Thursday, May 11, 2006
All-NBA Defensive Team gripes
So I saw this article today announcing the voting for the All-NBA defensive team, and I have three basic complaints, which are listed here in order of increasing lack of understanding.
1. How does Tim Duncan not make the 1st team All-NBA defensive team every year of his career? This is a lot like asking how does Shaq not win the MVP award every year that he is healthy and plays a full season? Duncan missed the cut this year and wound up on the 2nd team.
Since Hakeem Olajuwon retired and David Robinson began having back problems, Duncan has been THE BEST low post defender in the league, and this includes Ben Wallace. Wallace gets all the credit because he is a better rebounder and blocks more shots, but let me ask you this... If you are at the end of the game, and you need one stop to win the game, and the other team has Shaq and everyone knows Shaq is going to get the ball, who would you rather have defending him between Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan? I'll take Duncan every single time. Not only does Duncan rebound the ball and block shots just about as well as Wallace, but he is also a much more versatile defender and nobody since Hakeem has defended Shaq as well as Duncan can in a man-to-man scenario.
2. How does Bruce Bowen receive more votes for the All-NBA defensive team than Ben Wallace, but Ben Wallace still wins the defensive player of the year award?
Bowen finished first in All-defensive team voting with 29 first-team votes and 3 second-team votes for 55 total points (who the heck voted Bowen on the 2nd team?) Ben Wallace finished with 29 first-team votes and only 2 second-team votes for 54 total points. Yet Ben Wallace is the 2005-06 defensive player of the year. Maybe a better question is the following... How does Ben Wallace have 4 defensive player of the year awards in his career, while Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen have a combined 0 defensive player of the year awards in their careers? Your answer is the award has always favored people who do nothing BUT play defense. It's also because the award has also always favored post defenders over perimeter defenders, even though the top 5 vote-getters in the MVP voting this year are all perimeter players (including Dirk as a perimeter player which he is, your top 5 MVP vote-getters are Nash, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, and Billups). So you could make the argument that Bowen defends more spectacular players on a nightly basis, but Wallace still wins the award because he gets a lot of rebounds and blocks a lot of shots.
3. Last but not least (this one just boggles my mind)... How does Tayshaun Prince make the All-NBA defensive team but Shawn Marion gets left completely off the list?
Since Ben Wallace won the defensive player of the year award almost entirely on a statistical basis, and since Prince and Marion play similar positions and similar minutes a night, it seems fair to compare their defensive abilities of these two players based on their rebounding, steals, and blocked shot statistics.
Marion: 40.3 minutes per game, 11.8 rebounds per game (3rd in NBA), 1.98 steals per game (5th in NBA), and 1.69 blocks per game (17th in NBA).
Prince: 35.3 minutes per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 0.76 steals per game, and 0.48 blocks per game.
If you add up the ranking of each player in the league based on their rebounds, steals, and blocks per game, Shawn Marion, with a total score of 25, ranks 2nd in the NBA in this analysis. The ONLY player even close to Marion in this analysis is defensive player of the year Ben Wallace, who checks in with a total score of 23 (4th in rebounding, 9th in blocks, and 10th in steals). Just to further prove my point about the slight to Marion, 1st-team all NBA defender Andrei Kirilenko checks in with a combined ranking of 53, Kevin Garnett at 44, and .
Looking at this, Marion should justifiably be right there with Wallace and Bowen for the defensive player of the year award, but he is nowhere to be found on the first and second team All-NBA teams, while Tayshaun Prince is on the All-NBA defensive team.
This, combined with Steve Nash winning the MVP, is why the NBA regular season awards mean about as much as the heisman trophy these days.
1. How does Tim Duncan not make the 1st team All-NBA defensive team every year of his career? This is a lot like asking how does Shaq not win the MVP award every year that he is healthy and plays a full season? Duncan missed the cut this year and wound up on the 2nd team.
Since Hakeem Olajuwon retired and David Robinson began having back problems, Duncan has been THE BEST low post defender in the league, and this includes Ben Wallace. Wallace gets all the credit because he is a better rebounder and blocks more shots, but let me ask you this... If you are at the end of the game, and you need one stop to win the game, and the other team has Shaq and everyone knows Shaq is going to get the ball, who would you rather have defending him between Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan? I'll take Duncan every single time. Not only does Duncan rebound the ball and block shots just about as well as Wallace, but he is also a much more versatile defender and nobody since Hakeem has defended Shaq as well as Duncan can in a man-to-man scenario.
2. How does Bruce Bowen receive more votes for the All-NBA defensive team than Ben Wallace, but Ben Wallace still wins the defensive player of the year award?
Bowen finished first in All-defensive team voting with 29 first-team votes and 3 second-team votes for 55 total points (who the heck voted Bowen on the 2nd team?) Ben Wallace finished with 29 first-team votes and only 2 second-team votes for 54 total points. Yet Ben Wallace is the 2005-06 defensive player of the year. Maybe a better question is the following... How does Ben Wallace have 4 defensive player of the year awards in his career, while Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen have a combined 0 defensive player of the year awards in their careers? Your answer is the award has always favored people who do nothing BUT play defense. It's also because the award has also always favored post defenders over perimeter defenders, even though the top 5 vote-getters in the MVP voting this year are all perimeter players (including Dirk as a perimeter player which he is, your top 5 MVP vote-getters are Nash, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, and Billups). So you could make the argument that Bowen defends more spectacular players on a nightly basis, but Wallace still wins the award because he gets a lot of rebounds and blocks a lot of shots.
3. Last but not least (this one just boggles my mind)... How does Tayshaun Prince make the All-NBA defensive team but Shawn Marion gets left completely off the list?
Since Ben Wallace won the defensive player of the year award almost entirely on a statistical basis, and since Prince and Marion play similar positions and similar minutes a night, it seems fair to compare their defensive abilities of these two players based on their rebounding, steals, and blocked shot statistics.
Marion: 40.3 minutes per game, 11.8 rebounds per game (3rd in NBA), 1.98 steals per game (5th in NBA), and 1.69 blocks per game (17th in NBA).
Prince: 35.3 minutes per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 0.76 steals per game, and 0.48 blocks per game.
If you add up the ranking of each player in the league based on their rebounds, steals, and blocks per game, Shawn Marion, with a total score of 25, ranks 2nd in the NBA in this analysis. The ONLY player even close to Marion in this analysis is defensive player of the year Ben Wallace, who checks in with a total score of 23 (4th in rebounding, 9th in blocks, and 10th in steals). Just to further prove my point about the slight to Marion, 1st-team all NBA defender Andrei Kirilenko checks in with a combined ranking of 53, Kevin Garnett at 44, and .
Looking at this, Marion should justifiably be right there with Wallace and Bowen for the defensive player of the year award, but he is nowhere to be found on the first and second team All-NBA teams, while Tayshaun Prince is on the All-NBA defensive team.
This, combined with Steve Nash winning the MVP, is why the NBA regular season awards mean about as much as the heisman trophy these days.
