Three* NBA All-Defensive Teams for 2025-26

Victor Wembanyama, Derrick White, Ausar Thompson, and an ode to Dru Smith

I love picking All-Defensive Teams because it’s hard.

Publicly available defensive metrics are useful but are far from bulletproof (particularly for perimeter defense, where they help assess total impact but don’t provide many whys). The eye test is essential. So is an understanding of what, exactly, a team is trying to do on defense.

That challenge is what makes it fun! More than any other part of the awards discourse, there’s plenty of room for reasonable disagreement. Little separates the league’s seventh-best defender from its 17th-best.

That’s why I pick three teams. Officially, the NBA selects only two, but that’s a holdover from the late ‘60s, when the league had a grand total of 14 franchises. The Association has more than doubled in size since then; really, I should probably be picking four teams. Maybe next year.

I also like getting my All-Defensive Teams out a few days earlier than everyone else. These last few games, many against tanking teams, won’t change my feelings much, and it’s rewarding to ink my thoughts before other people’s choices might influence me.

Methodology notes: I’ll be sticking with the NBA’s 65-game, 20-minute limit, which disqualifies several players deserving of consideration, such as Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Suggs, Alex Caruso, Zach Edey, Herb Jones, Derrick Jones Jr., and many more. Although a few of the players below are right on the border of qualifying, I’m assuming they’ll stretch for 65 games if they have a chance.

The selections are positionless, so there will be a small bias at the top towards rim protectors. I don’t care much for minutes or games played as long as someone qualifies, with the caveat that I give the benefit of the doubt to starters/closers who have to defend against higher-level competition than backups do.

When doing this exercise, I combine my game notes with a spreadsheet that includes dozens of stats of varying degrees of usefulness. That creates the initial list. I then do another round of film study to tighten everything up. It’s a long process; I love it, but I’m glad this week is over. Let’s use Miami’s Dru Smith to illustrate how I combine everything.

Smith tore his Achilles on December 23rd, 2024. He returned less than nine months later, playing in the Heat’s preseason game on October 4th, 2025 (two weeks faster even than Jayson Tatum’s incredible recovery). Smith doesn’t average 20 minutes per game; he won’t qualify for the awards.

But all he’s done is become the Heat’s best perimeter defender, hitting the top 20 in LEBRON, EPM, and XRAPM¹. He leads the entire NBA in deflections per minute and Databallr’s stop percentage.² Smith harasses guards up and down the court, helping Miami force its breakneck pace on the other team.

Smith’s hidden talent is switching onto the roll man without opening up a passing lane:

There isn’t a more unlikely defensive success story in the NBA, and he deserves his moment.

Now, let’s move to the main event. This is a doozy of an article, and it takes me a whole season to prepare. If you enjoy it, please don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe! And I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

All-Defensive First Team

Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

Assuming Wembanyama finishes the year strong and hits the 65-game benchmark, he’ll likely be a unanimous Defensive Player of the Year. He’s first in LEBRON, EPM, and XRAPM (but a measly third in DPM — what’s going on there?), and there isn’t really a statistical case for anyone else.

Wemby’s paint protection numbers are out of this world. He leads the league in blocks per game, of course. Opponents almost never get to the rim when he’s on the court, and they make fewer than 60% of their shots the few times they do.

Every game, you’ll see ballhandlers scoot into the lane and panic when they realize Wembanyama is coming over. Even tried-and-true mechanisms for avoiding elite shotblockers, like using the rim to protect a reverse layup, falter next to Wemby’s greatness:

And despite living in the paint, Wembanyama is seldom in foul trouble.

Wembanyama boasts a stop percentage of 5.0%, just a hair behind Smith. Despite the presence of Luke Kornet, a very good defensive center in his own right, Wembanyama has the highest defensive on/off numbers in the league. The Spurs give up 13.5 points per 100 possessions fewer with him on the court than off.

Plus, I mean, c’mon:

He has a whole career left to play, but there’s a real chance Wembanyama will go down as the best defender in the history of the game.

Ausar Thompson, Detroit Pistons

When giving my DPOY to Amen Thompson last year, I mused that I might well be rewarding the worse twin. With a full year of health, Ausar has emerged as the most dominant perimeter disruptor in the league, marrying jailer one-on-one positional defense with freaky block, steal, and deflection rates. His arms are everywhere. I bet he gives great hugs.

Thompson is the rare player where the stats and the eye test both scream the same thing. Despite a propensity for picking up fouls, Thompson is third in LEBRON, second in EPM, and third in DPM. Outside of Wemby, he has by far the craziest defensive highlight reel you’ll see this season. Pairing generational athletic gifts with an impeccable eye for timing generates some fun results. Watch as he helps off of Kawhi Leonard to snuff out a James Harden layup:

People don’t usually feel comfortable helping off of MVP candidates. Harden still doesn’t know what hit him.

