No Fly Zone: the blocks model
Who is truly elite at swatting shots? Blocks per 75 possessions, block percentage, how far above the position average, and how many a player gets per game.
How the model works
Blocks per 75 possessions, and block percentage, the share of opponent shots a player swats while on the floor. Both remove minutes and pace, so a 1976 season and a 2024 season can be compared.
Every player is compared with other guards, wings or bigs from the same season. Two blocks per 75 is a lot from a guard and ordinary from a center, so the model also measures how far above the position average a player sat.
Rate alone favors players who play few minutes and go all out. Blocks per game rewards the players who do it while staying on the floor. We estimate it from blocks per 75 possessions and minutes per game.
Each season is ranked against every qualified season in the same position, across all eras, then the four pieces are combined with equal weight. A season counts if the player played at least half of the games and 20 minutes a game.
Fouls are not part of the blocks score. Only a small share of a player’s fouls come from going for a block, so they say little about shot-blocking.
Blocks also miss part of the story. The best rim protectors change shots without blocking them, and some opponents stop driving at all. A great deterrent can look ordinary here, so a shot-blocking badge says what a player did, not everything he did on defense. No ranking is claimed within each tier.
The tiers
Bronze is still excellent. Gold is all-time. Each player is listed once, at his highest tier. A * marks a player added by hand.
Guards
- Alex Caruso
- Andre Roberson
- Dennis Johnson
- Jerry Stackhouse
- Matisse Thybulle
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- David Thompson
- George Gervin
- John Wall
- Kobe Bryant
- Reggie Lewis
- Ron Harper
- Danny Green
- Derrick White
- Dwyane Wade
- Eddie Jones
- Michael Jordan
- Vince Carter
Wings
- Amen Thompson
- Darius Miles
- Francisco García
- Glenn Robinson
- Jerome Kersey
- Kawhi Leonard
- Lionel Simmons
- Mike Bantom
- Paul Pierce
- Rudy Gay
- Wilson Chandler
- Alex English
- Chris Morris
- Danny Granger
- Kevin Durant
- LeBron James
- Nicolas Batum
- Robert Covington
- Scottie Barnes
- Scottie Pippen
- Shane Battier
- Tracy McGrady
- Andrei Kirilenko
- Gerald Wallace
- Josh Smith
- Julius Erving
- Shawn Marion
- Terry Tyler
Bigs
- Alton Lister
- Bob Lanier
- Brendan Haywood
- Chris Kaman
- Clint Capela
- Emeka Okafor
- Hot Rod Williams
- Kristaps Porziņģis
- Robert Parish
- Samuel Dalembert
- Vlade Divac
- Yao Ming
- Andrew Bogut
- Benoit Benjamin
- Elden Campbell
- Elmore Smith
- Ervin Johnson
- Jermaine O'Neal
- Myles Turner
- Raef LaFrentz
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Zydrunas Ilgauskas
- Alonzo Mourning
- Anthony Davis
- Ben Wallace
- Bill Russell
- Bill Walton
- David Robinson
- Dikembe Mutombo
- Dwight Howard
- Hakeem Olajuwon
- Hassan Whiteside
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Marcus Camby
- Mark Eaton
- Nate Thurmond
- Patrick Ewing
- Rudy Gobert
- Serge Ibaka
- Shawn Bradley
- Theo Ratliff
- Tim Duncan
- Tree Rollins
- Victor Wembanyama
- Wilt Chamberlain
* Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain played before blocks became an official statistic in 1973-74, so they are included by hand. Andrei Kirilenko is counted as a wing, although the model measured him against bigs.
The block profiles, plotted
Further out is better on every axis. Choose any listed player and any of his qualified seasons, up to four at a time, so the seasons you compare do not have to be consecutive.
| Player | Season | Tm | Blk/75 | Blk% | vs pos | Blk/G (est) |
|---|
Only players on the tier lists above appear here, and only their qualified seasons.