Some of the biggest stars over the years in the NBA have been defensive players and not offensive players. This is because any good NBA coach will tell you that unless you have a great defense, it is going to be very difficult to go all the way and win an NBA championship.
The NBA released its list of 10 players for 2019-2020 that make up its All-Defensive team.
This list further confirms the above theory given the fact that 8 out of the 10 players named are still in the playoffs. The other two players were in teams that exited during the first round.
There are no big surprises to see who are the top 5 players that feature in the first team. The names were finalized based on 100 votes and on top of the list was Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks who received 97 out of the 100 votes. Antetokounmpo also won the Defensive Player of the Year award.
The other four players named in the first team include Anthony Davis from the LA Lakers, Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz, Ben Simmons from the Philadelphia 76ers and Marcus Smart from the Boston Celtics.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Marcus Smart have been named in the first team for the second consecutive season while Rudy Gobert has been voted center in the first team for four consecutive seasons. Anthony Davis has now been named to the first team on two occasions while this is the first time that Simmons has been named in the first team.
The one award that everyone is looking forward to is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. The MVP award was given to Antetokounmpo last season and many favour Antetokounmpo to win the award this year as well.
The players who make up the second All Defensive team include Kawhi Leonard and Patrick Beverley from the LA Clippers, Bam Adebayo from the Miami Heat; Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez from the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks have a great defensive team and it is reflected in the All-Defensive team line-up as the Bucks are the only team since the 2012-2013 season to have 3 of their players feature in the All-Defensive Teams.
Due to COVID-19, the NBA went back to the old format of announcing awards during the playoffs instead of waiting till the end of the season as it has done in the recent past.
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