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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Inside The Play: All-Time Defensive Team

Today is the first anniversary of NBA Inside The Play Nation, and today, we will make our case for some of the most controversial topics in NBA. For this post, we (Aaron Jaros and Akshay Patel) will discuss what 5 players deserves to be on the All-Time Defensive Team. 

Aaron Jaros:
PG: Gary Payton: The reasoning behind choosing GP is because for many years, the Seattle Supersonics had one of the best defenses in the league and it really at started with Payton. Payton is 4th on the all time list in steals. Guys like John Stockton got tons of steals, but never were able to be lock down defenders like Gary Payton was. When playing against Payton, John Stockton rarely made it to 20 point, and even under 10 points a few times. Believe it or not, John Stockton only averaged 14 points against Gary Payton. And the Playoffs were even worse as Payton held him to only 12 PPG. But guess who was 17 PPG in the playoffs and the regular season against Stockton, Gary Payton. Obviously this wasn't the best matchup to watch because both played lockdown defense, but Gary Payton was the better defensive player.

SG: Michael Jordan: The Chicago Bulls legend, Michael Jordan did a lot of things that amazed a lot of people. One of those things happened to be being a lockdown defender. It is argued that Kobe is a better defender, however, I have a hard time believing that.While Kobe was an excellent defender, MJ didn't lead a Chicago Bulls team to 6 rings with just defense. Michael was so quick that Chicago was able to trap players with there other defenders as well. And to be surrounded by other great defenders, that is where Michael thrived. Phil Jackson loved to have Michael playing great team defense with everyone. He isn't only 3rd in all-time steals but he was such a great team defender.



SF: Scottie Pippen: Everybody knows that Scottie Pippen is one of the best defensive players of all time. In fact, he might just be the best. Like I said about Jordan, Scottie was a great team defender, but he could play 1v1 defense as well. He is also 6th on the all-time steals list and he averaged nearly a block and 2 steals per game. Scottie Pippen is one of the all time great defensive players so he deserves to be on this list.

PF: Kevin Garnett: Now this is where it gets a little controversial. This is a guy who hasn't averaged even over a block per game. However, blocks can be very overrated. While blocking players and getting steals does give recognition of a great defensive player, too many can note that those stats are what you go for instead of making the right defensive play. KG averaged 1.4 blocks and 1.3 steals over his career, which are still really great numbers. But KG was known for his team defense, and he has lead the league in defensive rating twice, and more time than not, he kept his defensive rating under 100. KG affected his team so much defensively in a way that can't be shown through stats. Coaches like Flip Saunders and Doc Rivers always spoke really highly of Garnett for his talent on defense being more great than his talent on offense, and that means a lot.



C: Hakeem Olajuwon: This big guy is well known for his shot blocking. Many people might not realize just how great his hands were though. While he averaged 3.1 blocks over his career, he also averaged 1.7 steals as well. While he wasn't that smart with his blocks at the beginning of his career, as he averaged over 4 fouls per game, he smartened up to drop his fouls per game way down. This made Hakeem more smart as a defensive player as he still averaged a great amount of block and steals, he just cut the fouls down to where he was a better defensive player. He became such a good team defender that he lead the league in defensive rating for 5 straight years. He is 8th on the all-time steals list and 1st on the all-time blocks list. Hakeem should just be the MVP on this team.

Akshay Patel:
PG: Gary Payton: There isn't much of a case for anybody other than Gary Payton. His career was based solely on hand checking. He was simply the best at it. He was an irritant and a guy you would love on your team but hate going up against. He is the only Point Guard to win the Defensive Player of the Year award and is ranked fourth all time in steals at 2445. He also has 9 All-Star nods on his resume. He is the reason many of the rules(such as hand checking) have changed through the years.



SG: Michael Jordan: Jordan is simply the greatest player to step onto the court. He had this unique mentality where he wanted to not only beat you, but make you understand who he is. His offense outshines his defense but he was a fantastic defender. He has been selected to the All-NBA Defensive team nine times and is third on the all time steals list with 2514. Reggie Miller shared a story stating a game where Michael Jordan had 2 points in the first half and ended up with 42 while Reggie ended up with 11. Goes to show not to mess with the one and only, Michael Jordan.

SF: Scottie Pippen: Here is another guy people usually overlook when it comes to the greatest defenders of all time. When you are having a conversation at the barbershop, Pippen's name doesn't get nearly as much recognition as deserved. It is quite obvious that he was a fantastic all around player but he was outstanding when it came to the not so famous end of basketball. He ranks sixth all time in career steals with 2307 steals and has a total of 10 Defensive team selections.

PF: Dennis Rodman: Let me start by saying this is not the Rodman from the Bulls squad rather the Rodman from the Bad Boys in Detroit. He doesn't make this list because he had flashy numbers or because he won tons of awards. He makes this list because of pure hustle. He proves to be that perfect model for young kids. If you try your hardest, you can achieve great success. He was not bigger than anybody on the court. He was just a hard worker. In today's game, you can call guys like Kawhi hard workers on the defensive end and Rodman is probably Kawhi times 10 when it comes to hustle. The guy was just amazing to watch.

C: Bill Russell: While I wasn't  alive to watch him play basketball, from the footage I have seen and from the things I've heard about this man make me think he is the greatest defensive Center of all time. This position was definitely the hardest to select because there were guys like Hakeem and Big Ben who did fantastic in their careers. I have seen those guys play but I haven't heard so much praise about defense for anybody as I have heard about Bill Russell. It is known that he would have averaged around 8 blocks a game if league kept count. I want that on my team over anything else.

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