![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wembanyama-defense.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama\u2019s work around the rim on defense this season has been a boon for the Spurs.<\/p>\n
The Denver Nuggets are 6-3 without Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a>, back in second place in the Western Conference despite the absence of the three-time Kia MVP. Their ability to win without him is a significant development and surprising given that, over the last four seasons, the Nuggets were 20 points per 100 possessions better with Joki\u0107 on the floor than they were with him off the floor.<\/p>\n Nuggets\u2019 point diff. per 100 possessions, Joki\u0107 on & off floor<\/p>\n Season 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 TOTAL Rank = Among players who played at least 1,000 minutes for an individual team.<\/p>\n Joki\u0107 had the league\u2019s biggest on-off differential (minimum 1,000 minutes played) in each of those four seasons. During those four seasons, the Nuggets were 13-23 when he didn\u2019t play. This season, they\u2019ve got a winning record and a relatively easy schedule over the next two weeks (seven of their next nine games against teams with losing records).<\/p>\n Of course, Joki\u0107 is still near the top of the on-off leaderboard. Here are the players with the biggest on-off differentials, with the season set to hit its midway point on Friday \u2026<\/p>\n Note: All stats are through Wednesday, Jan. 14.<\/p>\n 1. Offense<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Deni Avdija’s ability to score on 3 levels is just one reason he’s in the midst of a breakout campaign for the Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n The best players have the most significant impact on their team\u2019s offensive numbers. There are five former Kia MVPs<\/a> in the top 13 on the list below, with Stephen Curry<\/a> just below the top 12 shown \u2026<\/p>\n Biggest on-off differential, team\u2019s points scored per 100 possessions<\/p>\n On Court Player Deni Avdija Giannis Antetokounmpo Julius Randle Nikola Joki\u0107 James Harden Jalen Brunson Donovan Mitchell Michael Porter Jr. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Jamal Murray Pascal Siakam Peyton Watson OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions Some notes \u2026<\/p>\n The Wolves\u2019 offense has been excellent (119.6 points scored per 100 possessions<\/a>) in 901 minutes with both Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle on the floor. It\u2019s been even better (123.5 scored per 100) in Randle\u2019s 467 minutes on the floor without Edwards.<\/p>\n The Nuggets\u2019 offense has been ridiculously good (133.2 points scored per 100 possessions<\/a>) in 511 total minutes with Jamal Murray, Peyton Watson and Nikola Joki\u0107 on the floor together. And it\u2019s still been pretty efficient (120.1 scored per 100) in 310 minutes with Murray and Watson on the floor without Joki\u0107, though Denver has been outscored (with bad defensive numbers) by 1.8 per 100 in those minutes.<\/p>\n The Nets are 0-7 without Michael Porter Jr., having lost those seven games by an average of 15.3 points.<\/p>\n The bottom of the list: The Bulls have scored 10.5 fewer points per 100 possessions<\/a> with Patrick Williams on the floor (105.7 per 100) than they have with him off the floor (116.2 per 100).<\/p>\n 2. Defense<\/p>\n Boston\u2019s Hugo Gonzalez (-11.7 differential) ranks No. 1 in the biggest on-off differential on defense so far this season.