Three* NBA 2023-24 All-Defensive Teams

The best and most deserving defenders -- even if they don't qualify

It’s time for my favorite article of the year.

Grading defense is tricky without a holistic understanding of every team’s scheme(s) and each player’s role. Publicly available defensive metrics are unreliable at best and misleading at worst, particularly when it comes to perimeter defense. The eye test is more critical than ever, but even the experienced eye can be tricked. It’s difficult to properly account for the things that don’t happen because of proper defensive positioning, for example.

But that difficulty is why writing about All-Defensive Teams is so fun. There is plenty of room for disagreement, and who people select says as much about their priorities as anything else.

That’s even truer this year thanks to the NBA’s new positionless rules, which allow the ten best defenders to be chosen. Philosophically, that makes things more challenging. Before, you just had to compare guards to guards, forwards to forwards, etc. Now, you must compare on-ball stoppers to off-ball free safeties to traditional paint protectors, all fighting for the same slots.

My opinion: interior defenders are generally more important than perimeter defenders. Even the best perimeter defenders can A) only guard one player, and B) get screened out of the action, but centers are pretty much always around the basket and in the thick of things. That inherently makes them more valuable.

I’ll be curious to see how other people handle this change, but for me, it did tilt the field a bit toward centers. That isn’t to say that perimeter defense doesn’t matter, of course, and I’m still calibrating what this means for awards. I try to think of it this way: even if the seventh-best defensive center is more impactful in absolute terms than the fourth-best perimeter defender, his value relative to the positional average might be lower.

Zooming in, this season has seen its usual plethora of great defenders, but the actual pool of deserving candidates is far smaller than normal. Why? The NBA’s new 65-game requirement to be eligible for All-Defensive and All-NBA Teams has eliminated many strong contenders.

Note that calling it a 65-game rule is a bit incomplete— a player must have accrued 20+ minutes in at least 63 of those 65 games. There are several defenders who would be strong candidates for All-Defensive Teams who will miss out because they played a few too many 18-minute games.

So, I’ve created a third All-Defensive Team again this season — with a twist. The first two teams use official NBA rules, while the third comprises the best non-qualifying defenders.

Some of my picks for the first two teams haven’t technically qualified yet, but with a few weeks left, all of my First and Second Teamers are on track to do so.

Let’s work our way through the selections.

All-Defensive First Team

Rudy Gobert

Victor Wembanyama

Herb Jones

Alex Caruso

Jrue Holiday

The first four players on here were locks for me.

Spoilers: Gobert will be my and almost everyone else’s Defensive Player of the Year. If you’re reading this, you know exactly why he’s good. I’ve got 2,000 words left to go, so let’s just move along.

Wembanyama is controversial to some. I wrote an article a month and a half ago explaining his compelling Defensive Player of the Year case and faced a bit of mockery… but no one’s laughing now.

It took Wembanyama a while to rev up to this level, of course, which is why Gobert is still the clear frontrunner. But Wemby could be the best defender in the NBA at this point in time. Reducing arguments to box-score stat-watching is usually foolish, but Wembanyama is — as always! — an exception. In 14 games since the All-Star break, he’s averaged 4.4 blocks and 1.6 steals. While players (hi, Olajuwon!) have posted numbers like that a handful of times before, we’ve never seen them in a league where so much of the action is on the perimeter.

There are plenty of more nuanced reasons to put Wemby here, too. The Spurs are a historically atrocious defense when he’s not on the floor but above-average when he prowls the paint. He’s in the top five for qualifying players in most advanced metrics. I looked at a lot more numbers in my initial write-up, but suffice it to say that the statistical argument is powerful.

And he still has plenty of room to learn! Wembanyama is figuring out the intricacies of NBA-level help defense and how best to attack the pick-and-roll, but he’s leveling up on a daily basis. It will be a decade before Wembanyama isn’t the preseason favorite to win this award, so I hope Gobert enjoys his last moment on top.

Jones has been the steadiest wing defender in the league, blocking three-pointers, slithering over screens, and blowing up central offensive actions with the regularity of a Metamucil-using septuagenarian. His improved three-pointer has given him more playing time, which has given him more confidence. When we talk about confidence, we usually refer to offense: how willing is a guy to take the last shot? Will he keep shooting if he misses a few in a row? But Jones’ defensive assuredness has grown substantially since last season, and whatever slight hesitations he once had are gone.

