Kendrick Perkins takes to social media to praise LeBron James on his on-ball defense this season as a stat shows that he’s amongst the best.
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The Los Angeles Lakers committed themselves to being a top tier defense year in and year out back in 2019. This was when they traded for two-way superstar Anthony Davis and hired Frank Vogel to be their new head coach.
Anthony Davis is yearly shoe-in for being a DPOY candidate while Frank Vogel is known for his defensive schemes revolving around lengthy defenders and limited switches.
Seems as though this defensive effort put forth by his teammates has rubbed off on LeBron James. He has been engaged on defense since the start of this 2020-21 NBA season and a rather surprising stat has surfaced that proves this point to a further extent.
LeBron James is statistically the best on-ball defender this season
Kendrick Perkins has already established the fact that he believes LeBron James is the ‘GOAT’. In an effort to praise ‘the King’, Perkins pulls up a crazy defensive stat for this season.
The statistic claims that LeBron James is technically allowing the least percentage of shots from going into the basket. Opponents are shooting a measly 34% when defended by LeBron James. This leads the league at this moment, with Andre Drummond trailing as a far second.
LeBron James has always been lauded as being a solid defender. In his Miami days, LeBron was even considered to perhaps be the best defensive player the league had to offer.
James recently made it public that he wants the Lakers to prioritize defense this season. He said, “Our goal is to be the number 1 defense in the league.”
With Anthony Davis anchoring the Lakers’ defense and James contesting shots at a high rate, the Lakers have a possibility to make good on LeBron’s wish.