<\/p>\n Defensive on-off differentials tend to favor reserves, because they\u2019re generally defending against other reserves, and most of the players below have spent more minutes off the floor than on. So if a full-time starter appears at or near the top of this list (and if his team is in the top 10 defensively), he just might be a Kia Defensive Player of the Year candidate\u2026<\/p>\n Biggest on-off differential, team\u2019s points allowed per 100 possessions<\/p>\n On Court Player Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez Ronald Holland II Victor Wembanyama Vince Williams Jr. Rudy Gobert Lauri Markkanen Day\u2019Ron Sharpe Jalen Suggs Jay Huff Steven Adams Klay Thompson Jose Alvarado DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions Some notes \u2026<\/p>\n Some of this is 3-point luck. For 11 of the 12 players on this list, the teams\u2019 opponents have shot worse from 3-point range with the player on the floor than they have with them on the floor, with Ron Holland\u00a0having the biggest differential in that regard (31.6% vs. 37.6%<\/a>).<\/p>\n But Spurs opponents have actually shot better from 3-point range with Victor Wembanyama on the floor (36.1%<\/a>) than they have with him off the floor (35.9%). So his impact is more real, and it\u2019s more about the interior, both how often and how well the opponents have shot in the paint \u2026<\/p>\n Opponent paint shooting w\/ Wembanyama on\/off floor<\/p>\n Wembanyama on\/off On floor Off floor Diff.<\/p>\n -7.9% %FGA = Percentage of total FGA<\/p>\n Rudy Gobert has a similar differential regarding opponent field goal percentage in the paint (52.2% vs. 59.8%), but not nearly as dramatic regarding the percentage of Minnesota\u2019s opponents\u2019 shots that have come in the paint (49.6% vs. 52.7%).<\/p>\n The bottom of the list: The Knicks have allowed 12.5 more points per 100 possessions<\/a> with Jalen Brunson on the floor (119.2 per 100) than they have with him off the floor (106.7 per 100).<\/p>\n 3. Overall<\/p>\n Giannis Antetokounmpo (left) and Nikola Joki\u0107 are among the overall leaders in on-off differential in 2025-26.<\/p>\n Below is the list that Joki\u0107 has dominated for the last four seasons, and we have a new leader this season \u2026<\/p>\n Biggest on-off differential, team\u2019s point differential per 100 possessions<\/p>\n On Court Player Giannis Antetokounmpo Nikola Joki\u0107 Lauri Markkanen Donovan Mitchell Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez Jalen Suggs Deni Avdija AJ Green Victor Wembanyama Donte DiVincenzo Jalen Smith Alex Caruso NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions Some notes \u2026<\/p>\n The Bucks are 3-11 without Giannis Antetokounmpo, and they\u2019ve also lost three games<\/a> in which he had a positive plus-minus.<\/p>\n Lauri Markkanen and Jalen Smith are the two players whose teams have been at least five points per 100 possessions better on both offense and defense with them on the floor than they\u2019ve been without them off the floor. With their loss in Chicago on Wednesday, the Jazz are 0-7 in games Markkanen has missed.<\/p>\n The Magic have outscored their opponents by 16.7 points per 100 possessions<\/a> with Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero all on the floor \u2014 but that\u2019s been for a total of just 136 minutes.<\/p>\n The bottom of the list: The Bucks have been 18.7 points per 100 possessions<\/a> better with Gary Trent Jr. off the floor (plus-6.2 per 100) than they have with him on it (minus-12.5 per 100). Their two most-used lineups<\/a> are Ryan Rollins, AJ Green, Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner, with either Trent or Kevin Porter Jr taking the last spot. The Porter lineup (plus-16.3 per 100 in 160 minutes) has been 25.3 points per 100 possessions better than the Trent lineup (minus-9.0 per 100 in 169 minutes), with the bigger difference coming on defense.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him\u00a0here<\/a>, find his\u00a0archive here\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0follow him on Bluesky<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama\u2019s work around the rim on defense this season has been a boon for the Spurs. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,219158,590,85],"class_list":["post-415077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-midseason-on-off-leaders","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOn floor
\nOff floor
\nDiff.
