MAVS NEWS:

[Dundalis]

It's ok that you're not sure. People can disagree, and I am sure. Both players are effective shot deterrents in the paint (Lively's better at that, too, but that's not the different part), but good ball movement really exploits Gafford quite easily, and it's drastically more easy for the opponent to generate open 3's when he's in the game (which is what they're all trying to do in the first place).

Do we disagree though? My comment isn't that Gafford is as good as Lively defensively, it's that there isn't a 15 point differential in defensive rating (and subsequent gap in their overall defensive ability). A 15 point differential isn't indicating Lively is better, it's indicating the type of gap between a great defender, and a really bad one. I'm saying I don't think Gafford is a really bad defender like the stat indicates, that he's very much a positive one.

Not sure if its really an apples to oranges comparison of Lively to Gafford net and defensive rating last year.  Most of Lively minutes were prior to the trade when the Mavs were struggling with a lot of injuries, and a lot of Gafford's minutes were when Lively was out and the team was otherwise healthy.  There were few games in that sample when both were playing.

In the playoffs (where Gafford's limitations are more exploited) Lively had a significantly better net rating and defensive rating as he does this season.  Given that Lively was rookie last year with a very steep learning curve, I think the playoff and current season data is probably more indicative of what those two are.

The only relevance to my comparison was that Gafford is clearly a good overall defender though, despite his weaknesses. Nothing to do with trying to prove in any way that he's better or even as good as Lively. And yeah, even good defenders can get exploited by elite teams in the playoffs, we've seen plenty of proven good defenders get torched in that environment.