With no NBA Awards show this year, the league has steadily been rolling out this year’s award winners during the playoffs. Montrezl Harrell won Sixth Man of the Year, Nick Nurse earned Coach of the Year, and Giannis Antetokounmpo took home Defensive Player of the Year.
On Tuesday, the league announced this year’s All-Defensive teams, which unsurprisingly were headlined by the DPOY in Giannis, along with Lakers star Anthony Davis — who some felt could and should’ve been the DPOY — and Rudy Gobert also making it onto the first team frontcourt. In the backcourt, Ben Simmons and Marcus Smart got the nod for their efforts on the defensive end this season, with the pair being two of the league’s most versatile defenders.
The full All-Defensive teams are as follows:
There aren’t really any surprises here, with the second team being filled with two Bucks and two Clippers, which isn’t surprising given their excellent team defense this year, along with Bam Adebayo who is sensational for Miami — and has shown his value on that end in their series with Milwaukee in taking on Giannis.
The rest of the voting and those that just missed the cut, headlined by P.J. Tucker and Jimmy Butler among forwards and Kris Dunn and Kyle Lowry, saw some curious votes — first team votes for James Harden and Luka Doncic are all nearly impossible to justify.
