Best Defenders to Never Make an All-Defensive Team

[kcktiny]

Golden State Warriors 6-8 and 225 PF Larry Smith.

[NO-KG-AI]

Sheed and Marion have long been the obvious answers to this question.
Insanely good defenders who happened to be forwards in the same positional voting era as Duncan and KG. The media being obsessed with Bruce Bowen's defensive reputation didn't help (he often got more DPOY votes than Duncan). It was crazy that we had to put 4 guards on the teams no matter what, every year. It's much harder to find a forward that didn't deserve to be there.


Current guys who haven't made a team: Aaron Gordon, Herb Jones, Jayson Tatum.

Herb was 1st team in 23-24, and 4th in DPOY. Still underrated though

[Iwasawitness]

I had no idea the Matrix never made an all defense team.

It's funny because if I remember correctly, he's finished top five in DPOY voting twice.

[MarcusBrody]

From the active ones, Gordon and DFS.

Gordon is interesting in that he's a very solid defender, but his value is primarily from his versatility rather than his dominating in any one specific thing. I think those type of players are the ones most likely to be overlooked. Even for someone like myself who watches the Nuggets all the time, Gordon rarely does something that really jumps off the screen defensively, but he's the Swiss Army-knife lynchpin that enables the Nuggets to be a reasonably competent defensive team.

[Anderson Hunt]

From the active ones, Gordon and DFS.

Gordon is interesting in that he's a very solid defender, but his value is primarily from his versatility rather than his dominating in any one specific thing. I think those type of players are the ones most likely to be overlooked. Even for someone like myself who watches the Nuggets all the time, Gordon rarely does something that really jumps off the screen defensively, but he's the Swiss Army-knife lynchpin that enables the Nuggets to be a reasonably competent defensive team.

Aaron Gordon is tremendous defender.

He gets my vote for current players along with Davion Mitchell and Kris Dunn.

[Ritzo]

Kenyon Martin, Rasheed and Shawn Marion just couldn't get in.
Played in the same era with defensive juggernauts, Ben Wallace, Duncan, KG, AK47, Artest, Bowen

[QPR]

Raja Bell was voted to the All-Defense 1st team in 2007 and 2nd team in 2008 despite playing on the same offensive minded Suns. So while Marion might have an disadvantage compared to the Pistons players, it was no exclusion criterion.

Marion just had bad luck in having such great competition on his position that often played on better defensive teams overall:
2003 1st team Garnett & Duncan / 2nd team Artest & Bowen
2004 1st team Bowen & Artest / 2nd team Kirilenko & Duncan
2005 1st team Duncan & Garnett / 2nd team Prince & Kirilenko
2006 1st team Kirilenko & Artest / 2nd team Garnett & Duncan
2007 1st team Bowen & Duncan / 2nd team Prince & Garnett
2008 1st team Garnett & Duncan / 2nd team Prince & Battier

So he wasn't robbed except for the circumstance that Duncan was ranked as a forward instead of a center (I think that he clearly played center on the defensive end). Just the wrong era for him. Same can be said for Sheed who had the same competition for some years.

Bell got it from his complete BS "kobe stopper" crap. That was the media eating up a story and voting so they could write about it...and thus profit. I don't disagree with the competition part being a huge factor btw. Just saying, the media is wild here.

Back then voting was performed by the NBA head coaches. A media panel came in 2013-14. Journalists voted for the DPOY during that era.

But yes, maybe even the coaches bought into that story. Kobe got all those nominations, too, despite not always giving full effort (and other guards clearly being more deserving), so coaches aren't all-knowing either.

I think there's also an element of Bell not being a huge factor on offense (he was really a 3D spot-up type, albeit a very good one), so his defensive prowess was highlighted more. Marion on the other hand was also an accomplished player offensively, so it was easy to forget how good he was defensively too.

[Yinwest]

Robert Parish, the anchor of the 80’s Celtics.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Aaron Gordon

His defense was great in Orlando. I always enjoyed watching that side of his game.

[WiggOuts]

Kyle Lowry was a great defender in his prime, always at the top of the list for charges taken. Was also a part of some very good defensive teams

[WiggOuts]

Marc Gasol was one of the best big man defenders in the league for a long time. He anchored one of the leagues best defenses for years. He was a DPOY in 2013 and only made 2nd team, this was the only time he was ever on any of the teams

One guy known exclusively for his defense and often picked up to "slow down" certain players is Pj Tucker. He has never made an all defensive team

[-Luke-]

The first two answers in this thread are the correct ones.

[CodeBreaker]

From the active ones, Gordon and DFS.

Gordon is interesting in that he's a very solid defender, but his value is primarily from his versatility rather than his dominating in any one specific thing. I think those type of players are the ones most likely to be overlooked. Even for someone like myself who watches the Nuggets all the time, Gordon rarely does something that really jumps off the screen defensively, but he's the Swiss Army-knife lynchpin that enables the Nuggets to be a reasonably competent defensive team.

Aaron Gordon is tremendous defender.

He gets my vote for current players along with Davion Mitchell and Kris Dunn.

So underrated

Watch on YouTube

[Mattatron]

OG

[Mavrelous]

OG

Made it in 23

[70sFan]

Correct answer is Rasheed almost 100% unless 70's fan has a guy who missed out in the Russell, Wilt, Thurmond era. But for small guards, who tops Rubio?

Taking players from the 1960s is cheating, because the award didn't exist. I couldn't find anyone better than Sheed to be honest.

The two guys that came to my mind is Wes Unseld and Sam Lacey. I don't think they were better than Wallace though.

Unseld is a good choice!

I also realized that Robert Parish never made it, he's another strong contender. Peak Parish (early 1980s) was extremely valuable for the Celtics dynasty on defensive end.

My top three are Sheed, Unseld and Parish in no particular order.

[Godymas]

i always thought KD should've been a 2nd team guy at least one year, he's actually underrated on that end

[dhsilv2]

i always thought KD should've been a 2nd team guy at least one year, he's actually underrated on that end

What year? He was early in his career far from that. By year 3 he'd become a solid all be it not impressive defender. He really shined in 2017 on the warriors with less offensive responsibility, but he most certainly wasn't a top 10 defender though perhaps you could argue top 10 importance due to the warrior's lack of size?

[Long2_noD]

Playoff Derek Fisher?

[Mattatron]

OG

Made it in 23

Yeah that's not enough, and it was 2nd All D.
He had a huge impact for several years. Especially 2019/20.