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Picking the NBA All-Defensive First and Second Teams is one of my favorite exercises each year. Publicly available defensive metrics are improving but still aren’t great (particularly for perimeter defense, where they may be able to capture overall impact but can’t easily explain why a perimeter defender is good). The eye test is essential but can be tricked without an understanding of a team’s defensive principles and a player’s role within that ecosystem. So much of defense is about turning good shots into mediocre ones — and that’s really hard to capture with the naked retina.

That’s why it’s fun! More than anywhere else, there’s plenty of room for reasonable disagreement. This year, in particular, picking All-Defensive teams was difficult. Many of my favorite defenders won’t qualify for the two real teams due to the league’s 65-game participation rule for awards (which technically requires 63 games with at least 20 minutes played, which matters, as we’ll see shortly).

To adjust for that, I’ve compiled three All-Defensive teams: the two officially recognized by the league and one comprised of individuals who won’t qualify. I did the same exercise last year.

Let’s start with the non-qualifiers to winnow down the pool. There are still 10-ish games left, so I’ve done my best to judge which players will and won’t technically qualify at year’s end.

All-Defensive Non-Qualifying Team

Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

Ausar Thompson, Detroit Pistons

Kris Dunn, Los Angeles Clippers

Alex Caruso, Oklahoma City Thunder

Dorian Finney-Smith, Los Angeles Lakers

This is probably a better defensive unit than either of the two real teams, if a bit too perimeter-focused for my liking (I generally believe that big men are more important on defense than perimeter players, although my belief in that has diminished slightly this season). I’ve talked plenty about the first three guys, as all three won quarterly defensive awards in these here digital pages, so we’ll move through them quickly to get to the good stuff.

Victor Wembanyama is the best defender in the NBA by the eye test and metrics, even with plenty of room for improvement. He’ll win Defensive Player of the Year every season he’s healthy until voters get bored giving it to him.

Ausar Thompson came into the season a little too late to qualify for awards, but he’s one of the best perimeter defenders I’ve ever seen for his age. Both he and his brother should earn oodles of All-Defensive selections going forward.

It’s trickier for Kris Dunn, who nabs this exact slot for the second year in a row. Dunn has been my favorite defensive player this year, but he won’t qualify for the real award because he won’t make the minimum of 63 games with at least 20 minutes — he has a staggering number of 19-minute appearances. C’mon, Ty Lue, think of your guys!

Alex Caruso is a no-brainer here. He tops several advanced metrics. He’s the league’s best small help defender, constantly digging and doubling, and he’s unshakeable on the ball, a bloodhound with the scent in his nostrils. Despite a 99th-percentile steal rate, Caruso doesn’t gamble. The math flashes behind his predatory eyes as he calculates, and he moves only when the outcome is certain:

The Thunder have an Azkaban full of defensive killers who do the same things Caruso does, yet they’re still stingier with Caruso on than when he’s off. Despite his 6’5” height, he’s spent equal time guarding Ja Morant as Kawhi Leonard.

Caruso would’ve been on my DPOY ballot if he’d clocked more tick-tock.

The last spot was the trickiest, and I had trouble deciding between a handful of candidates.

Jonathan Isaac hasn’t been quite as impactful this season as he was in previous years, and his minutes are so scant. But he’s arguably the league’s best big-man roamer, and it feels weird not choosing a player from the Magic’s ferocious defense. Tari Eason is one-half of Houston’s Terror Twins along with Amen Thompson, and while the latter is a scarier, more well-rounded defender, Eason is even more of a defensive playmaker.

My love for Jalen Suggs’ snarling brand of defense is well-documented. He has some of the finest body control of any defender in the league, warping space in a way usually reserved for bigger players. The Magic had a 98th-percentile defensive rating when Suggs stepped on the court, and it becomes tissue paper when he’s off. He’d have been a for-sure All-Defensive Teamer if he’d played more, but he only appeared in 35 games this year; even on a team specifically meant for players who didn’t play much, that’s not enough.

I desperately wanted to pick Dorian Finney-Smith. There’s a lot of noise (shooting luck, substitutions on both sides, etc.) in on/off numbers, but it’s telling that the defense was way better with him on the floor than off in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles (the latter of which falls apart every time he takes a breather).

Let’s put it this way: the Lakers have a 107.2 defensive rating, 95th percentile, when he shares the court with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. That’s the sort of miracle that gets people canonized posthumously.

