As with any distinction in which styles and eras must be mixed, it is not easy to determine which have been the best defenders in NBA history. But there is, as (also) in almost all classifications, obvious consensuses that indicate that, at the very least, it is clear where the shots are going. And when the river sounds… Isn’t Gary Payton the best defensive point guard in history for practically everyone? Isn’t Scottie Pippen by far the best forward at the back? Since mixing positions also complicates a category that always illuminates especially the tall men (defensive specialists and anchors now in danger of extinction), it seems more interesting to create a perfect defensive team. A priori invincible if we count on the fact that it includes legends who were also extraordinary (the best ever in some cases) in attack. This is how we would create the perfect defensive team in NBA history:
BASES: Gary Payton, Walt Frazier, Dennis Johnson
Gary Payton. They called him The Glove, and he is the only point guard who has been Defender of the Year (1996). He entered the Best Defensive Quintet nine consecutive times (1994-2002) and finally became champion in 2006 with the Heat. In the 1996 Finals, the Sonics faced the Bulls 72-10 and left a sample of his ability as a defender against Michael Jordan himself, who posted his worst numbers in a series for the title: 27.3 points on average with 41% shooting and five of the six games in the Final with less than 30 points. In addition to that, he was very capable of around 20 points and 8 assists on average. Despite his height of 1.93, he took care of the rival’s most explosive scorers with quick hands, footwork, intelligence and intensity. He is capable of forcing bad shots without losing his place in the search for steals (1.8 on average throughout his career, 2.9 in 1995-96). Well, that’s the glove.
For the bench, Chris Paul is going to be left out, surely the great defensive point guard of this generation (and much more than that), but I opt for two other attack dogs from the past. On the one hand, Walt Frazier, who is obviously more associated with the New York style and the Knicks rings (1970 and 1973). Frazier averaged almost a tremendous 19 + 6 + 6 in his career but also almost 2 steals. He was included in the Best Defensive Quintet seven times and had some of the fastest hands in history, which made him the first great point guard to specialize in steals that generated points for his team. And, with him, Dennis Johnson, the tank that Larry Bird’s Celtics used in their attempt to stop Andrew Toney (Sixers) and Magic Johnson, the Showtime genius who was nicknamed Tragic after his mistakes in the 1984 Finals. Almost all of them, forced by Dennis Johnson. He went from scoring combo guard and Finals MVP with the Sonics (1979) to rocky specialist in the proud greens.
ESCOLTAS: Michael Jordan, Sidney Moncrief, Michael Cooper
Sometimes, and it makes sense for everything else, we forget that Michael Jordan was also the best defending specialist at his position. He was Defender of the Year in 1988, when he stole 3.2 balls per game and also averaged 1.6 blocks. He made the Best Defensive Quintet nine times and retired with 2.3 steals and almost 1 block per game. Terrifying in a defense that I will return to in the next section, that of the forwards.
And now? Sidney Moncrief should not be missing. The Squid, the squid, the player who led the Bucks in the 80s who only had a worse percentage in that decade than the Lakers and Celtics. With his number 4 retired in Wisconsin, Moncrief was a short guard (1.91) but strong, versatile and capable of doing everything on the court. Also in defense, where he was extraordinary for his quickness of foot and jumping ability. A too forgotten player (he lacked to do something really great with those Bucks) and who won the first two editions of the Defender of the Year award, in 1983 and 1984. And along with him, the great Michael Cooper, the one who made the Forum shouted the inonic “cuuuuuuuuuup” during the games, a defensive legend that Larry Bird suffered (his incredible work in the 1987 Finals, for example). Cooper was thin and of endless size who was Defender of the Year in 1987, he entered the Best Defensive Quintet five times and three in the second and was one of the most loved players by the Los Angeles fans. Always a Laker (1978-90) he won five rings and has won this position from Joe Dumars (whose absence especially saddens me) because he had the speed and agility to chase a devilish point guard like Isiah Thomas and the length to spoil his afternoons (everything what was possible, at least) to the aforementioned Bird, who after his retirement referred to Cooper as the best defender he had faced. That should be enough, I think.
ALEROS: Scottie Pippen, Ron Artest, Kawhi Leonard
There can be no argument: no pure forward has been better defensively than Scottie Pippen, and few have been superior to him when taking the entire game as a whole. Extraordinary, a legendary player, Pippen was a member of the Best Defensive Quintet eight times and second twice. He averaged two steals in his career and 2.9 in the nearly two seasons in which he led the Bulls, during Michael Jordan’s first retirement (1993-95). His defensive ability on the wings combined with that of Horace Grant, with Michael Jordan as the spearhead, created a defense never seen before because it was aggressive and suffocating in Phil Jackson’s Bulls. The three dogs of assistant Johnny Bach, defensive manager of the Zen Master.
