
On a recent appearance on THE YOUNG MAN AND THE THREE podcast, OKC's Jalen Williams said the NBA should add a third All-Defensive Team and give out two DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR awards each year.
"This is not a diss to any big because every big that has gotten it is deserving. But defense is very different for certain players. I can be a very good defender without averaging the most steals. Herb Jones not like first in steals, but if you ask everybody around the NBA who one of the best defenders in the league is, he's gonna be in the top five. It's just a Big every year (that wins the award), and I feel like it's just based on blocks. A guard has never had to protect the paint, and a Big has never had to chase a pin down."
Jaylen Brown responded to the quote with, "Agreed."
Most tend to think of big men as DPOY winners because the only players to win it more than twice were bigs, and Rudy Gobert has won four of the last seven. The NBA even recently started calling the trophy the Hakeem Olajuwon trophy. But if you go back to the award's first decade, beginning in 1983, four of the first five winners were guards.
7'4" center Mark Eaton won the award in 1985 and 1989, and then 6'7" Dennis Rodman won in back-to-back seasons while averaging less than a single block and steal.
Centers dominated the award in the 90s the same way they dominated the decade. The one exception was in 1996 when Gary "The Glove" Payton won it over one of the greatest perimeter defenders ever: Scottie Pippen.
In the 2000s, three perimeter players won the award: Metta World Peace, Kawhi Leonard (twice) and Marcus Smart.
Out of the 25 award winners, eight were perimeter players, two were forwards that didn't block many shots (Dennis Rodman and Draymond Green), and the remaining 15 were the type of bigs Jalen Williams was referring to. So, I don't think we need another DPOY award for a group representing 40% of the past winners.
And as exceptional as Jalen, his teammates SGA and Lu Dort, and Dyson "Great Barrier Thief" Daniels have been this year on the defensive end, the award is probably going to a Big. And that big is 7'4" Victor Wembanyama, who blocked 8+ shots five times (once in a single half) and pulled off the rare 5x5 this season. His current averages of 3.9 blocks and 1.1 steals per game have only been done by two players in NBA history: David "Admiral" Robinson and Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon.
Besides the Alien that might win the award for the foreseeable future, the 2023 Draft class is full of guys who have been earning their paycheck with their defense.
Like Herb Jones, some of these names might not be racking up the most blocks and steals, but if you ask around the league, they will tell you how good they are. For example, Anthony Black is the league leader in Defensive 3PT Percentage and fifth in ISO defense. Toumani Camara is leading the league in charges and is 6th in perimeter defense.
While praising this group, Hoops writer Brett Usher started a great conversation about the best defensive classes ever. The following are a few of the nominees. And as exceptional as the 2021 (Mobley, Suggs, Herb Jones) and 2022 classes are, I wanted to focus on guys who have played for at least five years and racked up a few accolades.
The headline of this class is 5 x All-Defense Bam Adebayo, who had this to say about the DPOY award last year:
“People move that goalpost for me with DPOY or All-NBA, it’s just like I get why they move it — my stats aren’t eye-popping. But it’s like if I’m guarding one through five and y’all are saying I can’t get DPOY, well there’s not a lot of DPOYs getting 20 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. And there’s not a lot of All-NBA players getting top five in DPOY voting every year. It’s just that the goal post moves for me.”
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Rudy Gobert's four DPOY awards (2018, 2019, 2021, 2024) tie him with Dikembe Mutombo for the most in NBA history. His first three happened in Utah, where he was just 24 swats away from moving into second place in all-time blocks for the franchise. During his 2024 DPOY campaign, he blocked 162 shots, two short of the second-most blocks in a single Timberwolves season.
Despite these numbers, he's had his share of critics who didn't think he deserved these awards. Kendrick Perkins recently said the "biggest regret of his media career" was voting for Gobert to win the 2024 DPOY. He also said, "Gobert is not respected by his peers."
Between those four controversial wins was Giannis Antetokounmpo. He broke up the three-peat in 2020 and became the third player in NBA history to win MVP and DPOY in the same season. The other two are Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. The Greek Freak was also the previous year's runner-up for the award and had one of the most memorable blocks in NBA Finals history a year later.
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Draymond Green was the DPOY runner-up in 2015 and 2016 when he made the All-NBA 2nd team and even got some MVP votes! Then, in 2017, the league leader in steals finally got his DPOY award while also picking up the second of his four NBA championships.
Here's a great quote from Green about defense: "One thing I've always been taught at the defensive end is you hit first. In life, you throw the first punch, you don't get punched first. It's the same on defense: You've got to hit first."
Jordan Poole can confirm Green practices what he preaches.
The other great defender from this draft is Anthony Davis, who has never won DPOY and, according to him in 2024, will never win it.
"I'll never get it, They're not giving it to me. The league doesn't like me. I'm the best defensive player in the league. I can switch 1 through 5. I can guard the pick-and-roll the best in the league, from a big standpoint. I block shots. I rebound. I don't know what else to do. I'm over it. I'm just going to do what I got to do to help the team win and try to play for a championship. Accolades and individual awards, I'm done with those."
The closest the three-time blocks leader came to winning the award was in 2020 when he was runner-up to Giannis. The good news for AD is he ended that year with the NBA Championship (and probably should have been named Finals MVP).
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Dwight Howard is the only player in NBA history to win three straight DPOY awards. During this span, the All-NBA 1st teamer averaged 20 points, 13.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 1.1 steals and finished in the top four in MVP voting each season (2nd in 2011). As impressive as that sounds, he recently said he could have won much more.
