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Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama makes history as first rookie on All-Defense First Team
By
Pelican Press,
in World News
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR)
This marked the first season the league employed “positionless” voting for its All-Defensive and All-NBA teams and the first season players had to play at least 65 games (in most cases) to be eligible for an All-Defensive team.
In prior years, voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each of the two All-Defensive teams and each of the three All-NBA teams. Not anymore, though. As a result of the collective bargaining agreement ratified last year, voters were directed to select the most deserving players, regardless of their positions, this year.
The All-NBA teams will be announced Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
The NBA named its first All-Defensive teams following the 1968-69 season. Before this year,
: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969-70 season), Hakeem Olajuwon (1984-85), Manute Bol (1984-85), David Robinson (1989-90) and Tim Duncan (1997-98). But Abdul-Jabbar, Olajuwon, Bol, Robinson and Duncan were named second-team All-Defensive players as rookies, not first-team All-Defensive players.What is the biggest takeaway?
League officials and the players’ union switched to positionless voting to ensure the most deserving players receive recognition.
This year, Abebayo and Davis benefitted from that change.
Although Adebayo has been considered within league circles as an elite defender for several years, he had been a second-team All-Defensive player in each of the previous four seasons, often finishing behind the likes of fellow big men Gobert, Draymond Green, Jaren Jackson Jr., Brook Lopez and Evan Mobley.
This year, Adebayo finally broke through to the first team for the first time in his career, deservedly so.
Questions remain about the long-term implications of the move to positionless voting: How should voters judge perimeter players’ defense relative to the defense played by bigs? Will bigs now dominate the All-Defensive First Team voting in most years, and would that be a positive or a negative?
Caruso almost certainly would’ve made the All-Defensive First Team this year if the league had retained the position-based voting system.
What was the biggest surprise?
It’s a pleasant surprise that the Timberwolves and Celtics, the top two teams in points allowed per possession, placed two players each on the All-Defensive teams. Minnesota had Gobert and McDaniels, while Boston had White and Holiday.
Who suffered the biggest snub?
Look no further than the Oklahoma City Thunder, who finished the regular season with the league’s fourth-best defensive rating and entered the playoffs with the top seed in the Western Conference but didn’t have players on the first or second teams.
Wing Luguentz Dort barely missed making the second team. He collected 34 total points in the voting, the 11th-highest total. Holiday, the final player selected to the second team, received 36 total points. Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City’s rookie center who ranked fifth in blocks per game, had the 13th-highest voting total.
Required reading
(Photo of Victor Wembanyama and P.J. Washington: Jerome Miron / USA Today)
Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA
#Spurs #Victor #Wembanyama #history #rookie #AllDefense #Team
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