On the bench, first a tough guy. Ron Artest (later Metta World Peace etc.) was many times, for years in fact, a player with an uncontrollable and self-destructive character, too aggressive and with unpredictable reactions. But also a tremendous forward who learned in Queens not to take a step back. With the constitution of a warship, he annulled rivals by force but also by fundamentals. He ended up redeeming himself definitively in the champion Lakers in 2010. He showed, and the seventh game is a perfect example, the toughness that the Angelenos had not matched against the Celtics two years before. And then, Kawhi Leonard. Twice Defender of the Year (2015, 2016), the forward was forged in Popovich’s Spurs (which once had Bruce Bowen, Duncan, Robinson…) and rose to stardom with his defense of LeBron James in the Finals of 2014, where he emerged as the unexpected MVP. Exceptional for his physique and concentration and with huge hands, in the 2019 Raptors he showed that although he was already the franchise player and measured his efforts more in defense, he was still a super specialist capable of changing games based on his work. behind him. With the tenacity of a cyborg. Later, his physique has not accompanied him in his years with the Clippers.
ALA-PIVOTS: Tim Duncan, Dennis Rodman, Kevin Garnett
Fourth place and fourth starter, I believe, indisputable. The best at his position ever and one of the greats in history, Tim Duncan was many things… but also an extraordinary defender. First partnering with David Robinson (another exceptional specialist), then as an anchor and extension of Popovich on the court. Eight times in the Best Defensive Quintet, seven in the Second, ten years without dropping below two blocks on average… And the numbers are not everything: positioning, anticipation, leadership, intelligence… between 1999 and 2007 he left in the playoffs absolutely anthological defensive displays. For the use of any coach and the learning of any player.
Then, I think, Dennis Rodman and Kevin Garnett. The first is a player and a type that is impossible to predict, unorthodox and different from the rest… but ultra-effective, fearsome. In the Bad Boys of Detroit and in the pluperfect Bulls of the second threepeat. Twice Defender of the Year, seven times in the Best Defensive Quintet, one of the great rebounders in history and an unstoppable player in individual marking, with an exhausting intensity for any rival. Kevin Garnett, for his part, was a much more canonical defender, explosive in the Wolves and with gifted positional intelligence in the champion Celtics in 2008, when his physicality was already declining. Defender of the Year in 2008, he entered the Best Defensive Quintet nine times and three times in the Second. Surely the best power forward ever behind Duncan, he would also be alongside him and Gusano Rodman among the best defenders in history at the position.
PIVOTS: Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo
And here is the crux, the biggest debates, the most obvious doubts and the cruelest dismissals. The great specialists, the intimidators, the players who swept everything in the zones… So, first, a list of those who have been left out, cut by cut, but deserve at least a mention: David Robinson, Ben Wallace, Nate Thurmond, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish, Artis Gilmore, Alonzo Mourning, Mark Eaton, Wilt Chamberlain, now also Rudy Gobert…
The first, however prehistoric, has to be Bill Russell. Or precisely because it is prehistory. At that time (eleven rings between 1957 and 1969), there was no data on blocks or Defender of the Year awards. Russell changed the consideration of the defensive specialist, a nuclear weapon in the hands of Red Auerbach, who articulated an uptempo attack thanks to Russell’s ability to not only intimidate but also recover possessions (and average more than 20 rebounds a night, of course). The center threw a ball that did not touch the ground to Cousy, who already mounted a dazzling transition from midfield. In the sixties, a style that was impossible to stop. Russell had, of course, a privileged physique, but in his battles against Wilt Chamberlain he made it clear that he also had intelligence, defensive fundamentals and toughness. The balls he blocked and shot out became known as wilsonburgers (after the Wilson brand), round, brown spots in the air), and Russell became the great epitome of the defensive player.
And behind, and with the utmost respect to those mentioned, firstly for the bench, Hakeem Olajuwon. Which could be the headline. A legendary center, gifted, extraordinary and ahead of his time. In defense, much more than numbers: intimidation, reading and the ability to dry out the centers and manage (in times when this was unlikely) to score the outside shot on the three-point line. Twice Defender of the Year, five times in the Best Defensive Quintet, in 15 years he never averaged less than two blocks per game and on three occasions he exceeded 4. Dominating in attack, also dominating in defense, an inonic center and difficult to improve in any aspect . One that today would be just as transcendental.
And next to them, and as an emergency intimidator, Dikembe Mutombo. The only one along with Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert who has been Defender of the Year four times (in his case between 1995 and 2001), he averaged almost 3 blocks per game throughout his career. And when the Nuggerts became the first eighth seed to eliminate a seed in the playoffs (the Sonics, in 1994: from 2-0 to 3-2), Mutombo averaged 6.2 in the series! plugs. When he hugged the ball in ecstasy at the end of game five, an image that is NBA playoff history, he was definitively elevated (and what was to come…) to the altars of defensive basketball. And it continues in them.
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2024-05-08 14:26:48
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