In basketball, the defense doesn’t get the recognition it deserves at times. As fans, we love the highlight plays such as dunks, no-look passes, and 3 pointers. While sometimes the highlight is a vicious block that goes into the stands, defense can be overlooked by your average basketball fan, basketball is played both ways we tend to forget that defense also wins championships. What also goes unnoticed are 2-way players…
What is a 2 way player in basketball? A two way player in basketball is simply a player who can play and be effective both on offense and defense. This type of player is able to play both ends of the floor while leading on offense and able to play lockdown defense at the same time. When a player is known for their offensive play along with their defense, they are known as being able to play at an elite level on both sides of the court.
Being a two-player is not easy, to put as much effort on offense as one does on defense is difficult for most players. Usually, a two-way player, defense comes naturally to them and they are able to utilize their athletic ability on both sides of the floor.
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Two-Way players – Two types of meanings
There are two types of two-way players, the first is a player who plays at an elite level on both ends of the court, offense, and defense. They are a threat in scoring and they guard the best player on the opposing team. This type of player is generally feared and are a dime a dozen in the NBA in general. Being able to play both ends of the court is a threat to any team. A classic example is Kawhi Leonard who is one of the best two-way players in the game, especially after winning a championship with the Toronto Raptors.
He is the number one scorer on his team which ranked number 2 in the standing in the Eastern Conference. He is also the best player on his team and top 10 in scoring with 26.6 pts a game in the 2018/19 season. As a defender he is also a major threat while his plus/minus is in the top 10 in the league. A case could be made if he played every game he could have won defensive player of the year during the 2018/19 season but he only played around 60 games due to load management, and the league does not like this.
Playing in the NBA and G-League – Two Way Player
The other type of two-way player in the NBA has to do with a player being drafted and being paid a salary that allows him to play in both the NBA and the G-League which is the developmental league for the NBA. So instead of this player being paid less than $40,00 dollars to play in the G-League, he may be drafted and might be signed a contract to play in both the NBA and the Developmental League, signing for much more than 40 grand. More like $200,000.
This first started at the beginning of the 2017 season when the NBA expanded the roster on teams in the NBA from 15 players to 17 in which two of those players are two-way players who are contracted. I am surprised they didn’t change the term used considering the two-player term is known in all sports when a player can play both sides of the field or court.
What are 2-way players in basketball?
You may be confused and think to yourself well, isn’t every player a two-player in basketball technically? Every player plays both defense and offense. When we talk about two-players we are talking about highly effective on both sides of the court that it makes a huge difference to their team.
We can measure how effective a player is on the court and how well they play on both using a statistic called the plus+, minus- stat. It measures the point differential of a player that is in and out of the game by calculating the difference of the score when a player enters the game minus the score when he exits the game.
It is safe to say when you fall in the top 20 in scoring and plus-minus you are known as a two-way player. This is really hard to do, you could imagine a lot of players with saving a lot of energy for offense opposed to defense. The long grind of an NBA season will have players saving their energy on offense.
Playing defense is no easy task, certain fundamentals of defense can be taught but it is mostly hard work, effort, and basketball I.Q applied together.
Although there are issues with this stat which can make players look like 2-way players but are not. Some player’s plus/minus may not tell the whole story and can be hidden with good players around them. Such as Stephen Curry. The best shooter the NBA has ever seen and we all know he is not very good defensively, he could never guard elite guards in the NBA such as Chris Paul.
Having players around him such as Draymond Green and Klay Thompson help his plus/minus, but again plus/minus does not tell the whole story.
The Best Two- Players in NBA History
There have been 5 players in NBA history who have won both defensive player of the year and the Most Valuable Player of the regular season award all in the same year. Giannis Antetokounmpo, David Robinson, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett. Only 2 players from those five have gone on two win a championship in the same year they won defensive player of the year and MVP. Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. I bet you could guess that they won the MVP of the playoffs also.
What really bothers me about the debate of who the best player is of all time, is most people don’t even realize how good defensively Hakeem and Jordan were. Hakeem doesn’t even get brought up in who the best center is of all time we are talkng about a player who has the most blocks in the history of the NBA and It’s no one has ever been close to catching up to him.
Jordan’s defense was unbelievable and underrated, he recorded in a single season 200 steals and 100 blocks in a single season and he did it back to back years. Hakeem the Dream did it once and Scottie Pippen, the only players to do so. The fact that Jordan accomplished this feat is a testament of how good defensively he was.
So why wouldn’t a player who can play 2 ways be known as the Goat. He was one of the best offensively and defensively.