I enjoy filling out an awards ballot at the end of every NBA season. It’s grueling, sure. But, like, not compared to a real job. The process is fun and gives weight to six months of basketball that are increasingly recognized by most (including league employees) as too monotonous and trivial.
But awards hold the season together. They (hopefully) strip out blusterous hot takes and sprinkle significance onto those 82 games, affirming who really mattered and locking their achievements into a time capsule. Here’s my official contribution to the endeavor, based on a dogged League Pass addiction and way too much time staring at statistical databases scattered across the internet. Enjoy!
Most Valuable Player
1. Nikola Jokic
2. Luka Doncic
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo
5. Jalen Brunson
Jokic is the obvious winner for reasons that don’t really need to be explained if you have even the faintest familiarity with the NBA, but here’s a quick summary: When you combine his near-total eclipse of most advanced catchall metrics with how high his name is on the list for several major counting stats—he’s fifth in total points, second in total assists, second in total rebounds, and first in total plus-minus with an argument-ending 69.8 true shooting percentage in crunch time—his case is nearly airtight.
Then you splash in his league-leading on/off point differential (the Nuggets are competing for first in the West and are nearly unbeatable when Jokic is on the court and puke when he sits) and the debates for any other candidate wither away. Coming off a three-season stretch as the most valuable, shrewd, physically dominant player on earth, Jokic remains a quandary the rest of the NBA hasn’t come anywhere close to solving.
Outside of Denver, in a league that’s rife with an absurd amount of superstar talent, a gap between Doncic and everyone else materialized this season. That might sound like a controversial statement, but it’s not, whether we’re talking about skill, production, or, in this context, influence. Look at these numbers: 33.9 points, 9.8 assists, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game! Over a third of his shots are pull-up 3s, and he’s drilled 38 percent of them. It’s not fair.
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As a pick-and-roll ball handler, Doncic decodes any and every defensive coverage. Switch, and he’ll either go to that lethal stepback or blow right by overzealous big men and do damage in the paint. Drop, and it’s a lob or floater. Blitz, and one of his teammates will get an open 3. Doncic’s true usage rate dipped ever so slightly this year, but he still led the league in that category, on a flawed roster that was hastily rearranged in February to maximize his genius. This 25-year-old is good enough to rationalize imprudence; Dallas has looked like a contender ever since.
SGA spent patches of this season looking like the MVP, somehow leveling up after last year’s breakout season. He’s first in estimated plus-minus on a Thunder team that’s competing for first place in the Western Conference. OKC’s All-Star guard is a crafty, decisive blur; keeping him away from the basket is nearly impossible, and the few defenses that were able to execute a perfect game plan often found themselves at the mercy of a feathery midrange jumper that was second only to Luka’s stepback 3 as the tip-a-cap-then-hang-your-head shot of the season.
To nitpick, in comparison to Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander was also surrounded by an ideal (and extremely healthy) supporting cast that molded those canyon-wide driving lanes. Doncic appeared in 25 different starting lineups this season; SGA was in six—with a true usage rate that was over 10 percentage points lower than Dallas’s franchise player. To be clear, though, there are no major holes in Gilgeous-Alexander’s game—he leads the league in steals with a verve that can’t be dismissed. Any argument that ends with him as the runner-up for this award is perfectly fine.
That brings us to another two-time MVP winner whose exclusion from anyone’s ballot should trigger an investigation by the league office. In a season of adjustment, anticipation, and adversity that’s steadily teetered into turmoil, Antetokounmpo’s excellence has been criminally overlooked. All the catchall metrics love him. As they should. He’s never been more efficient on a points-per-shot basis, averaging over 30 points, a career-high 6.5 assists, and 11.5 rebounds per game. Antetokounmpo is shooting 77.5 percent in the restricted area while making over 180 more shots in that part of the court than any other player. If “Stat That Made You Lol the Hardest” were an end-of-season award, that’d be a strong candidate to win.
