All-Defensive Teams Announced - Horford 2nd Team

[kozlodoev]

Al Horford quarterbacks the best defense in the league, but only makes it onto the 2nd team.

The top 4 defensive teams are within 0.9 per possession, which is effectively a four-way tie. I'm considerably more entertained by the fact that the team that's tied for 12th placed two guys on the first team.

Amazingly, Baynes didn't even get a single vote.

You're kidding, right?

[18isGREATERthan72]

I don't have the numbers, but should the Pelicans be the best defensive team if they have two guys on the 1st team?  I can't complain with Davis, and Holiday IS a good defender, but I feel like the typical counting stats get factored into this too much (which is why Oladipo made it)

I feel like it's laziness to actually look into it.  Which is fair, you can't watch tape after tape of a player making good defensive plays off the ball, or denying the ball, or any number of the type of plays a player like Smart makes, but a steal or a block is something easy to quantify and look at.

Someone like Smart makes every single second he is on you a nightmare.  He gets in your airspace, makes you uncomfortable, bumps you, then right as you're about to make an aggressive move to counteract his pressure, he times it perfectly, squares up and draws a charge on you.  He does things like this on a regular basis and rarely gets credit for it.

If you want a perfect summation of Marcus Smart defense, watch the final minutes of the game we won against the Rockets were he baited Harden into two offensive fouls.