The wild part is that Thompson has plenty of rough edges to sand off. Going for blocks and steals that wouldn’t be possible for the rest of the league is part of his appeal, but he can easily cut out some of his worst fouls and be even better on that end. Health permitting, I suspect I’ll be including him on these lists for the next decade — if he qualifies. He’s had a bunch of games with fewer than 20 minutes played, and while he should make the 65-game rule, he doesn’t have much margin for error.

Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves

There are only so many ways to say that Gobert is an elite paint protector, but as Kevin Durant found out in the Rockets’ ghastly overtime loss to the Timberwolves, he’s pretty darn good on the perimeter in a pinch, too:

That’s sort of Gobert in a nutshell. It rarely looks pretty, he constantly seems on the verge of falling over, and yet it almost always ends with a stop.

Gobert started off the season looking like a DPOY contender before trailing off a bit as the Timberwolves’ general malaise caught up to everyone. But we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Gobert’s mere presence ensures an elite defense regardless of his infrastructure or supporting cast. Gobert is top-10 in all four of the all-in-one metrics I looked at. Even taking into account that there isn’t another real center on the roster, the on/off metrics are astonishing.

It sounds small, but nobody in the NBA is better about keeping their arms up on defense. When those arms can encircle the Earth, that’s meaningful.

There might only be one person I trust more to anchor a defense.

Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder

Holmgren and Gobert are vying for the title of the second-best rim protector in basketball. Gobert has the edge in one-on-one post defense, but Holmgren is a legitimate game-changer in aerial combat.

Out of players who have contested at least 300 attempts at the rim, Holmgren’s 48.0% FG% allowed is the lowest by far; Wembanyama is second, at 52.4%. He’s not quite the same level of rim deterrent as Gobert or Wembanyama, but he’s averaging more blocks than Gobert on a per-possession basis, and he has a little more versatility as a defender (often playing power forward next to Isaiah Hartenstein). He’s even rebounding at career-best levels.

Like Gobert, Holmgren is top-10 in LEBRON, EPM, DPM, and XRAPM; I haven’t made my DPOY ballot yet, but as his placement on this list indicates, he’ll be a strong contender for a spot.

Derrick White, Boston Celtics

What a bounce-back campaign for White. He slipped last season, missing my All-Defensive teams for the first time in years, but he’s been arguably better than ever this season. White is sixth in LEBRON, fifth in EPM, and fourth in XRAPM. He’s not perfectly airtight in one-on-one defense, but there isn’t a better help defender in the league. He’s a tremendous communicator, pointing and directing and yelling at teammates; Boston’s defensive IQ collectively rises a few points whenever he’s on the floor. Proof: The Celtics are 11 points stingier with White on the floor than off, a bigger number even than Neemias Queta (who is backed up by two of the worst defensive centers in the league, mind you).

There might not be a better shot-blocking guard ever, and they aren’t all of the helper-leaping-over-from-the-corner variety. Please and thank you, Kel’el Ware:

Somehow, at 31 years old and with his largest offensive role ever, White is averaging the most blocks and second-most steals per possession of his career. Usually, the more you do on offense, the less you can do on defense. Not so with White.

All-Defensive Second Team

Cason Wallace, Oklahoma City Thunder

Fun fact about snakes: Boa constrictors don’t squeeze the life out of their prey all at once. Instead, they tighten their coils bit by bit, adjusting based on their trapped prey’s breathing and heartbeat, until the heart beats no longer. It’s grim, but efficient.

Don’t know why I thought of that. In unrelated news, here’s Cason Wallace pacing, poking, prodding until the offense dies:

The Thunder generate a ton of turnovers by creating panic. Wallace’s role as the point-of-attack defender is where it all starts. He presses as soon as they cross halfcourt (if not earlier), forcing ballhandlers into desperate escape passes that gum up the offense. Sometimes, he doesn’t even give that much clemency:

Of qualifying players, only Ausar Thompson averages more steals and more deflections per possession. Wallace is top-five in LEBRON and EPM, and he’s far more versatile than he’s given credit for. It’s clear he picked up some tricks for defending bigger players from teammates Lu Dort and Alex Caruso.

In fact, he may have surpassed those two. Caruso can wear down. Dort gets into foul trouble. Meanwhile, Wallace is always squeezing, squeezing.

Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat

Adebayo’s strengths have never really popped in the individual statistics. He’s not a monster rim protector, and he doesn’t generate some absurd number of steals or blocks. But the Heat have had a top-10 defense in every one of his nine years. Adebayo’s ability to do anything on the court is the skeleton key that unlocks that success.