After those four candidates, things get a little more complicated. Since I’m someone who really values the word “valuable” in choosing who should be the Most Valuable Player, Brunson gets the slightest of nods over Jayson Tatum. New York City’s favorite person was absolutely filthy this season, scoring the fourth-most total points with an above-league-average true shooting percentage; only Luka has averaged more points per game since the All-Star break. He shot nearly 40 percent from behind the arc while drilling 41.6 percent of his 3s when the scoring margin was five or fewer points.
It’s impressive. So is ranking second only to Jokic when you look at the net impact anyone has had on their team’s offense. Brunson is fifth in estimated wins, eighth in true usage rate, and fourth in on-ball percentage for the entire season. Since Julius Randle went down in late January, he’s essentially been his team’s offense, with an outrageously high usage rate and outrageously low turnover rate. The Knicks shouldn’t be contending for home court in the first round. Brunson is the first, second, and third reason they may, somehow, end with the second-best record in the conference.
Defensive Player of the Year
1. Victor Wembanyama
2. Rudy Gobert
3. Bam Adebayo
I know Wembanyama famously admitted that Gobert deserves this year’s trophy, but please allow me to sidestep this rookie sensation’s humility for just a moment: Wemby is already the most intimidating defender in the NBA. His catchall metrics validate an eye test that often makes you question what you just saw. The counting stats are absurd. The positive impact is undeniable.
Among players who’ve appeared in at least 65 games, Wembanyama ranks third in defensive estimated plus-minus. He leads the NBA in total blocks, blocks per game, and block rate by significant margins. Maybe the most ridiculous stat that can’t go unmentioned, courtesy of BBall Index, is the percentage of shots at the rim he contested when on the floor, which was only 41.4 percent. To put that in perspective, Chet Holmgren (who’s second overall, with 66 fewer blocks than Victor) contested 57.2 percent of the offense’s at-rim field goal attempts when on the court. Gobert was at about 50 percent. Wembanyama lapped the field without functioning on a defense that always put him in the best position to lap the field. (The first month of his career was mostly spent at power forward!)
Victor’s team also recovers 67.9 percent of his blocks—Minnesota recovers just 58.7 percent of Gobert’s. On top of his defensive rebound rate (third highest in the league), this is a huge reason San Antonio is so good at limiting second-chance points when he’s in the game.
Winning should be acknowledged—the Wolves have won 55 games this year, and the Spurs have won 20—but so should context. The Spurs do not have Jaden McDaniels. They do not have Anthony Edwards. They don’t even have someone like Kyle Anderson (anymore) or Karl-Anthony Towns. (The Wolves were only 0.8 points per 100 possessions worse on defense when Gobert sat this year, dominant with or without him.)
Overall, the Spurs rank 22nd in defensive rating. With Wemby on the court, though, they’ve performed like a top-five unit—an improvement of 7.3 points per 100 possessions. According to Cleaning the Glass, no player who’s logged at least 1,000 minutes has had a more positive impact on their team’s defensive rating. They foul less and rebound better when he’s on the floor.
Individually, his balance, size, velocity, and intuition open a door nobody else can really walk through. Even when he makes mistakes, he’s long and coordinated enough to recover in time. So many of his blocks are on big men who rolled behind him, gathered a pocket pass, and then went up for a bunny that was immediately jabbed off the backboard.
His presence was felt outside the paint, too. His 3.5 deflections per 36 minutes rank second among all centers. (Gobert is at 1.7 deflections per 36 minutes.) On the perimeter and in passing lanes, Wembanyama’s hands are rattlesnakes.
There’s imperceptible stuff here, too, like how blazing scorers who normally need a nanosecond to make their decisions were forced to stop and think whenever Wembanyama hovered nearby. Sometimes the threat was illusory. Sometimes his mobile 7-foot-4 frame gave them no other choice.
This is what great defenders do: speed up offense, disrupt rhythm, infuse discomfort. Wembanyama did that at a higher level than anyone else, in highly questionable surroundings. There’s still an open sky of space for him to grow. He’ll be stronger with even quicker reflexes next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. Right now, though, he’s already a red light.
