'An amazing stat': How Thunder's Lu Dort built massive NBA lead in drawing illegal screens

PORTLAND, Ore. — Lu Dort doesn’t want to reveal his secrets.

Secrets about the dark art of drawing illegal screens.

And who could blame him? Dort’s knack for drawing illegal screens is one of the niche specialties in the NBA, like Chris Paul’s rip move, DeMar DeRozan’s pump fake or Thunder teammate Jaylin Williams’ feel for taking charges.

It’s easy to appreciate Dort’s one-on-one defense, like stonewalling Kawhi Leonard with the game on the line, but applauding a guy for slamming into a moving pick? The biggest of basketball nerds admire that kind of stuff, but a casual viewer might brush it off as a ticky-tack whistle.

Realize, though, that every one of those whistles is a turnover and the Thunder’s ball. When Dort blows up an out-of-position screener, he’s blowing up an entire offensive possession, and he’s doing it over and over again.

The Thunder guard has drawn a league-leading 83 non-charge offensive fouls, according to pbpstats.com. Non-charge is the key qualifier here. And the vast majority of Dort’s non-charge drawn offensive fouls are the result of moving screens.

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Dort has an insurmountable, almost comical lead in the category.

New York’s Jalen Brunson ranks second to Dort with 48 non-charge offensive fouls drawn. Third is Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 41 — not even half of Dort’s total.

So what exactly is Dort doing to own this unheralded plot of NBA land?

“He just doesn’t get screened very easily,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “He’s not a speed athlete, but he’s a ground athlete, and he’s a fire hydrant physically. And so if you’re going to generate an advantage against him in pick-and-roll, you have to lay a screen on him.”

Often those screens are too late or too half-hearted, and nobody sells a felonious screen better than Dort.

“I think a lot of times he’s actually getting hit, so I don’t want to say that he sells them, but I also think there’s a salesman job that goes into that,” said Thunder guard Jalen Williams. “He just plays so hard, it makes it obvious when there’s an illegal screen.”

As absurd as it sounds, Daigneault thinks Dort’s collection of illegal screen calls should be even bigger.

“In the purity and legality of a screen,” Daigneault said, “he’s probably drawn more than they’ve even called.”

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Per the NBA rule book, “a screen is the legal action of a player who, without causing undue contact, delays or prevents an opponent from reaching a desired position.”

An illegal screen occurs when a screener does not give the defender “an opportunity to avoid contact before making illegal contact, or when the screener “moves laterally or toward an opponent being screened.”

Dort might not have Page 46 of the rule book taped to his locker, but like any savvy defender, he knows what an offensive player can and cannot do.

Dort is an All-Defense-level guard even if you look past all of those illegal screens that he’s drawn. But when you factor those in, it only strengthens his case.

“It’s an amazing stat when you think about this: That’s 70 possessions that NBA players that he’s guarding, he’s guarding the best players in the league, don’t get to shoot,” Daigneault said a dozen of Dort illegal screens ago.

“If we draw an illegal screen with Lu Dort tonight,” Daigneault said before a recent game, “that’s another possession that those guys don’t get to shoot, and that’s pretty powerful.”

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Lu Dort has built massive NBA lead in drawing illegal screens