DFS is big enough to play small-ball center, as he did in Brooklyn, and quick enough to handle wings, as he’s done in LA (to a degree that has surprised me — I thought his lockdown on-ball defensive days were in the past). Bball-Index says he’s been the most versatile defender in the NBA. I’d love to know how many All-Defensive votes he would have gotten for real if he’d been just a tad healthier.

Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Stewart, and Daniel Gafford deserve honorable mentions, and let’s give a quick shoutout to Paul Reed, who has barely played this season but has put up some of the craziest per-possession stock and stop numbers I can recall. Unfortunately, a few hundred minutes isn’t enough for me to give him serious consideration for this made-up award.

Ultimately, I went with Anthony Davis, who received at least a little Defensive Player of the Year buzz before getting hurt. AD’s peak is as good or better than anyone’s this side of Wembanyama. While the Lakers’ defense waxed and waned throughout the season, it’s worth noting that they began their resurgence while Davis was still on the team. Their success since he left is despite his absence, not because of it, and they still miss the margin for error he provides. I’ve also always been impressed with Davis’ defensive motor, considering how much of an offensive burden he carries — he puts forth the effort of an 18-minute try-hard role player.

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All-Defensive Second Team

Ivica Zubac, Los Angeles Clippers

Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks

Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies

Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder

Toumani Camara, Portland Trail Blazers

Ivica Zubac has emerged as one of the league’s top defenders. He’s second in the league in rim attempts defended and allows a lower conversion rate (55.8%) than anyone else in the top 10 except Jarrett Allen. Unlike Allen, however, Zubac doesn’t get overpowered by bigger players and dominates the defensive glass. He also never fouls, forces opponents to take a ton of middies, and anchors a top-decile defense when he’s on the court, despite almost always pairing with James Harden.

As the season has worn on, my eyes have opened to a few of Dyson Daniels’ defensive flaws. He’s not a great switch defender, isn’t in the same class as Lu Dort or Caruso or Thompson (either one) as a one-on-one defender, and doesn’t provide much as a help defender besides jumping passing lanes (he’s somehow never taken a charge, which seems impossible). It’s hard to blame him too much for the team’s overall defensive weakness, given how many subpar defenders surround him, but we certainly can’t say he’s led elite defenses like nearly everyone else on these lists.

Regardless, his utterly unique ability to generate steals is worthy of All-Defensive consideration on its own (and he does it despite the hardest average matchup difficulty in the league). He’s right on the border of averaging three steals per game, which hasn’t been done since John Stockton and Alvin Robertson in the early ‘90s. Some are literally game-winners:

For most NBA players, the reach-around poke (stop it) is an act of desperation. For Daniels, it’s a legitimate weapon. It’s unreal how often this works:

Daniels will likely receive a smattering of DPOY votes. I can’t go that far, but I do appreciate his assault on the record books.

Jaren Jackson is at his best when he can roam like a free-range giraffe, swatting shots and scaring guys away from the rim. The Grizzlies' defense has been well above average regardless of whether he’s playing power forward or center, and he’s held the team together despite a rash of injuries to many of his teammates.

That said, he hasn’t been quite as sharp as when he won the award in 2023, and he still can’t rebound or stop fouling. I’d love to have JJJ on my team, particularly given how he’s leveled up on offense — but I think he could be capable of even more defensively.

I prize versatility more than most people. I believe that guys who are pretty good at a lot of things are usually better defenders and players than guys with starker strengths and weaknesses. After seeing Jalen Williams anchor the Thunder’s dominant defense as both an on-ball harasser, off-ball chaser, and even small-ball center, I’m not sure there’s anything he can’t do.

He doesn’t have to do everything; that’s the beauty of the Thunder’s incredibly deep defensive thresher. But I’ve seen enough to know that Williams deserves a spot here, and he’s not the last OKC player we’ll be talking about.

Toumani Camara has been a monster on defense since his rookie season. This year, he’s faced the baddest dudes in the NBA and proved he’s pretty badass himself:

He picks people up full-court more than almost anyone in the league, harassing them until they inevitably snap: Camara leads the league in both charges drawn and non-charge offensive fouls drawn.

Here’s a fun fact, courtesy of a very conveniently timed piece from Owen Phillips at The F5 that landed this morning: the Blazers lead the league in shot-clock violations forced. Camara’s unrelenting pressure and heady switching play a big part in that.

He’s annoying, in the best sense of the word. Here, he pretends to disrupt a pass from the ref to a rushing Chris Paul on an inbounds play to distract Paul and give his teammates a quarter-second longer to get back on defense. How often do you see referee defense?