So is Gobert, whose (very strong) case boils down to being the most indispensable defender on the top defense. Rudy is a deterrent who may very well be on the verge of winning his fourth DPOY award—which would tie him with Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace for the most ever—and the Timberwolves would be nowhere near 50 wins without his anchoring of their back line. He impacts winning in so many different ways without touching the ball. There are 159 players who averaged at least 25 minutes while appearing in at least 50 games this season. Among those, Gobert’s 106.1 defensive rating ranks first, followed by two of his teammates. Meanwhile, opposing field goal percentages dropped like a stone when Gobert was involved.
The on/off impact he has on at-rim shot frequency and accuracy is comical at this point. Gobert almost single-handedly ensures that his team’s defense will protect the rim and force a ton of unwanted midrange jumpers. It’s an identity that might double as the primary reason Minnesota is a championship contender, and it’s an extremely good reason to think he’s the Defensive Player of the Year.
After those two Frenchmen, we have an excellent candidate who, sadly, won’t win. I feel bad for Bam. Circling back to Wembanyama’s comment at the top of this section, there’s a very good chance Adebayo will never win a Defensive Player of the Year award despite helping redefine what versatility means on a basketball court. He flips the offense’s lights off when called to switch on a guard and has never been more of a nuisance in the drop (which he executed a lot this year), with cat-and-mouse instincts that might trail only Draymond Green’s.
Among all players who will qualify for end-of-season awards, Adebayo ranks seventh in defensive real plus-minus, just ahead of Gobert. He moves his feet, has nimble hands, rebounds with physicality, and rarely finds himself compromised, off balance, or forced to foul. He trusts his body. He’s also the brain and face of flexible, shape-shifting schemes that would otherwise malfunction without Adebayo’s orchestration.
You can sometimes tell whether an offense is sensible or stupid based on how directly involved Bam is in the play. Watch Ime Udoka here. Instead of setting a hard screen to get Adebayo off Jabari Smith Jr., Jeff Green slips into the paint and leaves his teammate on a vine.
You can see how annoyed Houston’s head coach is; Udoka called timeout a few seconds later just to let his veteran forward know exactly how he felt. That’s all Adebayo: a disruptive force who will hopefully win this award at least once before he hangs it up.
Honorable mentions: Herb Jones, Anthony Davis, Alex Caruso
Sixth Man of the Year
1. Naz Reid
2. Malik Monk
3. Norm Powell
BIG JELLY! Reid’s nickname comes to mind every time I think about the Minnesota Timberwolves. I love watching him glide in transition, or juke his man with a tap dance routine no other big man can duplicate, or throw down something vicious in traffic. It’s pure glee whenever he drives a hard closeout, turns a rotating defender into a buoy, and kisses a pretty layup off the glass.
This award is always more about production than aesthetics, but Reid gets an A-plus in both categories. In just under 25 minutes per game, he’s averaging 13.4 points and 5.3 boards, and hitting over 40 percent of his five 3-point attempts. Bigs shouldn’t be allowed to have a crossover dribble as tight as his, particularly when it complements such a quick release from downtown. Reid was integral on a contender that already has two excellent bigs in its starting lineup. That’s harder than it sounds. He made it work without sacrificing too much of what makes Wolves announcer Michael Grady yell “BIG JELLY” more than once during every broadcast. Naz Reid forever, even if it means Monk, who was awesome, comes in second.
Before he sprained his MCL two weeks ago, Sacramento’s sixth man was a more traditional candidate. He scored, made plays, and created offense without much help. Monk leads all bench players in total points and assists. If you prefer efficiency, Powell is the purest distillation of clean bucket-getting, with counting stats that would’ve popped louder had he not typically shared a court with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and James Harden. Powell is flirting with 50/40/90 shooting splits, and, out of 179 players who’ve logged at least 1,500 minutes this season, nobody else has a higher effective field goal percentage on spot-up jumpers.
Honorable mentions: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Bobby Portis, T.J. McConnell
Most Improved Player
1. Coby White
2. Tyrese Maxey
3. Donte DiVincenzo
My longtime readers already know that I don’t think anyone in their first three seasons should qualify for Most Improved Player, but this was still tough. There are so many worthy candidates! White ekes it out as someone who came off Chicago’s bench last season, flailing in search of a stable NBA identity before Billy Donovan somewhat surprisingly named him a starter in training camp.
