Can We Finally Admit No One Cares about Defense in the NBA?
A look at the NBA 75 List and a comment on defense.
The NBA 75th Anniversary Squad was released months ago. It was front and center at the recent All-Star game. And the list reinforced something many of us have known for years — Defense doesn’t pay in the NBA! Take it from two-time champ (and arguable Finals MVP worthy player Mario Elie), who at least notices defense is not the focal point for most players:
The Defensive Player of the Year award has been around since the 1982-1983 season. Given that the NBA (formerly the BAA) has been around since 1946, it says something that the league went almost four decades before deciding it was worth honoring the top defensive player. In the earlier days of the NBA, players like Bill Russell and Bill Walton were getting MVPs, so perhaps the league considered defense a requirement then. Regardless, it wasn’t until the 80s that specific players got honored. Since 1983, 10 players have earned the Defensive Player of the Year award multiple times.
Dikembe Mutombo (4)
Ben Wallace (4)
Dwight Howard (3)
Rudy Gobert (3)
Sidney Moncrief (2)
Mark Eaton (2)
Dennis Rodman (2)
Hakeem Olajuwon(2)
Alonzo Mourning (2)
Kawhi Leonard (2)
Players that made the top 76 are in bold, at a paltry … three! Most egregious to me is that of the four players that have won the award three-plus times, none of them made the list. Rudy Gobert has still had a relatively short career. However, Giannis Antetokounmpo is from the same draft and made the list (I know how incredible Giannis’ career has been). However, Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis were in the previous draft, and both got in.
Dwight Howard being absent is flat-out baffling, and I have no good answer for this. In his prime, he was not only a defensive powerhouse but an offensive beast. He finished top ten in MVP voting five times. Before the Lakers, it appeared a not-so-secret secret that Dwight Howard irked people off the court, and it seems the voters of the NBA 75 were annoyed as well.
The two major players missing are Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace. An easy comparable to Dikembe Mutombo is Allen Iverson. Both made the same NBA Finals. History seems to credit Allen Iverson with making and eventually losing the Finals to the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. Allen Iverson was known, perhaps incorrectly, as an offensive beast. It seems odd that a player on the other side of the coin doesn’t get the same respect. Ben Wallace was the defensive anchor of the squad that brought an end to the Shaq-Kobe reign. The legacies of other players the NBA 75 honored are directly tied to Dikembe and Ben Wallace, and their absence is puzzling.
Let’s note some more funniness with the above list. Seven players on the list are eligible for the Hall of Fame. Dikembe Mutombo rightfully made it in first-ballot. Yet, even at the time, “Analytics” people like Justin Kubatko, creator of Basketball-Reference, questioned his merits.
Ben Wallace took five years to get in, a slight that should never be forgiven. Sid Moncrief, the first winner of the award and the first back-to-back winner, took over twenty years to get in! Mark Eaton still isn’t in. Dennis Rodman took two tries to get in, but at least he rightfully made the NBA 75 list.
Luckily Hakeen and Mourning both made it to the Hall first ballot. Still, 3/7 isn’t a great hit rate for being declared the best in the league at defense multiple times.
With the historical players above, we could, potentially naively argue, that defense wasn’t understood enough. But we only need to look as far as one of the modern “poster teams” of analytics. In this last All-Star game, Andrew Wiggins earned the start in front of Draymond Green. Now, the good news is Draymond Green outperformed Andrew Wiggins in the media vote. However, in both fan and player votes, Wiggins rated higher. It’s also not hard to see that Andrew Wiggins is paid more than Draymond Green, and I’d be willing to bet he’s more likely to stay on the Warriors at a higher contract than Green. Of course, savvy people will note Andrew Wiggins is a former number one pick, whereas Draymond Green was a second-rounder. And that’s precisely the point. Andrew Wiggins has focused on scoring his entire career. And it got him drafted highly, paid well, and on a winning squad? That’s enough to convince fans and front offices that he’s a valuable player.
Draymond Green is supposed to be proof of the meritocracy argument. He was 95th in recruiting rank going into college. He spent all four years in school, earned a spot in the NBA via the second round of the draft, and slowly earned a starter’s spot. And when healthy, his production has been a crucial part of the Warriors’ success. And yet, it will easily be missed, or, at least, counted equal to the efforts of an average scorer that takes 14 shots a game.
The NBA 75 list was a big exclamation point on something the players have known for decades. If you want to get recognized in the NBA via salary, accolades, or fan adulation, defense doesn’t pay. It may win titles. It may help your team’s value skyrocket if it becomes a contender, but, I repeat, defense doesn’t pay. And, it would be easy to say - “The NBA has changed, and analytics are ensuring we look for the right things.” And you need look no further than the NBA 75 and the poster child of the analytics movement to know that isn’t true.
-Dre