\nRank<\/p>\n
\n+8.4
\n-7.9
\n16.3
\n1<\/p>\n
\n+12.5
\n-10.4
\n22.9
\n1<\/p>\n
\n+11.8
\n-8.6
\n20.4
\n1<\/p>\n
\n+10.5
\n-9.3
\n19.8
\n1<\/p>\n
\n+10.8
\n-9.2
\n20.0<\/p>\n
\nOff Court<\/p>\n
\nTeam
\nMIN
\nOffRtg
\nMIN
\nOffRtg
\nDiff.<\/p>\n
\nPOR
\n1,414
\n116.9
\n564
\n98.1
\n18.8<\/p>\n
\nMIL
\n761
\n123.7
\n1,169
\n105.3
\n18.4<\/p>\n
\nMIN
\n1,368
\n120.9
\n615
\n105.3
\n15.6<\/p>\n
\nDEN
\n1,106
\n128.0
\n882
\n113.3
\n14.7<\/p>\n
\nLAC
\n1,316
\n119.6
\n614
\n105.2
\n14.4<\/p>\n
\nNYK
\n1,276
\n123.5
\n644
\n109.8
\n13.7<\/p>\n
\nCLE
\n1,286
\n119.9
\n740
\n106.2
\n13.7<\/p>\n
\nBKN
\n1,026
\n116.3
\n803
\n102.9
\n13.4<\/p>\n
\nOKC
\n1,298
\n122.1
\n695
\n108.9
\n13.2<\/p>\n
\nDEN
\n1,317
\n125.0
\n671
\n113.1
\n11.9<\/p>\n
\nIND
\n1,354
\n110.4
\n624
\n98.8
\n11.6<\/p>\n
\nDEN
\n1,145
\n125.9
\n843
\n114.5
\n11.4<\/p>\n
Minimum 500 minutes on the floor (271 players)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hugo-gonzalez.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOff Court<\/p>\n
\nTeam
\nMIN
\nDefRtg
\nMIN
\nDefRtg
\nDiff.<\/p>\n
\nBOS
\n509
\n104.5
\n1,363
\n116.2
\n-11.7<\/p>\n
\nDET
\n756
\n101.5
\n1,078
\n112.9
\n-11.4<\/p>\n
\nSAS
\n753
\n103.3
\n1,172
\n114.4
\n-11.1<\/p>\n
\nMEM
\n547
\n104.6
\n1,335
\n115.6
\n-11.0<\/p>\n
\nMIN
\n1,268
\n107.2
\n715
\n117.8
\n-10.6<\/p>\n
\nUTA
\n1,187
\n116.2
\n763
\n126.1
\n-9.9<\/p>\n
\nBKN
\n661
\n109.1
\n1,168
\n118.7
\n-9.6<\/p>\n
\nORL
\n584
\n106.1
\n1,351
\n115.4
\n-9.3<\/p>\n
\nIND
\n816
\n109.2
\n1,162
\n118.0
\n-8.8<\/p>\n
\nHOU
\n678
\n105.8
\n1,128
\n114.5
\n-8.7<\/p>\n
\nDAL
\n844
\n106.9
\n1,149
\n115.6
\n-8.7<\/p>\n
\nNOP
\n776
\n112.5
\n1,308
\n121.1
\n-8.6<\/p>\n
Minimum 500 minutes on the floor (271 players)<\/p>\n
\nFGA
\nFG%
\n%FGA<\/p>\n
\n543
\n50.8%
\n39.7%<\/p>\n
\n1,120
\n58.8%
\n50.4%<\/p>\n
\n-10.7%<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/giannis-nikola-022725.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOff Court<\/p>\n
\nTeam
\nMIN
\nNetRtg
\nMIN
\nNetRtg
\nDiff.<\/p>\n
\nMIL
\n761
\n+9.9
\n1,169
\n-10.7
\n20.6<\/p>\n
\nDEN
\n1,106
\n+12.3
\n882
\n-3.6
\n15.9<\/p>\n
\nUTA
\n1,187
\n-0.9
\n763
\n-16.7
\n15.8<\/p>\n
\nCLE
\n1,286
\n+8.4
\n740
\n-6.4
\n14.8<\/p>\n
\nBOS
\n509
\n+17.2
\n1,363
\n+3.2
\n14.0<\/p>\n
\nORL
\n584
\n+10.1
\n1,351
\n-3.1
\n13.2<\/p>\n
\nPOR
\n1,414
\n+0.6
\n564
\n-12.0
\n12.6<\/p>\n
\nMIL
\n1,093
\n+2.2
\n837
\n-10.4
\n12.6<\/p>\n
\nSAS
\n753
\n+12.2
\n1,172
\n+0.1
\n12.1<\/p>\n
\nMIN
\n1,290
\n+9.2
\n693
\n-2.6
\n11.8<\/p>\n
\nCHI
\n600
\n+4.1
\n1,330
\n-7.4
\n11.5<\/p>\n
\nOKC
\n535
\n+20.5
\n1,458
\n+9.7
\n10.8<\/p>\n
Minimum 500 minutes on the floor (271 players)<\/p>\n