Every defense needs its anchor, and the Mavericks have unquestionably added a terrific one in Andrew Bogut.

Bogut, whom the Mavs acquired on July 7 via trade from the Golden State Warriors, is highly regarded within the Mavs’ organization. That should not be surprising, given the franchise was eager to target him once it became clear that the Warriors were reportedly looking to shed salary in order to sign Kevin Durant. Dallas would not have traded for a player it didn’t covet.

But just how much praise are the Mavs willing to heap on the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 Draft? Quite a bit.

“He’s a top-five center as a defender without question,” Carlisle told ESPN.com during the Las Vegas Summer League. “He’s a premier rim protector, he’s one of the best centers at taking charges, and he really understands the game.”

That sets the expectation level high for Bogut ahead of his inaugural season in a Mavs uniform, but justifiably so. During his time in the league he’s separated himself as one of the truly great interior defenders in the NBA. For example, he led the NBA in defensive box plus/minus in 2015 and 2014, according to Basketball-Reference, and he’s second among active players in career DBPM, behind only Joakim Noah.

What’s more, Bogut’s teams have performed better with him on the floor than off of it every single year of his career, even when he was playing for the rebuilding Milwaukee Bucks.

He is the definition of a defensive stalwart, blocking more shots per 100 possessions than DeAndre Jordan two seasons in a row, and more than Jazz center Rudy Gobert in 2015-16. He has tremendous shot-blocking instincts and positions himself wonderfully so he can make a play on the ball, and do so most importantly without constantly running into foul trouble.

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In each of the above examples, Bogut is tracking a ball-handler, often in space, before contesting and ultimately blocking the shot. And they aren’t just any ball-handlers, either: In the last two plays he’s stuffing James Harden and Damian Lillard. Typically he didn’t attack pick-and-rolls very aggressively, often dropping well beneath the opponent’s screen instead of extending himself all the way to the three-point line. The Mavs used a similarly conservative approach last season with Zaza Pachulia.

Bogut can then simply contest the shot without overexerting himself, and he did that at an elite rate last season. Of the top-20 players in blocks per game last season, only three players had a better FG% against from within five feet than Bogut’s 45.2 percent, according to SportVU. That’s a solid, solid mark.

The Warriors used a “switch everything” mentality on defense last season, meaning pretty much every non-center would switch against pretty much every screen. That’s the future of defense, and the Mavericks are on board with that movement after the additions of so many long, athletic perimeter players this summer. But Bogut is the anchor which holds all of that together; he’ll be the one calling the coverages and cleaning everything up on the inside. His ability to block shots and cover ground will ease the minds of the Mavs’ perimeter defenders, as they know they have a shot-gobbler right behind them in case of emergency. Essentially, Bogut is one of the game’s most reliable fire extinguishers.

What makes Bogut safer than many other shot-blockers is his ability to contest shots without completely removing himself from the play. We see players — big men in particular — do this on almost a routine basis: He will leap in the air and stretch his arms to block a shot he has no chance of blocking, and before he hits the ground and gets in position to chase the rebound, the opponent has already collected the offensive board and put the ball through the hoop. Bogut is not prone to these kinds of mistakes: Per the Mavs’ analytics team, Bogut had many fewer “unsuccessful blocks” last season than players like DeAndre Jordan and Hassan Whiteside, widely considered to be two of the game’s premier shot-blockers. That not only will keep Bogut in position to contest shots responsibly and also go after rebounds, but it will also take rebounding pressure off of Dirk Nowitzki and Harrison Barnes, who won’t be forced to compensate for their center’s faulty positioning.

That should help the Mavs play defense more like five fingers on a hand, as the old analogy goes. But let’s dial things back even further, all the way to the old school. Hall of Fame center and basketball legend Bill Russell is famous for blocking shots to his teammates, as opposed to out of bounds or back toward the opponent. In that vein, Russell considered a blocked shot to be an offensive maneuver, because the block was more of a pass than a rejection. Now, Bogut is not Russell, and the game is totally different today than it was 50 years ago, but Bogut is much closer to Russell than it might seem at face value. Per Mavs analytics, the center blocks a much higher percentage of shots to his teammates than just about anyone else in the NBA, including Jordan and Whiteside. This means a lower volume of his blocks are going either right back to the opponent or into the fifth row.

The Warriors used this to their advantage the last two seasons, as Stephen Curry or a teammate would collect Bogut’s blocks as rebounds to launch a quick fast break the other way. In the play below, it’s Klay Thompson who collects Bogut’s block, and he immediately looks to make a deep outlet pass.

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The Mavericks would often send all five defenders to the boards last season, as they couldn’t always out-jump or out-muscle teams around the rim. This season’s Mavs roster has more explosiveness than last season’s, but that doesn’t mean the strategy will change at all. With players like Bogut and Salah Mejri swatting so many shots, it would make sense for Nowitzki, Barnes, Wesley Matthews, and Deron Williams to crash the glass to scoop up the leftovers. Dallas might not play as fast as the Warriors, but there are still easy points to be had if a player can collect the loose ball. As a team the Mavs had a 50.6 effective field goal percentage after a defensive rebound; that number decreased to 48.7 percent after an opponent’s make, per nbawowy.

There could be a misconception about him, too, that he’s not a particularly athletic center. He’s north of 30 and he has a huge body, and those facts lend themselves to thinking he’s more of a ground-bound brute than a high-flying highlight reel. But he can get up there.

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He’s almost three feet in the air, there, in a postseason game. That’s not fresh out of camp when he’s in tip-top shape. That’s after 90 games of strenuous basketball. Bogut might not look like a leaper but he can absolutely soar if he needs to, and that can only help him on the offensive end — but will do so on defense as well.

Bogut’s body of work indicates he’s one of the best interior defenders in the NBA today. The Mavs have quietly pieced together what could be a much-improved defense, and with Bogut leading the charge, you are led to wonder if the club could potentially crack the top-10 in defensive efficiency. That’s the type of impact he can have on this team, and that’s what Carlisle means when he bills him as a top-five, “premier” rim protector.

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