Fast-forward to now, 19 points and 5.2 assists per game later, and it’s safe to say White exceeded everyone’s expectations. Among players who have logged more than 1,250 minutes, this season White has the highest spike in touches per game and true usage rate. (The gap between him and every other player, when it comes to the increase they made in touches per game, was 15.8. Wild.)
What he did with that increase matters. Last season, he made just 27.6 percent of his pull-up 3s. This year, he’s drilled more than 40 percent of them. It’s transformative, reputation-altering growth, meaningful enough to change the trajectory of this 24-year-old’s entire career.
Maxey gets the runner-up spot because, well, even if he was already this good last season and just couldn’t show it off because Doc Rivers and James Harden were standing in his way, the dude still had to go out there and prove he had All-Star talent. And he did. His scoring average went from 20.3 to 25.9. He dropped at least 50 points on three separate occasions, nearly doubled his assist rate, and had one of the lowest turnover rates in the league.
Improvement takes many forms. While White expanded his range and Maxey gobbled up more responsibility, DiVincenzo tightly sharpened one of the more attractive skills that motivated New York to sign him as a free agent last summer. DiVicenzo’s scoring jump per 75 possessions was the highest of anyone in the league who logged at least 1,250 minutes. (Coby ranks third.) Donte could always shoot, but sustaining the same accuracy at a much higher volume, on a team that doesn’t have Steph Curry or Giannis Antetokounmpo, is worth applause and appreciation. He’s drilled way more catch-and-shoot 3s than any other player. I’m pretty sure no one, even people who work for the Knicks, thought that was possible.
Honorable mentions: Jalen Brunson, Deni Avdija, Duncan Robinson
Rookie of the Year
1. Victor Wembanyama
2. Chet Holmgren
3. Brandon Miller
Not to sound hyperbolic, but Wembanyama’s rookie season was a tectonic shift within the game of basketball. He breezed up and down the floor like an abstract dream sequence, routinely doing stuff no one has ever seen before or imagined possible, sometimes in lineups that were ostensibly designed to sabotage San Antonio’s short-term success.
On both sides of the ball, Wemby submitted mythical, legendary, impossible production, providing several extended glimpses of someone who is virtually guaranteed to win multiple MVP awards if his legs stay upright. The NBA has enjoyed several unicorns and multiple cheat codes over the years, but there has never been anyone like this.
Wembanyama has been so good that Chet Holmgren—having one of the more advanced rookie campaigns in recent memory—is rendered irrelevant for this award. All OKC’s center has done is play in every game for a real championship contender, sticking 3s, rejecting dunks, and filling in as the anchor last year’s Thunder roster sorely missed. His offensive role wasn’t expansive, but Holmgren’s true shooting percentage is still higher than those of Durant, LeBron, Kawhi, AD, Luka, and Jimmy Butler. Not bad for a rookie.
In a somewhat distant third comes Miller, an agile, velvety two-way wing who has perennial All-Star written all over him. There are decision-making elements of his game that need to improve, and he wasn’t all that successful getting to or finishing at the rim. Whatever; all that’s natural for a 21-year-old adapting to the NBA in a dysfunctional, injury-riddled setting. Miller already knows how to score at the NBA level. He’s averaged 17.3 points, has topped 25 points in 10 games—all were efficient—and is a real threat curling off a dribble handoff or coming off a pindown, reading how he’s being guarded and what shot he can get out of it. He’s made a tantalizing 38 percent of his non-corner 3s, launched in a variety of ways.
With LaMelo Ball hurt, the Hornets put the ball in Miller’s hands and had him run a bunch of pick-and-rolls after Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, and P.J. Washington were shipped out of town. If that decision pays off and Miller develops into someone who can orchestrate offense at a high level, Charlotte may have a new franchise player on its hands.