He might be the best one-on-one defender in the league, full stop. While teammate Kel’el Ware has plenty of individual defensive issues, one of the nice things about having him on the court is that it frees Adebayo to wreck guys on the perimeter. He’ll even play at the top of Miami’s unconventional zone defenses on occasion!

Adebayo’s most underrated skill is that he’s a voracious rebounder and an excellent box-outer. It’s unsexy, thankless work. The Heat are an elite defensive rebounding team thanks to his ability to conquer space when the ball is in the air. (I thought about including a box-out clip here, and decided that was too boring even for me.) Put another way, the Heat are a 94th-percentile rebounding unit with Bam, and an 11th-percentile rebounding team without him.

And finally, Bam never bails out the offense. He’s in the 99th percentile for foul avoidance. Adebayo is an exemplar of the youth-coach maxim to play defense with your feet, not your arms. There are no lazy reaches, no wild block attempts that end in a midair bodyslam. He’s in the right place at the right time, all the time.

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

Barnes is tied with Ausar Thompson for the second-most stocks (steals + blocks) per game at 2.9, and only he, ball magnet Paul Reed, and Mitchell Robinson average at least two steals and two blocks per 100 possessions. Those giant arms of his swing like trebuchets, pinning the ball against the backboard time and again. He makes an astonishing number of big plays in crunchtime, too, as he anchors the Raptors’ league-leading clutch defense.

Overall, the Raps’ defense is quite good when he’s on the floor and falls off pretty dramatically when he isn’t. The only thing holding him back from greater glory is weirdly anemic rim protection numbers, as Barnes consistently allows >60% at the rim, a meh mark even given his relatively undersized status.

Still, Barnes has routinely made his mark as a defender with game-saving plays, and he’s been at the center of the Raptors’ playoff push this season.

OG Anunoby, New York Knicks

Like White, Anunoby was another of my previous honorees who slipped a little last season only to bounce back this year.

95% of the time, when we talk about a defensive anchor holding down an entire unit, we’re talking about big men: Wembanyama, Holmgren, Gobert, etc. But Anunoby is right up there with those two, not merely steadying a defense that starts very weak links at point guard (Jalen Brunson) and center (Karl-Anthony Towns), but leading them to a best-in-class defensive rating for half the season so far. That’s right, the New York Knicks have had a top-five defense since January 8th, 36 games ago, and they’re ninth overall!

Sure, that’s an arbitrarily chosen cutoff point, but think about how little Anunoby and coach Mike Brown have to work with on this end — and there hasn’t even been much shooting luck. It’s a water-to-wine miracle, if we’re being honest.

It helps that Anunoby is one of the league’s premier wing stoppers and one of its most capable backline help defenders. He’ll put you in a box and ship you off like a belated birthday present, or he’ll jump out of the shadows like a C-list horror villain. There isn’t a more well-rounded defender in the league.

Kris Dunn, Los Angeles Clippers

Dunn was excluded from the NBA’s official teams last season due to the 20-minute rule. He had a staggering number of 19-minute appearances. This year, coach Ty Lue (to his belated credit) made sure his guy would qualify: 10 of Dunn’s games have come with between 20 and 22 minutes of playing time, versus just two below 20.

Truthfully, though, it’s not like Lue has had to stretch himself. Dunn’s been solid enough to justify the increased PT thanks to an uptick in shooting percentages all over the court. That just-good-enough offense has given Dunn free rein to spread terror. Watch as he scares the sh*t out of Kevin Durant, sprints back to recover onto Tari Eason, forces two changes of direction, and absorbs a shoulder from the much bigger Eason, allowing his teammates to get set:

That’s not a sexy highlight or an example of Dunn at his apex. But it is the kind of hard-hat effort that Dunn routinely brings, working to turn great shots into good shots and good shots into decent ones and decent ones into bad ones until the offense is all out of gas and nobody is quite sure why.

Dunn’s advanced numbers aren’t quite as sublime as they are for some other guys on this list (although they’re still very good), but I bet if you asked opposing coaches who they don’t want to deal with, Dunn’s name would be right near the top of the list.

All-Defensive Third Team

Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers

There’s been a tangible aura of disappointment around Mobley’s offense this year, and I wonder how much that has impacted him on defense. This isn’t just a narrative thing, either; the all-in-one stats are significantly lower. He still anchors a strong Cavs group that has an above-average defensive rating with or without Jarrett Allen, even though there isn’t a ton of defensive talent in the lineups around him.

Few big men are as mobile on the perimeter, and even fewer are still blocking nearly two shots per game. Although Mobley’s strengths are prodigious, his lack of weaknesses is even more impressive.

Want him to corral a ballhandler? No problem. Show and recover? Your wish is his command. Defend the paint? Goes without saying. There are a ton of parallels between Mobley and Adebayo, but their defensive Swiss Army knifeness is the most obvious.

