The NBA All-Defensive Teams have just been announced, and there were a couple of surprises to say the least.
All-Defensive First Team
Dwight Howard – 55 votes
Kobe Bryant – 53
LeBron James – 47
Chris Paul – 36
Kevin Garnett – 35
All-Defensive Second team
Tim Duncan – 30
Dwyane Wade – 26
Rondo – 23
Shane Battier – 22
Ron Artest – 22
Firstly, I cannot understand how Chris Paul gets named to the First Team ahead of someone like Rondo. I know Paul racks up a lot of steals and reads the passing lanes very well, but he is an average-at-best one on one defender, and constantly gets burnt by other point guards he plays against (recently Deron and Chauncey come to mind). Rondo on the other hand shuts guys down, plain and simple. I love CP3, I picked him in my Second Team, but I really think Rondo got shafted here.
Secondly, clearly I rate Andre Iguodala’s defense better than the coaches do – he finished behind the likes of Prince, Brewer and the Vanilla Godzilla in the voting. I love what this guy does defensively. He’s a lock-down defender, can guard the 1, 2 or 3 spots, his defensive numbers are solid (7th in the league in steals during regular season) and he’s proven he can shut down the superstar players in this league like Kobe. Like I’ve said before, since this award is voted by the coaches I find it a little easier to respect their final votes (as compared to the media), but for me this was still the second biggest shafting of the day.
Thirdly, how does Marcus Camby not get one single freaken vote?!?! This guy was third in the league in blocks and fourth in rebounds and only marginally less effective than the previous seasons where he was a First Team lock. Does moving to the Clippers really slide you off the radar that much? Sure, he missed 20 games but KG gets named to the First Team and he only played 57! Is there some sort of conspiracy going on here? Is Marcus Camby dead? I can understand him not being named to the First or Second Teams, but c’mon, not even one single vote? Giant shafting.
And fourthly, isn’t it funny how according to the media Lebron was the second best defensive player of the year (behind Dwight Howard) and Kobe was ranked 7th, but the coaches put Kobe a close second to Dwight in the All-Defensive Team with Lebron a few votes behind? Not trying to make a point or anything (already did that here), just saying, it’s interesting. I guess great defense isn’t proportional to the number of chasedown blocks that get posted on YouTube after all.
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4 Comments until now.
completely agree with Rondo/CP3. i would even put Wade ahead of CP3.
as for Iggy, i just don’t think he has the rep yet, and like you said, rep counts for a lot in this award.
as for Camby, i’m guessing its a case of his numbers looking good but his team stinks so badly his defense never leads to wins. i dunno. from all accounts he was still very effective this season.
i still go on record as saying Lebron’s D is overrated. but if I see him shut down Kobe in the Finals that would change my mind
Lebron’s defence has improved, but I don’t he is a first-teamer. Secondly, the media canbe fucked because in the Rookie of the Year vote someone voted for FROPEZ. Not Brook….Robin. Robin Lopez. The journalists are meant to follow the league. Surely they can spot the difference between an emerging talented big man on the east and a benchwarmer from the west.
FFS
yeah, Rondo got shafted.
agree with Martin, Lebron is not a first-teamer. but now that he’s on that team, he’ll probably make it every year. just annoys me that Cavs fans are gonna shove that down our throats.
and lol at Robin Lopez. I didn’t think he even got enough court time to play defense?
Also interesting to note is that Kobe was the only unanimous decision, getting a total of 29 votes (24 1st and 5 2nd), while one coach thought it would be funny to NOT vote for Dwight.
Lebron, while an improved defensive player should not be anywhere near All-Defensive 1st this year. His forward position should’ve gone to Artest.
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