Honorable mentions: Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dereck Lively II, Brandin Podziemski
All-Rookie Teams
First Team
Victor Wembanyama
Chet Holmgren
Brandon Miller
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Brandin Podziemski
Second Team
Cason Wallace
Keyonte George
Bilal Coulibaly
Amen Thompson
Dereck Lively II
Even after getting past Wembanyama’s luminosity, this year’s rookie class was terrific, featuring several polished youngsters who immediately contributed toward a winning situation. They humbly fit into specific roles, thriving beside actual superstars without complaint. As their skill sets progress and their roles stretch, it’ll be fascinating to see just how many stars materialize from this rookie class. It’s a special one.
Coach of the Year
1. Joe Mazzulla
2. Jamahl Mosley
3. Mark Daigneault
In front of an unusually complicated backdrop that was weighed down by championship-or-bust expectations, Mazzulla did a terrific job last season in his first try at head coach, leading Boston to 57 wins and handling a locker room that had just reached the Finals by embracing the tough mentality of a more experienced basketball mind. The 34-year-old was thrown into the ocean without a life jacket and managed to keep his head above water.
This season, with even more pressure and talent (both a gift and a curse), Mazzulla led Boston to one of the most impressive regular seasons of all time. He won Coach of the Month in December and March, successfully encouraged veterans like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to sacrifice for the greater good, and established a complex framework on both ends that immediately broke the rest of the league.
Coming into training camp, Boston was deemed top-heavy by most prognosticators. Mazzulla responded by banking enough trust in his bench to help turn a seemingly thin team into one of the deepest in the league. The Celtics had a lot of firepower, sure. But they were also necessarily cautious with their most important cogs. They’ve trotted out 24 different starting lineups and still had the most efficient offense ever seen, and it was also no. 1 when it faced a top-10 defense.
Boston annihilated its competition while treating the regular season like a research facility. It’d repeatedly do things that were less about beating that night’s opponent than building reps for the postseason, when diversification and adaptability are key. Boston also, somehow, finished first in spread differential, which measures how every team in the league performed relative to how Las Vegas thought they would. It’s far from unusual for a very good team to rank high here, but to do it as a team most people projected to reach the Finals, it’s … miraculous?
Mosley deserves a strong look for this award, too. In Orlando, he was able to get one of the league’s youngest teams to give maximum nightly effort on defense, masking problematic spacing issues that no coach could solve. They were probably the most physical team in the league, pummeling the rim, forcing turnovers, and commanding the boards. That takes a certain type of discipline and spirit; having a coach everyone on the team would run through a brick wall for didn’t hurt.
Daigneault’s case is also made of cement. Regardless of OKC’s talent, spacing, and defensive acumen, any coach who leads the second-youngest team in the league to 55-plus wins, with a style of play that fits their personnel on both ends, deserves to be a shoo-in.
Honorable mentions: Chris Finch, Tom Thibodeau, Ime Udoka
All-NBA Teams
First Team
Nikola Jokic
Luka Doncic
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jayson Tatum
This almost echoes my MVP ballot, except Tatum is swapped in for Brunson. Statistically, they’ve had very similar seasons. Tatum gets the nod, though, as the primary option and top all-around player functioning on a chainsaw that made the rest of the league look like firewood. He’s a smooth three-level scorer who steps on the floor every night as a plus on- and off-ball defender. Tatum rebounds, reads the floor, and leverages his muscle to create mismatches in a way that Brunson simply can’t.
Tatum’s value was still immense for the Celtics—they outscored opponents by 11.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the court—but he also had a ton of help and thrived on a team that hummed without him. Boston’s top four lineups that didn’t include Tatum absolutely obliterated the league, which is what happens when any combination of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, and a consummate role player takes the floor.
Second Team
Kevin Durant
Kawhi Leonard
Anthony Edwards
Jalen Brunson
Anthony Davis
There’s nothing controversial here. Durant, Kawhi, and Davis jockeyed with Tatum for that fifth All-NBA spot. All three had magnificent, highly efficient and productive two-way seasons on teams that endured serious highs and lows as hopeful contenders.
