Robert Covington is the 2nd best help defender in the league. His defense often gets underrated by people who tend to weigh man defense too heavily, his point of attack defense isn’t good and his man defense is weak which is why Portland doesn’t have a great defense. But with that being said, in a good defensive system off ball defense is far more valuable than on ball defense which is why I think RoCo is still a top 8 defender in the NBA. Let’s get into it.
RoCo’s side rim protection is very good. He has excellent off ball awareness and is able to rotate to the rim to prevent easy layups. He is a good weak side shot blocker and also has the versatility to play as Portland’s primary rim protector at times. He’s a great transition defender too and can block transition layups at the rim. He averages 1.9 BLK/100.
Covington’s switchability is also a very impactful factor of his defense. He’s very comfortable switching onto guards and has the versatility to switch out and shut down the perimeter and lock up the rim. This allows him to be an excellent pick and roll defender. He defends the PnR ball handler 2.6 times a game which is more than other versatile bigs such as Bam Adebayo, Draymond Green, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Robert is also great in passing lanes. He’s very active on defense and doesn’t fall asleep off ball. He often jumps passing lanes to rack up deflections and steals and these steals can turn into transition offense for the Blazers. He also pokes away on the ball to get steals too. He averages 2.2 STL/100.
People often like to hype up defenders for their versatility which is why I find it odd Robert Covington doesn’t get more attention considering that he’s arguably the most versatile defender in the league.
One of the more interesting parts of RoCo’s defense is his man defense. He’s not a bad man defender by any means but teams often try to target him to play one on one defense so that he can’t provide value as an off ball defender. In a system with a better point of attack defender that allows him to play to his off ball strengths, I think he’d be more widely recognized as one of the best defenders in the league.
Robert Covington is a defensive ceiling raiser, he’s not an elite point of attack defender that can make do with garbage defensive help, it’s why the Blazers still have one of the worst defenses in the league. What he can do is play great help defense and raise an already good defense to even higher heights.
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