Another good read by Kelly Dwyer and Ball Don't Lie: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-top-10-best-defenders-of-the-last-decade?urn=nba,185792#remaining-content 3 Rockets are on the list 6. Ron Artest A low ranking on this list might surprise some, but Artest does tend to get by on reputation a good chunk of the time, while he gambles for steals, or ignores any chance at help defense as he obsesses over his man, and overplays to the point of hurting his team. He can be the rare selfish defender. He can also be the best defender in the league, mixing a desperate doggedness to dominate with long arms, a sturdy frame (to say the least) and quick feet. 5. Dikembe Mutombo The ageless big man would change games defensively, but because the core of this list is so sound, we're forced to nit-pick and point out that he wasn't exactly an all-leaguer at pick and roll defense. That's assuming anyone would want to roll anywhere near Dikembe, who managed to carve out quite a career as a strong side shot-blocker, sort of the anti-Marcus Camby(notes) (who, as you'll notice, is not on this list). 2. Shane Battier If you watch this guy, on any given possession, you'll understand. Just take your eye off the ball and watch Battier work — the guy acts as if he's in his own reality show, as if the cameras were on him for the entire 24 second turn, even if his man never gets the ball, while appearing deathly allergic to letting people down. Battier just does everything right. It may not mean he'll get the rebound, block, or steal — and his guy might still nail the shot — but I've never seen someone pitch as many perfect games defensively.
i think The Dreams defense may be under-rated. he did gamble a lot on steals, but he had to be accounted for on nearly every play.
Interesting list. Nice balance of choices (guards, wings, bigs). Notably not on the list: Camby, Mourning, Jermaine O'Neal, Rasheed Wallace, Kirilenko.
You know how underrated Duncan is? He's been 1st team all nba defense every year, hes always top 5 in blks nd rbs and his teams have never been outside of say 7 in team defense and yet he's never won a defensive mvp and they have guys like kg ahead of him. KG has been on 1 top ten defense and that was in boston. Other than that, the defensive teams in minny were avg at best. I think over the last 10 years, duncan has been the best defender and its not really close when you look at the numbers.
they go by hype. duncan at 4th makes that entire list garbage to me. shane battier has 2-3 dominant defense seasons and yet he's #2??? duncan has anchored the spurs' defense, which has constantly been a top 5 defense since he entered the L. that speaks volume beyond anything. kg is top 2 regardless. he does EVERYTHING and can guard ANYBODY in his prime. i used to remember he would be able to defend guys like kobe and mcgrady, while still providing help defense in the paint. dude is a beast. he is easily the best overall defender we've had this decade.
You think Battier is a significantly better defensive player now than he was at Memphis? I don't. He's been doing what he's doing for a while. Whether that makes him deserving of the second spot, I'd say probably not. But he's been consistently very good for a very long time. If it was my list, I'd probably go with Garnett and Duncan at the top. Individual defensive attributes seem to favor Garnett, but I can understand if one wants to focus more on the team success of Tim Duncan. After those two, I'd probably put more emphasis on bigs than wings/guards (I think they usually have a bigger role in defenses). But I also like representing all 5 positions in the list, which Kelly did a good job with.
i think it's better. i admit, i didn't watch memphis much b/c they have always sucked, but i don't ever remember reading shane shutting out guys while he was in memphis like he is now. even if he did, playing on a better houston team has helped give him exposure. and coaches usually vote for all-nba defense, and shane has only made 2 teams (thought i think he should have made 1st teams the last 2 years). i just feel to be a #2 guy, shouldn't you have a defensive MVP along with a ton of all-nba defense 1st teams?
Not to speak for Kelly Dwyer, but I don't think he gives a damn about that stuff. He's evaluating these players based on what his eyes, and considerable basketball-watching experience, tells him. I don't have a problem with that. If it was merely a matter of repeating which players made the most All-Defensive teams over the last decade, lists like these wouldn't be very interesting.
i understand that. that's why i have no problem with no kobe bryant in there. he has made a lot of all-nba defensive first team, and yet i'll take shane with zero all-nba defensive first team over him any day of the week. most generalists would put a kobe in there easily. but it's VERY hard for me to take his list seriously by putting shane over timmy (who has anchored a top 5 defense for over a decade), and a 4-time DPOY (who anchored one of the best defensive teams in league history statistically one year). those 2 guys have clearly done more defensive individually and team-wise than shane EASILY and it's not even close. and that's just me. but i'm glad shane is gettin some love. like i said, he should have made all-nba defense 1st teams at least the past 2 years.
If it was me making this list, I'd put Duncan and Wallace at the top, along with Garnett, as well. Perhaps Kelly didn't want the top of his list to be too slanted towards bigs.
Nice to see some Rockets on the list. I can't say that I agree with Bruce Bowen being #7 (especially below Artest) and any list that like this that glorifies Kevin Garnett is enough to make me sick. All the same, still an interesting read.
Does anybody actually disagree that Battier at #2 is absurd? Are people really going to defend this? I'm assuming the list is not "best defenders right now", since some of the players are retired. So if we're looking at who's played the best defense over the course of the past decade, you're really going to tell me Battier should be above the likes of Duncan, Wallace, Mutombo, Bowen, and Artest? Seriously?