Defensive Stop is a composite metric that estimates the number of defensive possessions a player was individually responsible for ending without allowing a score. It credits steals, blocks, and a portion of opponent missed shots to the defender, based on their estimated defensive involvement.
Attempts to give a single number for individual defensive stops rather than just counting steals and blocks separately. Slightly more complete than STL + BLK alone.
Still fundamentally limited to what the box score records. Cannot credit defenders who force misses without blocking the shot, cause ballhandlers to give up possessions without getting a steal, or contest shots that go in. The defensive deterrence and positioning effects that are most valuable are precisely what this metric misses.
Not used in APEX. Defensive Stop is a box-score-derived defensive estimate with all the limitations of any box score defensive metric (see Known Limitations §1, §5). APEX's defense measurement relies on DefOnOff (outcome-based) rather than box score counting stats (event-based), because Byman (2023) and Jewell et al. (JQAS) both confirm that box score defensive events have limited predictive validity at high minutes loads.