Who Was the Last "Good Defending Number 1 Pick"?

[Boobs]

I'm looking through the number one picks and I think to myself, "How come none of these guys are good defenders?" (I'm excluding Greg Oden from this for now).

For the last 5 years, all the number one picks seem to be either horrible defenders or bad defenders.

2006- Andrea Bargnani
2005- Andrew Bogut
2004- Dwight Howard
2003- LeBron James
2002- Yao Ming

So the next guy is atleast an above average defender, however, not an above average player:

2001- Kwame Brown

And even after that, these guys are good defenders too:

2000- Kenyon Martin
1999- Elton Brand

And looking at this year, Michael Beasley is not a great, or even good defender either.

So is just bad timing or do teams look for offensive players more so then defensive players? I guess I could understand, there aren't many defensive players that you would want to build your team around, but so many of these teams did not need a franchise player.

So what's your take on this?

______
Kingz

[dockingsched]

howard/james/ming are horrible/bad defenders?

[76ciology]

I'm looking through the number one picks and I think to myself, "How come none of these guys are good defenders?" (I'm excluding Greg Oden from this for now).

For the last 5 years, all the number one picks seem to be either horrible defenders or bad defenders.

2006- Andrea Bargnani
2005- Andrew Bogut
2004- Dwight Howard
2003- LeBron James
2002- Yao Ming

[/thread]

[Schad]

Andrew Bogut is an above-average defender this season. To say nothing of Dwight Howard, who is top-5 in blocks and the league's leading defensive rebounder...

[CBS7]

Dwight Howard is neither terrible nor bad. He's decent at worst with potential to be a whole lot more.

LeBron is at least up to average this year.

Yao has anchored one of the NBA's best defenses for the past few years.

[5DOM]

this thread has tons of potential to be a bargnani bashing thread

[GYBE]

Bargnani and Beasley are indeed bad defenders. Unfortunately you're wrong on pretty much every other point.

[NO-KG-AI]

Like said, Howard, James, and Ming are all pretty damn good defenders, Bogut is decent.... they all 4 are better than Kwame brown in terms of the total defensive package.

[BrooklynBulls]

OH MY GOD.

[miller31time]

Bogut is slightly above-average.
Howard is above-average.
James is above-average.
Yao is damn good.

And though Bargnani isn't a good defender, he isn't noticeably bad, either.

[etopn23]

HOW do you have Yao listed as a bad defender.

[Storm Surge]

obviously he averaged all of the players defense into one to form his conclusion.

In which case Bargnani brings the entire group down to below average.

[JD225]

Can this thread be locked? Every time I see Bargnani's name mentioned next to these number one picks I kind of cringe.

[ilikecb4]

Dont know if we're watching the same league or wat

Lebron is a great defender and so is D12

[sweet_jesus]

Well I think he's expecting some response that pertains to a team that drafted a player #1 overall based on his defense.

Okafor had a chance but ORL rightly took Howard over him. (Edit: Chandler was a #2 pick too wasn't he?)


Ideally you want a #1 pick to become the complete package.


You can be a great defender on a bad team and it wont make a difference. Defense is a team goal while we've seen a single Offensive player can take over a game. Thats why the James, Mings, Howards are taken.

But none of those guys (except Bargnani) would I consider bad defenders at this point in their developement

[duppyy]

Bargs only plays bad help D...his man to man is alright.

[Ballings7]

Dwight Howard.

And of course Greg Oden will be (probably at least ).

[MagicNolesFSU]

ROFL. Dwight is a great defender. Lebron is a good if not great defender (especially this year). Yao is a good defender, and bogut isn't bad. (improved alot this year).

Can you send me the stuff your smoking? Kuz the dro I got isn't working like yours.

[Cammo101]

Dwight Howard is a 1st or 2nd team all NBA defender this year. Thus, this thread is dumb.

[some_rand]

as much as i hate bargnani, if you watch him is man d isnt THAT bad