They say defense wins championships in the NBA, but who is the best defender of them all and who is on the rise for the future?
As the attention of basketball fans turned to the NCAA and its wildly popular tournament over the last week, the NBA has seemingly been pushed to the back burner.
It’s a temporary distraction, as fans will again look to the NBA and its superior product once the madness has culminated. But upon looking at the college game, we are reminded that defense is a key part of the game. It is one NBA fans often neglect to give its proper attention.
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It’s sad to admit, but defense is just not as sexy as offense. The game’s stars all excel as offensive players, for they would not stars if they did not. Second, and equal, is the difficulty in quantifying and qualifying what makes a great defensive player.
We hear television analysts fawn over certain players and their defensive abilities—and most of the time they are correct in their assessments about those certain players. But there’s another truth at play: defense is difficult to grade and judge.
It is possible for a great defensive player to play on teams who are not very good defensively. Even more surprisingly, it’s possible for a team to possess multiple elite defenders and still not rank as one of the league’s great defenses.
But more often than not, if a team has great defenders, it will possess one of league’s best defenses. Generally a great defense results both from possessing great defenders and making said defenders look even better because of scheme, rotations, communication and effort. Such is the case with the league’s top defensive team, the Golden State Warriors.
The truth is that there are a lot of good NBA defenders—maybe more than there have been in the game at one time in a generation. But some excel more than any others.
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