Watch him do everything in one play here. First, he corrals the De’Aaron Fox drive. Then, he stymies Domantas Sabonis in the post. Then, he travels almost as fast as the ball out to the three-point line to contest a Malik Monk triple, forcing an uncalled travel. Then, as if furious that Monk didn’t get whistled for the violation, he blocks Monk from behind:

Look at how much good work he did before he registered the block. He doesn’t let the small stuff slip.

Caruso is a madman, sprinting around the court without pause like his turbo button is broken. He led D-EPM last season and is also first this season among qualifying players (EPM is generally regarded as the best publicly available all-in-one stat, although it certainly has its flaws on defense). On/off stats are easy to misuse, but it has to mean something that he’s been in the 94th percentile or higher in defensive rating on/off for the last three seasons. No on-ball guard is better.

Those four were easy for me. My fifth spot came down to, appropriately enough, Boston teammates Derrick White and Jrue Holiday.

I went with Holiday. His intelligence, strength, and insane hands make him the most versatile guard in the league. Coach Joe Mazzulla has routinely sicced Holiday on unfortunate centers this season. Not just on switches, but as a primary match-up! With his wide stance and a low center of gravity, he’s immovable:

He’s manned the middle in zone defenses, too, and he’s equally comfortable guarding big wings or skittery point guards. He’s an excellent communicator, a quick thinker, and an all-around good guy.

All the talk about Boston’s defense this season has centered around White, and I completely understand. Perhaps I’m being too cute. White has been a smidge better on-ball than Holiday, particularly when defending smalls, and he usually draws the lead ballhandler assignment. The blocks and rim-protection numbers are astonishing for someone his size. There’s a lot of value in having a guard who can win an aerial dogfight. Statistically, White ranks better than Holiday in all of the advanced stats: D-LEBRON, D-EPM, DBPM, etc. He’s a joy to watch.

And yet, there’s something about Holiday that I keep coming back to. Opposing offensive players want no part of him, and there’s a fun chess match every game in which opposing offenses try to scheme him out of the play while the Celtics try to keep him involved. His ability to defend up and down the positional spectrum gives Boston more defensive options than any team in the league (and Mazzulla and staff deserve credit for some truly unique ideas). He takes my last spot, but there are several candidates (including White) that reasonable people might prefer.

One fun Holiday quirk: he has one of the more unusual digs in the entire league. Watch him enough, and you’ll see him do a funky above-the-head jump-swipe at opposing drivers:

All-Defensive Second Team

Derrick White

Bam Adebayo

Jalen Suggs

Anthony Davis

Brook Lopez, I guess

We covered White above.

Bam Adebayo, Jalen Suggs, and Anthony Davis were easy choices for Second Team. Adebayo’s problem is that he’s so good at what he does — marooning players on an island like a vengeful pirate — that teams don’t bother to attack him that way anymore. He’s at the same polarity as a basketball: if Bam gets put on a ballhandler, the rock is repelled elsewhere. That’s led to a diminishment in some of his impact metrics that simply don’t tell the truth (not that they’re bad numbers by any means!).

Adebayo’s also single-handedly propping up a defense that features a rotating cast of characters with no cohesion or familiarity with each other. Out of Adebayo’s ~4,000 possessions played this season (excluding garbage time), his most common running mates have been Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic (didn’t play until Kevin Love got injured), and Terry Rozier (acquired in late January via trade). They’ve played a paltry 239 possessions together. That lineup features one horrendous defender, one bad defender, one mediocre defender, and an oft-injured Butler. It still gives up just 111.5 points per 100 possessions, 85th percentile.

That’s an illustrative example of Adebayo’s ability to shoulder an enormous burden while still keeping the Heat’s defensive engine purring. It’s hard to find stats that tell you Adebayo is one of the top ten defenders in the NBA, but all you have to do is watch a few games to understand his enormous impact.

If Adebayo’s defensive dominance is hard to describe with numbers, Anthony Davis’ excellence is easy to outline. He’s averaging 2.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per game, a combined stocks number that’s second in the league behind Wemby. Opponents get to the rim way less often when he’s on the floor, and they shoot far less accurately, too. When Davis personally intervenes, foes are hitting just 53.8% at the rim, a tiny number. He’s been a defensive wrecking ball in all the ways you’d expect, but he pairs it with intelligence, too. He’s an expert ballhandler wrangler in the pick-and-roll and comfortable switching onto the perimeter when necessary. Davis is an easy choice.

