Defensive Responsibility: A New Way To Measure Defensive Output

Defensive Responsibility (DefR) is a new event-based framework that measures individual defensive contributions by assigning accountability based on game location, attack momentum, and defensive positioning rather than raw action counts or possession-adjusted metrics. The model identifies which player should respond to each opposition action, revealing defensive performance above or below expectation. This approach corrects biases inherent in possession-adjusted statistics and provides more accurate evaluation across different tactical systems and team philosophies.