"I really believe I could have won it every year of my career if I had enough minutes and time. Defense is all about one, conditioning and mindset. When I played in my prime, I never got tired. If I had to play 48 minutes, I could play without getting tired."
The runner-up to Dwight for the 2010 DPOY award was his former AAU teammate Josh Smith. The high-flying Hawk averaged 2.3 blocks over the first six seasons of his career and would routinely get 4-5 blocks and steals in the game.
This class also included the Grindfather Tony Allen, who Kobe Bryant once said was the toughest defender for him.
“Tony Allen. He was the only one that wasn't crying for help, he was never crying for help, saying, ‘Hey, help down here, I need help, double, double’. Tony Allen would play you straight up, I could score 10 straight on him, and he’s not blinking. He’s still there, he’s still playing defense, he’s still being physical, he’s not backing down. Tony Allen, by far. I would used to finish playing against Tony Allen and I had scratch marks everywhere and I loved it."
And then you have Andre Iguodala (say it in Max Kellerman's voice). Iggy's another excellent example of a player who didn't rack up big numbers but was considered by some to be the best perimeter player in the league.
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2004 was a memorable year for Metta Sandiford-Artest: All-NBA team 3rd team, All-Star team, DPOY, and Malice At the Palace. The infamous brawl is what most people think of when they hear one of the variations of his name. But offensive players know about those strong hands and defense of Metta, a DPOY candidate with four different teams.
The other defensive standout from this class is Andrei Kirilenko, aka AK-47, the NBA player who looks like Drago and had a hall pass from his wife. Before Wemby started putting up absurd 5x5 games, I associated the feat with Kirilenko. He was far from a household name when he led the league in blocks, but if you played fantasy basketball, you knew he was a top-10 draft pick in those leagues. The same goes for another guy in this class: Shawn Marion.
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When discussing the greatest perimeter defenders of all time, the most common name you should hear is Scottie Pippen. Kobe Bryant called him a defensive genius. Draymond Green called him the best defender ever. Rasheed Wallace called him the best wing defender he ever played against. Bill Cartwright called him a better defender than Michael Jordan. And he has zero DPOY awards (runner-up twice).
As for the No. 1 pick in that draft class, David Robinson was first or second in DPOY voting for four straight seasons. In the year that he won, 1992, the Admiral averaged a league-best 4.5 blocks(!) along with 2.3 steals. That's the highest number of steals for any player who has averaged four blocks.
"That's a big award for me because that's my main contribution to this team. I think that's the basis upon which we are going to be successful. Getting that award is a reinforcement of the work I've put in to try and do that with this team."
My favorite quote from Robinson came in 1990 when he said, "Defense is what matters. Scoring doesn't interest me." I find the quote amusing because this comes from a guy who once scored 71 points in a game. That same week, he had a game with 50 points.
Another standout defender from this class is Pippen's former Bulls teammate Horace Grant, who had to guard Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber, and Tim Duncan during the Lakers 2001 Championship run.
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Here is my pick as the best defensive class ever.
The all-time leader in blocks is Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon. All I need to say about him is that the NBA renamed the DPOY trophy to the Hakeem Olajuwon trophy in 2022. But if you ask any player who played with or against the 2 x DPOY, you will get some fantastic quotes. Shaquille O'Neal said he was "the only guy I couldn't intimidate." Michael Jordan said he was the only guy he "feared." He's also the only guy in NBA history who is in the top 10 in blocks and steals and one of just four players to have a quadruple-double.
One of those other three players with a quadruple-double is also from this class: Alvin Robertson. The 6'4" DPOY led the league in steals three times, is the all-time leader in steals per game (2.7), is the only player in NBA history with 300 steals in a season, and was 10th all-time in steals until Hakeem passed him. He's also known for his off-the-court issues you can google. All I'm going to say is Vernon "Mad Max" Maxwell once said Alvin was crazier than he was, and I'm glad Shaq punched him in a game and then rapped about it on his album.
Next is John Stockton and his unbreakable record of 3,265 steals (581 more than anyone else). He pulled this off by averaging 2.5 steals over 12 seasons and only missing four games during that time. He also played seven more years and never averaged less than 1.3 steals.
Despite being called one of the all-time greatest defensive players for over four decades, 9 x All-Defense First teamer Michael Jordan is now considered an "overrated defender" in some online circles. The catalyst was a 2024 article claiming MJ's home stats were inflated during his DPOY campaign. The "we are done with the 90s" crowd celebrated the thought and discarded facts like Jordan only played 463 of his 1,072 games in Chicago and ended up fourth all-time in steals. They are also willing to discard these quotes from legends that know much more about basketball than they do.
Jerry West: "I don't think there's any flaws in this guy's game. He's the best defensive player in the league, in my opinion."
Isiah Thomas: "He has the complete package in all facets of his offensive game, and when you break him down defensively, he’s also the best defensive player in the game."
Phil Jackson: "He could break through virtually any screen and shut down almost any player with his intense, laser-focused style of defense."
Gary Payton: “Michael Jordan always took it to a point that he wanted to guard the best player even with myself, even if I start talking trash to him he would always tell Scottie Pippen, ‘look, I’m taking Gary tonight.'"
Wilt Chamberlain: "There are guys who play Jordan who are afraid to put the ball down and afraid to pass. They're always looking and saying, 'Where the hell is Michael?' He'll steal the ball or cause you to do something you don't want to do."
Shaq: "Michael’s definitely the best basketball player of all time. He’s the greatest offensive weapon to ever play, and probably the best defensive player we’ve ever seen."
Hakeem: "If he were an animal in the jungle Michael Jordan could lie out on the biggest rock and no one would disturb him, no one would attack him"
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