The NBA announced its All-Defensive teams for the 2019/20 season on Tuesday, and there weren’t many surprises among the 10 players who made the cut.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, and Rudy Gobert – the three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year – headlined the First Team along with guards Ben Simmons and Marcus Smart. Former two-time DPOY Kawhi Leonard led the way on the Second Team, joined by teammate Patrick Beverley, as well as Brook Lopez, Eric Bledsoe, and Bam Adebayo.
While none of the inclusions on this year’s All-Defensive teams were particularly egregious, the announcement still drew the ire of some players and observers who felt that certain defenders were overlooked.
Pelicans guard J.J. Redick, for instance, argued (via Twitter) that teammate Jrue Holiday is the best defensive guard in the league and was snubbed in this year’s voting. Holiday received a pair of First Team votes and 14 Second Team votes, placing him third among guards who didn’t make the cut, behind Kris Dunn and Kyle Lowry.
Speaking of Lowry, former NBA swingman Mario Elie took exception to the fact that the Raptors guard didn’t make an All-Defensive squad this season, and singled out Rockets forward P.J. Tucker as another player who shouldn’t have been omitted. Tucker’s 29 Second Team votes placed him atop the list of forwards who missed the cut, just ahead of Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, and Pascal Siakam.
It’s worth noting that when Jon Krawczynski and Josh Robbins of The Athletic conducted an anonymous coaches poll on the All-Defensive teams earlier this summer, Tucker was the one player in the coaches’ 10-player group who didn’t eventually earn a spot on the official All-Defensive teams — those anonymous coaches voted Tucker in over Lopez.
What do you think? Do Holiday, Lowry, Tucker, or any other players have legitimate gripes, or did voters get it pretty much right? Were there any players on either of this year’s All-Defensive teams who you felt didn’t deserve their spot?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
My biggest question is always
If Kris Dunn, Holiday，Tucker ，Lowry and others are in
Who are out？
If you want Butler in then Bam out
If you want Paul George in then Kawhi out
Correct？
or 8 more players in and nobody out？
As was stated above, Tucker should have beat out Lopez.
No way. Brook was one of the most dominant defensive bigs in the year by many numbers, some better even than Gobert’s like defensive box +/-.
Tucker’s defense is a bit overrated IMO. If any of these snubs deserved to get in it would be Holiday and to a lesser extent Lowry. I wouldn’t have had an issue with either getting a second-team spot over Bledsoe, and that’s coming from a Bucks fan.
Dunn has to improve his all-around game to qualify, right now he costs you as many points as he prevents – a lot of his risky steal attempts result in undefended opposition baskets.
Take out Eric Bledsoe for Jrue Holiday. Eric might do alright defence all year and look nice on stats but he plays on a defensive team, whereas Jrue Holiday will lock you up and played on a young offensive team
The first team is fine. I could see a third team, with Tucker, Butler, Dunn, Anunoby & Jrue Holiday. Lopez did focus more on defense. This would have been a year for Jon Isaac to break in, but he only played 34 games. Mitch Robinson & Andre Drummond also saw limited time. Anunoby grew on me and should factor in next year. I don’t think Leonard and Lowry made the same effort as in the past, but Kawhi can get in by DPOY reputation. Paul George & Avery Bradley despite reps, did not grade out that high. Covington was put in a tough situation as a big. Dunn did too, but used his quickness advantage well at the 3, and everyone was gunning for steals; Bulls got the league’s most.
Matisse Thybulle is the best defender in the league. If he played more minutes, he’d be on your list.
No he’s not, and I’m a huge Sixers’ fan and I like Matisse. He’ll get there, but for right now he fouls too much and gambles too much to be considered for any all-defensive team.
Lu Dort will be there probably soon. I was watching Anunoby play center (!) tonight and VanGundy went on about Dort, who was not in the game. Thybulle will gain from knowledge. That’s three names to add next year. Andre Roderson will be returning, IDK how effectively, as he had a guaranteed contract to play out.
Embiid should have been there!