x DPOY Kawhi Leonard, 1x DPOY Draymond Green, and DPOY finalist PG13 and pretend like he was on their level? That's just setting him up to look stupid.