Is that silly? Undoubtedly. But it’s one of those itty-bitty attention to detail things, like Nikola Jokic tying his shoes whenever the team needs an extra second to call for a replay, that shows the big brain residing in Camara’s noggin. I yearn like a lovestruck Shakespearian lead to put him on First Team, but I ultimately couldn’t do it.

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All-Defensive First Team

Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers

Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors

Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves

Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets

Lu Dort, Oklahoma City Thunder

Evan Mobley is currently a top candidate to win many DPOY votes, speaking to the season he’s had. I have some qualms about that (although I’ll save those for the awards discussion next week).

But as I mentioned in the Williams section, flexibility matters to me. Mobley might be the most adaptable big man in the NBA. Yes, he’s been attacked at the end of games a surprising amount (see Boston and Sacramento), but part of the reason teams want to get him into the pick-and-roll is so Mobley can’t explode their actions as a help defender. He’s equally capable of lurking for blocks as he is anchoring the middle of an old-school 2-3 zone defense. The Cavs finally have an elite defense when Mobley is at center without Jarrett Allen, which has been a knock against him in the past.

Mobley seems likely to come in first or second on the final DPOY ballot; I don’t think he’ll rank that high on mine, but there’s still time left for him to change my mind.

Green had a bit of a midseason lull, but he shines in the alphabet soup metrics and the more basic ones: he’s posting his highest steal and block percentages since 2016-17. He’s doing all the things he’s always done: barking out commands from the backline, slapping Flex-Seal on every hole that sprouts up in Golden State’s defensive shell, and locking down those foolish pups who dare test him in isolation:

This isn’t Green’s finest year (and he still needs to play in nearly all of Golden State’s remaining games to qualify, far from a guarantee). But it’s a heck of a lot closer to his best season than his worst, and for a historically great defender who just turned 35, that’s saying something.

Rudy Gobert is once again an analytics darling. As always, the defense is a top-decile unit when Gobert is on the court and average (or worse) when he’s off. As always, he leads or is near the top of most of the all-in-ones. As always, he frightens offenses away from the rim. As always, he manages to contest a ton of shots without committing a corresponding ton of fouls.

He started the season slowly but has rounded back into something pretty close to his DPOY-winning form from last year, although his blocks are down. Gobert remains the apex regular-season defender — plop him down with any random foursome, and you’ll have an elite defense (and don’t take that as shade toward his playoff performances, where he’s been stronger than narratives would have you believe).

Amen Thompson has spent all season locking people in jail and swallowing the key. Advanced metrics (where he’s routinely at the top of the heap for qualifying perimeter defenders) love his stock rates and rebounding, and I love the freaky athleticism and supernatural instincts. Like a kid sneaking his first horror movie, I had to cover my eyes watching Andrew Wiggins dribble near Thompson:

Thompson leads the league in out-of-nowhere blocks, perfectly timing his help defense to catch shooters off-guard without risking an open pass:

We’re approaching a future where the Thompson twins are First Team All-Defensive mainstays.

After Jaylen Brown had a 21-point first half against the Thunder in a midseason clash, he scored zero points the rest of the way. A reporter asked OKC coach Mark Daigneault about adjustments. Daigneault: “We moved [Lu] Dort on him… It’s not much of an adjustment, it’s just more pressure, more grit, more intensity.”

That sums up the Dorture Chamber experience. Jrue Holiday has passed the mantle of defender opposing players least want to be guarded by to Dort — and Dort has the fourth-toughest matchup difficulty in the league. You only have to watch him play to see the stress he places on opposing ballhandlers, but he’s also an anti-ram barrier at the rim, as Naz Reid discovered the hard way on Dort’s game-saving block:

Historically, I’ve been a tad bit lower on Dort’s defense than most, but this year, he’s elevated his game — perhaps inspired by Caruso and fellow teammate Cason Wallace. I’ve even heard people try to make Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the hero of the Thunder’s bulletproof defense, pointing to the advanced stats that routinely paint SGA as the Thunder’s best defender (give or take Chet Holmgren, who doesn’t qualify anyway).

In this case, the stats are wrong, plain and simple. Dort gets the final nod.

There are too many honorable mentions to get them all. Despite what casuals think, the league is overflowing with great defenders! But some players I strongly considered were Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby, Andrew Nembhard, Bam Adebayo (hindered by a weirdly ineffectual rim-protection year), virtually the entire Magic roster, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Hartenstein, Dillon Brooks, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday (both of whom made my teams last year but have slipped a bit this year; age, or championship hangover?), Derrick Jones Jr., Jaden McDaniels, Keon Ellis, Gary Payton, Donovan Clingan, PJ Washington, Scottie Barnes, Brook Lopez, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and more.

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