Measuring players

There are a lot of qualities that a good defensive player has. Some of them are statistically measurable, some are not. Blocks and steals tell part of the story. Opponents’ shooting percentages less so, since a given player is only a fraction of that effort. Otherwise, however, there are such things as being in the right place to cut off penetration, staying on your opponent so he cannot get off a shot, taking charges, and many other non-statistical factors that go to make up a good defensive player. Only a portion of defense is individually measurably, much less so than on the offensive end. Even there, however, you have such things as screens set, extra effort to get open, etc. Lots of things don’t show up on stats, and the average fan like me doesn’t appreciate everything that goes to make up a good basketball player. That is why players like John Fowler tend to be underappreciated, and players like Nick Zachary overappreciated. (I didn't say either was those things, just a generalization about players like them.)