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This morning, the NBA announced the All-Defensive teams in a press release. Clippers guard Chris Paul was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team, making his 6th consecutive appearance on the list. Last season, Paul averaged 1.9 steals while the Clippers posted a 108.3 defensive rating (12th in the NBA).
Joining Paul on the first team are Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert, and Patrick Beverley. The second team consisted of Tony Allen, Danny Green, Andre Roberson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Anthony Davis.
Clippers DeAndre Jordan, Luc Mbah a Moute , and Austin Rivers all also received votes.
The All-Defense voting continues to be one of the most laughable NBA awards to attentive viewers (along with the 6th man of the year award), as elite defenders are routinely ignored for elite names. This season, Chris Paul missed 21 games and the Clippers publicly discussed building gameplans around using Raymond Felton and Austin Rivers to defend star guards, giving Paul more rest. Paul stepped up offensively, carrying the team for portions of the season, but didn’t receive a well-deserved berth on an All-NBA team.
Luc Mbah a Moute, a lesser-known and underappreciated player who is nonetheless a defensive stud and quite literally one of the most effective defenders in basketball, only received one second-team vote. Defense is hard to quantify statistically, and as a result voters routinely cast their ballots based on name value.