Grant Hill Snubbed... Left Off All-Defensive Teams

[Nando88]

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaulCoro/127860

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]

KOBE BRYANT GOT FIRST TEAM? Wow just idiotic

[harshey1388]

KOBE BRYANT GOT FIRST TEAM? Wow just idiotic

i remember last season when we beat them by draining 3's and Kobe stopped closing out on them and just giving up on plays... dont see how he is first team

[schnakenpopanz]

we are talking about (nba) (iverson style)
so this is a joke....

[BurningHeart]

Pathetic.

[JasonDaPsycho]

So is Luol Deng.

[Qwigglez]

I honestly don't think Grant Hill is at his place raging because he didn't make the All-Defensive Teams...












But I am!! RAWRRRRR!!

[Miklo]

I dunno Hill played well enough to make it but JoNo deserves to be on there more than Hill. It's not THAT much of a stretch to put Noah in at PF. Not like the one team I remember with Garnett at SF.

[lilfishi22]

Kobe First Team? What a joke.

[nevetsov]

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.

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...

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1107713&start=0#p27678119

We all knew it. I've heard of padding stats, but padding career awards? Come on.

[KLEON]

The first team is ridiculous. Every year Kobe makes the all defensive team and I'm yet to see why he deserves it. Grant Hill should at least be in the second team and what about Serge Ibaka, Chuck Hayes, Andrew Bogut all these guys deserve to be there.

[YFZblu]

Yeah, it's lame.

Shawn Marion never made an All-Defense team either...

[b-ball forever]

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.

[rsavaj]

Hill deserved it: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2011/05/10/g ... ve-honors/
Kobe didn't: http://asubstituteforwar.com/2011/05/09 ... maginable/

[Sun Scorched]

Really no question here.

Hill simply wasn't given credit for his RANGE in guarding the other teams better players. I guess the same thing can be said about Marion.

It's a shame.

Edit: Add to that the fact that Hill was most often guarding guys who can get a foul call at the snap of their fingers. Rose, Nowitzki, LeBron, Wade, Kobe... It makes it all the more impressive that he was able to do as good of a job as he did.

[GMATCallahan]

KOBE BRYANT GOT FIRST TEAM? Wow just idiotic

As with Gold Gloves in Major League Baseball, All-Defensive Teams in the NBA often reflect reputation, notoriety, precedent, and offense as much as actual defensive ability. That kind of statement explains why Kobe Bryant would make the First Team ahead of Tony Allen.

Also, if a player fares impressively in one of the few obvious defensive statistics, such as steals, then his chances of recognition proliferate, hence the status of Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul. I seriously doubt that Rondo and Paul constituted two of the game's four best defensive guards this past season, but one can gauge their defensive strength more easily.

[GMATCallahan]

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.

[SunsRback4Good]

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.

[b-ball forever]

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.

Chris Paul is the best PG in the NBA, but that doesn't change the fact that if you're an all defensive NBA first teamer then the least u should be capable of doing is limiting him, as opposed to having him put up even better numers then his reg season numbers.
Fisher was "guarding" CP3 at times in the series too, but that doesn't help Kobe's case either since if he's such a great defender he should be the one guarding the opposition's primary perimeter threat full time instead of having the near 40 year old on Paul at times.
Bowen was able to limit Nash, Payton was able to limit Michael Jordan, Bill Russell was able to limit Wilt, but Kobe lets CP3 **** them over in any position he wants.

Then again in the Dallas series, Peja's swishing J's like it's 2004, JET is going bananas after struggling vs Brandon Roy on one leg, JJ frickin Barea is looking like a Tony Parker clone... And where is this amazing record breaking now 9 Time All NBA 1st teamer? Apparently still busy replacing Osama Bin Laden at hide and seek.

No excuses for the snitch

[b-ball forever]

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.

Only need 10 better defenders to not make an All NBA defensive team, but just off the top of my head I can think of more then 15 better defenders then Hill (in no particular order) :

Dwight, KG, Iggy, Rondo, Battier, Perkins, Deng, Noah, Thabo, Tony Allen, Bogut, Prince, CP3, Varejao, Lebron, Wade, Tyson Chandler, Gerald Wallace.
That's 18 (16 if ya take off Varejao/Perkins due to injuries) and I'm sure there's a few more as well. I don't care what some random defensive stat says, anybody who watched those guys play could tell that they've been better at defense then Hill this season.

Gortat is a very good defender (arguably even better then Grant), Dudley/Pietrus/Childress are all good defenders, Frye was solid defensively, and the one thing RoLo's OK at is defense. Nash isn't a good defender but he isn't the matador many dumb peeps make him out to be, and the only other guy receiving significant playtime and playing bad D was one of Vince/Hedo. Dragic/Brooks and Warrick weren't good defensively but they didn't get too much playtime.
Now add a surefire All-NBA defense player into that mix and it's easily a good defensive team. Only problem is that the Suns were NOT AT ALL a good defensive team, not difficult to see what went wrong in that equation.

Grant's a good defender but he didn't get snubbed.