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It was at the NBA coaches' discretion whether to put Grant Hill on their All-Defensive first and second teams.

But it took creative postseason award positioning to keep Hill off the team.

By finishing tied for 14th overall in voting points received, maybe Hill did not deserve to be on the All-Defensive teams. However, the idea of the All-Defensive teams' structure is to reward players by position. Hill tied for the fourth most voting points from coaches among the forwards, meaning Hill, Chicago's Luol Deng and Portland's Gerald Wallace could have shared the second team's final forward spot. Instead, Chicago's Joakim Noah was declared a forward/center because he received 15 points, therefore putting the top overall vote-getters in the 10 spots. Noah is listed officially as a center who rarely played forward.

In the end, Hill wound up being like Shawn Marion ended up in his Phoenix years -- appreciated more defensively by the media than the coaches. Hill finished seventh in the media's Defensive Player of the Year voting among all players but only seven of the 29 opposing coaches gave him an All-Defensive vote, although four were for first team.

It would have been the first All-Defensive honor in the 38-year-old Suns forward's career and it would have come as a nice present for Tamia Hill's birthday. Hill was the only Sun to receive a vote this season.

Here is how All-Defensive voting went:

FIRST TEAM

* C: Dwight Howard, Orlando (56 points, 27 first-team votes/two second-team votes)
* F: LeBron James, Cleveland (38 points, 17/4)
* F: Kevin Garnett, Boston (33, 15/3)
* G: Rajon Rondo, Boston (39, 16/7)
* G: Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers (33, 13/7)

SECOND TEAM

* C: Tyson Chandler, Dallas (17, 3/11)
* F: Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia (15, 5/5)
* F/C: Joakim Noah, Chicago (15, 3/9)
* G: Chris Paul, New Orleans (18, 6/6)
* G: Tony Allen, Memphis (23, 7/9)

ALSO RECEIVING VOTES:

* Derrick Rose, Chicago (14, 4/6), Dwyane Wade, Miami (13, 3/7), Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City (13, 4/5), Gerald Wallace, Portland (11, 1/9), Grant Hill, Phoenix (11, 4/3), Luol Deng, Chicago (11, 4/3), Tim Duncan, San Antonio (11, 3/5), Chuck Hayes, Houston (10, 2/6), Al Horford, Atlanta (7, 3/1), Josh Smith, Atlanta (7, 1/5), Ron Artest, LA Lakers (7, 1/5), Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City (6, 1/4), Shane Battier, Memphis (5, 2/1), Thabo Sefolosha, Oklahoma City (5, 0/5), Wesley Matthews, Portland (4, 2/0), Kendrick Perkins, Oklahoma City (3, 0/3), Nicolas Batum, Portland (3, 1/1), Joe Johnson, Atlanta (2, 1/0), Keith Bogans, Chicago (2, 1/0), Kyle Lowry, Houston (2, 0/2), Lamar Odom, LA Lakers (2, 0/2), Luc Mbah a Moute, Milwaukee (2, 0/2), Manu Ginobili, San Antonio (2, 1/0), Andrew Bogut (1, 0/1), Andrew Bynum, LA Lakers (1, 0/1), Arron Afflalo, Denver (1, 0/1), Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia (1, 0/1), Kirk Hinrich, Atlanta (1, 0/1), Nene, Denver (1, 0/1), Ronnie Brewer, Chicago (1, 0/1), Shawn Marion, Dallas (1. 0/1), Tayshaun Prince, Detroit (1, 0/1).

Moochiefried wrote:KOBE BRYANT GOT FIRST TEAM? Wow just idiotic

on Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:12 pm, nevetsov wrote:Awesome, hope he doesn't get overlooked for an all defensive team like Marion was when he finished something like 5th. 

He shouldn't if he's the top ranked defensive SF.

on Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:46 pm, nevetsov wrote:What's the bet that, even though Tony Allen finished 4th and Hill finished 7th (highest rated wings), Kobe and LeBron still get voted all defensive first team...

Moochiefried wrote:KOBE BRYANT GOT FIRST TEAM? Wow just idiotic

b-ball forever wrote:Grant Hill didn't get snubbed, he's a good defender but all of the guys on the 1st and 2nd defense teams besides Kobe are better then him defensively.

On the other hand, Kobe making an all-NBA defensive team, let alone the 1st team is an absolute joke.
Dude isn't even a good defender anymore, wasn't able to limit CP3 and let him destroy them, or couldn't stop the Mavs from raining treys on his ass either.

GMATCallahan wrote:

b-ball forever wrote:Grant Hill didn't get snubbed, he's a good defender but all of the guys on the 1st and 2nd defense teams besides Kobe are better then him defensively.

On the other hand, Kobe making an all-NBA defensive team, let alone the 1st team is an absolute joke.
Dude isn't even a good defender anymore, wasn't able to limit CP3 and let him destroy them, or couldn't stop the Mavs from raining treys on his ass either.

Although Bryant certainly constitutes a dubious selection (see my previous post), when a great offensive player such as Chris Paul is on top of his game, even the best defenders may be incapable of stopping or limiting him. And the task of chasing a water bug such as Chris Paul is especially arduous for a big guard needing to navigate screens.

As for the Dallas series, the Lakers suffered a team-wide defensive breakdown as the Mavericks exposed L.A.'s physical limitations and psychological weakness.

PhxSuns85 wrote:Are you seriously telling me there are 15 better defenders in the NBA then Grant Hill. Hill did a great job this year guarding the best players out there and made monta ellis life horrible. Yet he cant crack 1st or 2nd team. I think Stern is behind this madness.