As with the All-NBA teams, the ballots varied dramatically in the All-Defensive Team voting.
Now, before I get torn to shreds over the placement of a certain stifling Jazz center, let me say preemptively that Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside tied in total points, but that the Heat big man won the tiebreaker by receiving more first-place votes.
If Gobert hadn’t missed a quarter of the season, it’s pretty safe to say you’d be looking at a different result here. As it stands, Gobert’s injuries must be taken into account.
Again, no homers here!
The league’s top defenders this season as selected by Purple & Blues–
All-Defensive First Team
Chris Paul, LAC
Avery Bradley, BOS
Kawhi Leonard, SAS
Draymond Green, GSW
Hassan Whiteside, MIA
All-Defensive Second Team
Mike Conley, MEM
Jimmy Butler, CHI
Andre Iguodala, GSW
Paul George, IND
Rudy Gobert, UTA
Others receiving votes: LeBron James, DeAndre Jordan, Tony Allen, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Tim Duncan, Stephen Curry, Marcus Smart, Trevor Ariza, Ricky Rubio, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward
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This year’s rookie class will probably go down as one of the best of the last decade (at least). With the exception of Towns, who has his spot locked down, you could probably make a compelling case for any of our second-team selections supplanting the All-Rookie First Team picks.
Jazz rookie Trey Lyles finished just one vote shy of that distinction himself. It will be interesting to see where he lands when the NBA announces its own All-Rookie teams in the coming days.
Also, before anyone sends me angry tweets, we’re all aware that Julius Randle technically wasn’t a rookie. Jared Barker defends his vote for the Lakers big man, saying, “One game last year means nothing.” Makes sense to me.
Our All-Rookie selections–
All-Rookie First Team
D’Angelo Russell, LAL
Devin Booker, PHO
Justise Winslow, MIA
Kristaps Porzingis, NYK
Karl-Anthony Towns, MIN
All-Rookie Second Team
Emmanuel Mudiay, DEN
Stanley Johnson, DET
Trey Lyles, UTA
Myles Turner, IND
Nikola Jokic, DEN
Others receiving votes: Jahlil Okafor, Mario Hezonja, Josh Richardson, Raul Neto, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Julius Randle*