Suggs has a similar case to Caruso. He routinely runs a one-man full-court press, wearing down ballhandlers with physicality and Energizer Bunny stamina. He’ll stick his nose in where it doesn’t belong, and when you ask him politely to leave, he’ll impolitely tell you to **** off:

The Magic have one of the league’s best defenses despite a lack of considerable rim protection (at least when Jonathan Isaac isn’t on the floor). Suggs’ point-of-attack ceaselessness is the main reason.

Despite a bevy of deserving candidates for the last spot, nobody truly stood out. Many of my favorites don’t qualify, and little separates the ones who do.

I eventually went with Brook Lopez, the Bucks’ giant center, over Chet Holmgren by a hair. Lopez is more critical to the Bucks’ defense than any other player, including Giannis Antetokounmpo. His case is hurt by an early-season stretch in which since-fired coach Adrian Griffin woefully misused him, but back in his role as a deep-drop protector, he’s still one of the league’s most effective paint protectors (and he’s a little more flexible than you think). Even fellow big men prefer to keep their distance. How many other 13-foot floaters have you seen Gobert try?

Also, only Lopez has to deal with a starting backcourt featuring subway turnstiles Damian Lillard and Malik Beasley.

Holmgren is incredibly effective at preventing opponents from making layups, but his reputation, weirdly, works against him: players seem to relish challenging him. He’ll be on this list once opponents learn an appropriate fear. Something to watch — the Thunder might have four players challenge for a spot next season. That defense is already scary, and it’ll be downright terrifying soon.

All-Defensive Non-Qualifying Team

This list is reserved for players playing at an All-Defensive Team level who haven't played enough games or minutes to qualify for the real award. There is no Third Team of any sort in real life, although there should be. In some ways, I’m grateful for the restrictions; they made choosing my top ten defenders much less painful. In other ways, it sucks for Jonathan Isaac!

Jonathan Isaac

Kris Dunn

O.G. Anunoby

Evan Mobley

Draymond Green

Isaac is incredible. As several of the advanced stats will gladly tell you, he’s been arguably the best per-minute defender in the NBA season. He’s an iron curtain on the ball, a roving bandit in the passing lanes, and a straight-up freaky help defender:

Look where he is when Isaiah Hartenstein receives the pass! Hartenstein had two hands on the ball, a clear runway, a clean jump, and no chance.

Here, Isaac actually rolls snake eyes while gambling for a steal (which rarely happens); he should be dead in the water. Instead, he stops on a dime, slaloms around his own teammate, and skies for the monster block on Wembanyama:

I don’t know what the future holds for the oft-injured Isaac, but I’m glad we finally saw what he could do for an extended stretch. It’s been memorable.

I just went long on Kris Dunn here. He might be the best transition defender in the NBA. He’s handsy, irritating, and irritable. I love him. His ability to find a regular role on the Utah Jazz has been one of the happier fringe storylines of the last two seasons.

No entry pass is safe around Anunoby. I get distinctly 2015-ish Kawhi Leonard vibes for many reasons. It was hilarious watching him join the New York Knicks and magically become a consensus all-world defender. Some of us have been here for a minute, that’s all I’m saying.

Evan Mobley is a monstrous defender in any role. Few are as adept at closing out, and fewer still block as many floaters lofted upwards by unwary six-footers. He keeps getting better at the small stuff, and if he’s healthy next season, he might make more Defensive Player of the Year ballots.

Draymond Green has slipped, but dropping a few feet from Everest heights still keeps you in rarefied air. He’s played far more center this season, and the Warriors still manage to never allow shots at the rim — only 23% of opponent attempts occur at the rack when he’s on the floor (although teams don’t have issues scoring when they do get there). Draymond has had his (self-imposed) issues, but he’s still a disruptive force on the Warriors and is the only guy out there communicating on defense. He’s a genius positional defender who stays a step ahead of offenses. He nabs the last spot on my made-up Third Team.

That’s it! If your favorite defender didn’t make this list, it’s because I’m a hater.

Honorable mention: Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein (outrageous advanced numbers that don’t quite hold up under closer scrutiny), Ausar Thompson, Aaron Gordon (underappreciated defensively, including by me, I suppose), Dillon Brooks, Matisse Thybulle, Jarrett Allen, Walker Kessler, Andrew Nembhard, Keon Ellis, Jabari Smith Jr., Dennis Smith Jr., Jaden McDaniels (I’m disappointed in the defensive season he’s had, but he’s still very good), Lu Dort, Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jaren Jackson Jr., Amen Thompson, a bunch of others I’m ignoring or forgetting. Despite the drivel that bitter former players like to spout, there are a lot of excellent defenders in the NBA today!