Thanks for sharing this, I respect the film and folks who look at defense, Simmons is a very good or even elite defender at times. As a combined two way player Simmons is an all star and much better than Thybulle, no question. But to be completely honest if it's only defense we're looking at, then this is Thybulle right now and I don't know if it's close imo.
Fun to imagine Bobby Jones on that Moses Finals team and as a 6th man on the Dream/Ralph Finals team. Maybe we get to both Game 7s with him?
Yep, I agree. Have been trying to trade for Thybulle since Sixers drafted him. But Simmons AND Thybulle together create absolute chaos for opposing teams. They vibe with one another really well. And they are equally disruptive in man defense, switch or zone. Their collective IQ and chemistry is insane.
In his early days in Orlando, Tracy was a beast on both sides of the ball. I remember him rolling into the forum and locking up Kobe ( I was rooting for Kobe), just dominating both sides, and I was shocked. Eventually injuries, and denial ate him up, but there was a time...
Rudy still getting DPOY awards and yet stars still lick their chops knowing Golbert just switched on them
Are we talking about the same gobert that’s +20/100 in these playoffs and has been the best player on a conference finals team?
Ben Wallace and rodman should be higher than Goobert. Deke had a great and fruitful career with many moments against other giants
Just realized Mergady had a 7'2 wingspan, LBJ has a 7 ft wingspan, and Chet Holmgren has a 7'4 wingspan...... Bryant 6'11 wingspan like Doncic. Jalen Green: 6'7.5 wingspan ....
TMac was a freak of nature. As is all the others mentioned, but there's been many greats that had shorter arms. Cam's is 6'8 One of the best ever Steph is 6'4. But TMac WAS a beast. If not for injuries to him, Yao and some of the best supporting cast, they'd have at least one banner hanging. They were solid.
The problem with the T-mac years was lack of role players. When we finally got good role players (Scola, Landry, Artest, Lowry, Brooks, etc) T-mac decided to break completely. Such a disappointing memory. Then he sabotaged the trade that would of brought Vince Carter over.
Playoff series become very matchup and strat dependent, and teams will pick apart your weaknesses. The challenge with Gobert is that, like most big men, he simply can't cover the top perimeter players. So teams with a #1 perimeter option can get a decent shot by isolating him 1:1 anytime they want (most teams don't like to isolate every possession, as this messes up their offensive flow, but in crunch time that's not so important). This is why it's generally better to have an athletic wing as your top player, as they are harder to exploit.
thank god takes like these are why tnt and hopefully soon espn will never seriously cover the nba ever again
But it’s not true, rudy is elite as an iso defender. I would say the best wing defender in recent history is kawhi. What happened when the mavs played the clips when kawhi and luka played? Mavs completely lit them up. If the standard is “can you switch on luka and shut him down”, then nobody is good. Maybe peak draymond would have been a little better for that specific task, but he also would have gotten slaughtered by denver and prevented the wolves from even getting to the WCF. edit - peak Dwight could definitely have guarded luka on switches but he’s also by a mile the best defender of the last 30 years
These lists are always hard to do when it comes to defense… I’ll say this, Jordan at 17 is a joke. While it’s true that Pippen often started the game defending the best perimeter player - when it was winning time, Jordan guarded the best player PERIOD. Jordan is the best perimeter defender in NBA history overall. Russell always gets the nod - but Olajuwon is by FAR the best overall defensive player I have seen and it isn’t really close. There are a lot of great defenders like Sydney Moncriff, Andrew Toney, Walt Frazier, Michael Cooper, Alvin Robinson that get lost over time. Gary Payton was also very good. LeBron was really good at defense for like 3 years… all time great but come on.
Sidney Moncrief, Alvin Robertson. Agree with Lebron. Chase down blocks on nationally televised games do not necessarily equal great defender. Speaking of Jordan, guess who held him to the lowest average among these defenders: Dumars, Moncrief, Cooper, Dennis Johnson, Alvin Robertson, Maxwell, Gerald Wilkins, Stockton, Starks? Of course it was Vernon, with a nice 30.6 ppg, second best of major Jordan defenders to Payton's 30.5.