Hopefully, this year is just a temporary blip, and he’ll go back to competing for DPOY trophies next season. In the meanwhile, I hope this isn’t too faint praise — he’s still a beast!

Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks

Daniels is penalized a bit because he’s sort of a one-trick pony who hasn’t been as great at the thing he’s great at, dropping from 3.0 steals per game last year to 1.9 this season in nearly identical playing time. That said, getting a steal is the best outcome of any possession, so it’s still a pretty good trick!

Daniels routinely faces the toughest matchups. He’s the best in the league at poking the ball out from behind a ballhandler, whether off the dribble or in the post. And he does it so contemptuously:

In a stunning turn of events, Daniels has now drawn three charges. That’s three more than all of last season!

I wonder sometimes what Daniels would look like if he could play like a perimeter Jaren Jackson Jr., guarding worse players while floating around and hunting for steals. There would be problems with that scheme from a team perspective, but it sure would be fun to watch.

Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets

Usually, I highlight the good things that players do when I grant them my majestic, made-up awards. Unfortunately, Thompson, my DPOY last season, has slightly disappointed me this year.

I noticed something was wrong when I went through my game notes. Last year, every Rockets match had multiple line items about Thompson’s freaky defense. This year? Mentions were much fewer and farther between.

The metrics heavily support this. EPM/LEBRON? Down. Block rate? Down. Defensive rebounds? Down. Steal rate? Down. Houston’s defensive rating when Thompson is on the floor? Up (which is Down, feelings-wise).

Thompson is playing a metric ton of minutes and handling a bigger offensive load. It’s taken a small toll on the other end. He’s still been awesome, just a tiny bit less awesome.

Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers

This won’t be a popular choice, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Leonard isn’t quite the human straitjacket he was at his Klaw peak, but he’s still somehow averaging significantly more steals (2.0) than fouls (1.4). Nobody is more likely to take a baby’s candy³. The Clippers’ defense is a whopping 7.2 points per 100 possessions stingier when Leonard plays than when he doesn’t (and that mostly holds without the traded Ivica Zubac on the court, too).

Defense, particularly perimeter defense, is typically a young man’s game — just look at this list. So much about it requires the sort of quick-twitch movement that fades as players cross the Rubicon of 30. But Leonard’s preternatural instincts haven’t aged at all. For a player so often described as robotic, he brings a fluid economy of motion that’s almost unique.

The advanced metrics are unusually split on him. LEBRON and EPM think he’s merely been above-average, but DPM and XRAPM both put him as a top-10 qualifying defender in basketball. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle, but my eyeballs agree with the latter two.

Leonard doesn’t always take the toughest matchups anymore, but there isn’t a wing more tactically or mechanically sound. I hope guys like the Thompsons are taking notes.

Leonard won’t make the real teams; everyone acknowledges that he’s been great, but all the focus has been on his offense. He has a much better chance at All-NBA than at All-Defensive. But Leonard remains, if not as dangerous as ever, pretty goddamn dangerous.

Toumani Camara, Portland Trail Blazers

Per Synergy, Camara presses more than any other guard in the league, and boy, does that come through the TV screen. I hope Camara flosses; he’s breathing down his man's neck all game long.

All that pressure gets in guys’ heads. Camara is on pace to set a new tracking-era record for offensive fouls drawn (Lu Dort had 93 in 74 games back in 2022-23; Camara has 92 in 73 games this season). He doesn’t believe in personal space. The ropy guard is averaging more than one of these per game:

Even early-2020s Dort wasn’t chasing guys around for this many feet, however. Camara is the Association’s most annoying defender — and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

Honorable mentions: Stephon Castle (my toughest cut, but he’s one year away; the fouls can be sloppy), Lu Dort (advanced metrics hate him compared to everyone else on this list, and although I’ve defended his physical playstyle in the past, he’s slid under a few too many shooters’ feet for my tastes this season), Jaden McDaniels, Draymond Green (noticeably a step slower this year, although certain advanced metrics still love him), Trae Young (just making sure you’re paying attention!), Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (overrated defensively last season, underrated this season), Neemias Queta (maybe my favorite story of the season), Tari Eason, Javonte Green, Ron Holland, Anthony Black, a whole bunch of other guys who don’t or are highly unlikely to qualify

1. This should be obvious, but anytime I mention an all-in-one advanced stat, I’m only talking about the defensive portion. I typically use a 1,000-minute cutoff.

2. Stop percentage is how often a player steals, draws an offensive foul, or blocks a shot that is recovered by the defense. In other words, how often a player directly creates a change of possession.

3. Unless you pay him an endorsement fee, in which case he won’t show up. Protect babies; pay Leonard.