Edwards was insatiable and breathtaking on a Timberwolves team that was in first place in the West for most of the season. He wasn’t as efficient as some other high-volume scorers, but his impact was undeniable on a roster that didn’t exactly yield a ton of space. Minny’s offense played around a top-10 level when he was on the court and slid all the way down to 27th without him. (With KAT by his side, Minnesota’s offense absolutely cooked.) Brunson cracked my MVP ballot, so, yeah, he was one of the 10 best players in the NBA this season.
Third Team
Jaylen Brown
LeBron James
Tyrese Haliburton
Steph Curry
Domantas Sabonis
Things get a little stickier here. Brown’s season wasn’t statistically his best, but he combined that trademark open-court athleticism with defensive discipline and newfound self-awareness to make it the most impressive of his career. The fact that it happened on a team that will win more than 60 games gives him the slightest edge.
Haliburton’s season can be told as two chapters. In his first 30-ish games, before he strained his hamstring and missed nearly three weeks, this guy was turbo-charged Steve Nash and a legitimate MVP candidate who spearheaded one of the more explosive offenses ever seen. His vision dazzled. His stepback 3s were pure and ruthless. There was no containing him on the perimeter or keeping him out of the paint. Indiana was a must-see.
Since he’s come back, the 3-point shooting is way down, the scoring and assists have dipped, his defense continues to wane, and the general threat that put the league on notice dulled to a degree that, to some, backslid him right out of any serious All-NBA debate. Taken as a whole, though, Haliburton belongs. The highs were too high to shrug off. For all of 2023, he was pretty much a shoo-in for first-team All-NBA and one of the season’s most pleasant surprises. The lows were disappointing but far from a death blow, particularly when you include the post-trade-deadline adjustments he had to make. Hali still leads the league in assists and will average 20 and 10 with a higher 2-point shooting percentage than Brown, Devin Booker, Curry, Paul George, and Edwards.
Steph and LeBron are play-in bound, but imagine how atrocious the Warriors and Lakers would’ve been had either missed significant time. They make it on merit. Both weren’t as good as they’ve been in the past, which makes sense considering they’re old and two of the best players of all time, but it’s still too soon to claim either doesn’t belong here. That day will come, but it’s not here yet. (FWIW, Curry’s clutch numbers belong in another universe: 50/46.3/95.1 shooting splits, a league-high 186 points in 139 minutes, a 69.4 true shooting percentage with a 40.3 usage rate. What … the hell.)
Sabonis might be the most consistent player in the league. He didn’t miss a single game, had an NBA-best 26 triple-doubles, led the league in rebounds, and finished second in touches. There are ways to nitpick Sabonis—be it his paltry on/off numbers or defensive shortcomings—but as a regular-season contributor, few could be relied upon like he was.
Honorable mentions: Devin Booker, De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Maxey, Victor Wembanyama, Bam Adebayo, Zion Williamson, Damian Lillard, Rudy Gobert, Paul George, Jalen Williams
All-Defensive Teams
First Team
Victor Wembanyama
Bam Adebayo
Rudy Gobert
Herb Jones
Alex Caruso
I experienced way too much pleasure and agony trying to fit 10 defenders on two (positionless!) teams at the end of a season that had at least 20 deserving names.
Wembanyama, Gobert, and Adebayo were already covered in the Defensive Player of the Year section. Beyond that trio, I landed on a pair of persistent irritants who, if they didn’t crash the first quintet, would be locks for the second team. First up is “Not on Herb” Jones, owner of the coldest, most accurate nickname in basketball.
It’s hard to make a statistical argument that warrants Jones over someone like, say, Anthony Davis. But I don’t think anyone wreaked more unquantifiable havoc than Herb. You just kinda have to watch the Pelicans and make note of how many opponents’ offensive sets are unplugged by his hustle, length, and anticipation. He knows what’s going to happen before it does, climbs inside his man’s jersey, and blows up the play. Nobody ducks under a ball screen or dribble handoff and then recovers to take away (or block) the pull-up jumper faster than Jones. It’s almost like he fools shooters into thinking they have enough time and space to get something up. Unfortunately for them, Not on Herb:
When he trails over the screen and refuses to detach himself from the ball handler’s hip, Jones can not only offer a solid contest from behind, but also put one of his many superpowers on display, taking away any pass back to the screener.
