The stats might never wow with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and the hope – and perhaps expectation – is that it will never matter.
When the Charlotte Hornets made him the second overall pick of the 2012 draft, they knew Kidd-Gilchrist’s pro career wouldn’t align with so many other wing prospects held in such high esteem. He made hay during his lone season at Kentucky – which ended in a national championship, of course – as a cutter, penetrator, transition terror, opportunistic shooter, and locker room leader. Kidd-Gilchrist wasn’t Kevin Durant let alone Andrew Wiggins in college, averaging just 11.9 points per game as the Wildcats’ fourth-leading scorer.
His value was elsewhere, and also immense. While Anthony Davis wound up winning most National Player of the Year awards due to his all-court defensive prowess and highly-efficient performance on the other end, there’s an argument to be made that Kidd-Gilchrist – not the player who averaged a staggering 4.7 blocks a night and consistently walled-off the paint – was John Calipari’s best defender.
Only three years later, the 21 year-old has begun living up to such promise. But emerging as one of basketball’s most effective defensive players isn’t enough for Kidd-Gilchrist – he wants to be the best defender ever.
Via Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer:
Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford made a bold statement recently, saying small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has the talent to be the best perimeter defender among this generation of NBA players.
Not bold enough apparently. On Thursday Kidd-Gilchrist trumped Clifford’s expectation.
“I want to say ever; not just in the league (now). The best defender this league has seen,” Kidd-Gilchrist told the Observer.
“It’s baby steps. But when it’s all said and done, I want people to say, ‘That guy right there was the dog!’ That’s all I want.”
And here’s the thing about MKG: His goal doesn’t seem entirely unreachable.
Start with the physical attributes. At 6-7, 232 pounds with a seven-foot wingspan, Kidd-Gilchrist possesses prototype length and girth. But what makes him special from a god-given standpoint is his blend of size, balance, and quickness. MKG is rarely knocked off his base or flat-out beat off the dribble and slithers through screens with ease of a player far smaller.
The scary part? He’ll only get better in every area as he continues growing into his body and spends more time strength training at the professional level. Kidd-Gilchrist is an elite all-around athlete now, basically, and is still a NBA baby – this is still something close to his physical infancy.
Not that you’d know it while watching him play or digging into numbers, of course. Everything that screams ‘defensive monster’ about Kidd-Gilchrist’s natural abilities is mirrored by further scrutiny.
Though Clifford’s team hasn’t quite maintained its status as one of the league’s best defenses this season, the Hornets have steadily climbed the ranks. Their 100.3 defensive rating is ninth in the NBA, but that doesn’t tell an accurate account of just how stingy Charlotte has been on that end since a dreadful start to 2014-2015 – which coincided with Kidd-Gilchrist suffering a stress reaction in his foot and missing 12 games.
The Hornets allowed a porous 109.7 points per 100 possessions while MKG was sidelined from November 14 to December 5, a number that would rate dead-last over a full season. Since he returned to the floor in a 96-87 win over the Boston Celtics on December 10, though, Charlotte has been better than ever. Its 97.7 defensive rating through the last 44 games ranks second in basketball over that timeframe.
Related: Kidd-Gilchrist is an on-court/off-court defensive superstar. His 95.9 defensive rating tops the Hornets by nearly two full points while his off-court mark of 103.8 counts as the team’s worst. MKG’s personal defensive rating ranks seventh-best overall, too.
His defensive dominance is mostly unknown on a national level, though. And while playing in relative NBA anonymity near Tobacco Road doesn’t help matters, what hurts worse from a notoriety perspective is Kidd-Gilchrist’s lack of flashy defensive plays. He averages just .6 steals and blocks per game, career-low numbers that pale in comparison to those of luminaries like Tony Allen, Draymond Green, and the like.
But the process always trumps immediate results, and Charlotte is hardly hurting on that end due to Kidd-Gilchrist playing a more subtle brand of defense. The Hornets are 26-22 with him in the lineup, and just 3-12 in the 15 games he’s missed. That’s impact.
Whether or not MKG becomes the the greatest defender of all-time, it’s obvious he’s already one of the greatest defenders of today. That’s what matters most for Charlotte, and will continue to loom largest as he continues ascending up basketball’s list of defensive marvels – both current and historic.
*Statistical support for this post provided by nba.com/stats.