Jones is dogged on the ball, where he assumes the toughest assignment each and every night. But it’s exceptional how often he mucks something up from the weak side, drifting off his man and pouncing at the exact right moment.
There have been literally hundreds of plays like this one where Herb, in some form or fashion, disrupts the opposition. It’s amazing. So is Caruso, a no-brainer on any voter’s ballot. (Particularly mine.)
Among players who average at least 25 minutes and have appeared in at least 50 games, Caruso ranks the second highest in the league in defensive estimated plus-minus. Caruso is a turnover-forcing hurricane—his positive on/off effect is evident here for what feels like the 19th straight season—who’s strong enough to guard up a couple of positions, and vocal enough to organize his teammates in transition or half-court situations.
Caruso is a coach on the court. Watch the Bulls often, and you’ll hear him yell bullet points from scouting reports at his teammates. He knows which direction ball handlers want to drive, when his teammates should stay home, who should double if help is necessary, etc. You’ll also see him sprint to closeouts, stop short if the guy can’t shoot, crack back into box outs, body up larger players in the post, and perfectly time when he can or can’t afford to gamble in a passing lane. Chicago’s defense would fall to pieces without him.
Second Team
Anthony Davis
Derrick White
Jalen Suggs
Kawhi Leonard
Jonathan Isaac
It’s not easy to make an All-Defensive team when your team holds opponents to fewer points per possession when you’re on the bench, but Davis is an exception. He spent most of this season anchoring an unbalanced, injured roster that was littered with leaky faucets, while enduring some of the worst 3-point luck possible: Shooters were an obnoxious 12.9 percent more accurate on corner 3s with AD in the game vs. when he sat. But he deserves massive credit for being the biggest reason L.A. held opponents to one of the lowest at-rim shot frequencies in the league. Only three players blocked more shots, and only two grabbed more defensive rebounds. He’s a destructive paint presence who should pop up on several Defensive Player of the Year ballots.
On the opposite coast, embedded in one of the best regular-season teams the NBA has ever seen, Derrick White combines smarts, athleticism, and relentless tenacity to make countless winning plays all over the floor. He blocks (a ton of) shots. He takes charges. He doesn’t give up on plays. He’s versatile enough to switch up a position or two.
Suggs is a shutdown corner who wakes up every day and asks his coach whether he can start at middle linebacker instead. He’s been top 10 in defensive estimated plus-minus for most of the season, spearheading a Magic team that’s ridden its defensive identity to a shocking playoff spot. There might not be anyone better right now at turning a turnover into an immediate bucket.
What’s wild about the Magic is that Suggs might not even be the best defender on his own team. If “Defensive Player of a Possession” were an award, Jonathan Isaac would be the runaway favorite every time he steps on the floor. The only issue is, with only 56 games in the tank, he won’t meet the league’s new 65-games-played threshold. Minor detail. Otherwise, there are no flaws here. He does everything. Guards everybody. Navigates screens on and off the ball like a shadow wishes it could. Blocks shots. Clogs lanes. Doesn’t foul. He’s miraculous.
Isaac glides in a way that someone who’s nearly 7 feet tall should not be able to. If the Magic need him on the weak side, he’ll roam off a non-shooter and completely disrupt the offense’s rhythm. If the Magic need him on the ball, he’ll introduce the other team’s very best player (position be damned) to real claustrophobia.
Isaac ranks first in defensive estimated plus-minus for a reason. Among players who’ve appeared in at least 50 games, he ranks first in defended field goal percentage; opponents are a league-high 7.4 percentage points below their normal average when he’s nearby.
Kawhi is here because he’s still Kawhi.
Honorable mentions: Jaden McDaniels, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren, Peyton Watson, Jrue Holiday, Isaiah Hartenstein, Kris Dunn
(*If Isaac is indeed disqualified, Jaden McDaniels will get his spot on my official ballot.)
Stats are current through Tuesday’s games.
