2021 NBA awards: Final picks for All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams

All-Defensive First Team

• Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks
• Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
• Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
• Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
• Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz

Narrowing it down to 10 All-Defensive team selections is a painful process. Myles Turner was a DPOY candidate as the NBA’s leading shot-blocker until he missed too many games. Leaving the “Dorture Chamber” off the list feels wrong, but the Oklahoma City Thunder ranked 24th in defensive rating this year, making Luguentz Dort’s case for an All-Defensive spot an uphill climb. The same (to a lesser degree) goes for Fred VanVleet, as the Toronto Raptors finished 15th in D-rating. Dort and VanVleet missing 20 games apiece doesn’t help.

Missed time also hurts the cases for guys who would normally be First or Second Team inclusions, like the ultra-versatile OG Anunoby (29 games) and tenacious Marcus Smart (24 games). Kawhi Leonard missed 20 games and wasn’t always his typically dominant defensive self. Anthony Davis was dominant but missed 36 games. De’Anthony Melton and Derrick White missed too much time. T.J. McConnell was a menace off the bench but only averaged 26 minutes per game for a middling defense. Jakob Poeltl deserves a look for his positional defense but wasn’t as impressive as some of our other options, especially for the San Antonio Spurs’ 17th-ranked defense.

Matisse Thybulle is our toughest cut. He’s an absolute terror defensively, averaging 1.6 steals, 1.1 blocks and 3.1 deflections per game despite playing limited minutes off the bench. He’s blocked more jump shots than anyone in the league, and he has better instincts than almost anyone in the association. Unfortunately, even as a walking jail cell for the NBA’s second-best defense, Thybulle only averages 20 minutes per game and has a minimal impact on the other end of the floor. That makes it a lot easier to do what he does when he’s not saddled with heavier minutes or any offensive responsibility, and it’s the reason he falls just short of Second Team honors despite being a nightmarish presence on that end.

Jrue Holiday is one of the most smothering pests in any backcourt, hounding opposing guards around screens and all over the court. As the Bucks have become more willing to switch on screens, Holiday’s versatility and stout defense has been a big part of that. Milwaukee took a slight step backward in defensive rating this season, but Holiday was still an instrumental part of a top-10 defense that will only get more dangerous as games get more important. Ben Simmons, a legitimate DPOY candidate who can guard positions 1-5 for the NBA’s second-stingiest defense, snags the other First Team backcourt spot.

In the frontcourt, Draymond Green’s vital role as Golden State’s defensive conductor remains on full display. He’s not as fast as athletic as he once was, but he’s just as intelligent, reading plays a step ahead, serving as a rim deterrent and active weak-side defender, and unlocking a whole new level for the Warriors when he plays as a small-ball 5. He’s their lead communicator, can switch onto the perimeter and is more than willing to bang inside the paint. He’s another top-three DPOY candidate on a top-five defense.

Jimmy Butler has been Miami’s best player this season, but Bam Adebayo’s importance to the defense is paramount, and he gets the edge over his teammate given the importance of the position that he plays, his switchability as a big man and the fact that he played 12 more games than Butler.

Rudy Gobert is the hands-down favorite to win DPOY. Defensive metrics can be tricky and need a lot of context, but when they’re all pointing on Gobert’s direction, that’s pretty telling. As the anchor of the Utah Jazz’s third-ranked defense, Gobert ranks first in defensive rebounds, first in blocks and first in defensive win shares. Aside from some of these more basic stats, he’s drastically improved as an isolation defender when teams try to switch him onto a smaller guard and put him on an island. Opponents are only shooting 31 percent on isos, putting him in the 87th percentile despite defending the eighth-most isolation possessions in the NBA. Whether that translates to the playoffs is irrelevant, since this is a regular-season discussion.

All-Defensive Second Team

• Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
• Mikal Bridges, Phoenix Suns
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
• Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
• Clint Capela, Atlanta Hawks

For the Second Team, Butler’s missed time can’t overshadow his excellence and versatility on that end. He’s a straight-up bully for a top-10 defense. Mikal Bridges, like Butler, isn’t really a guard, but leaving him off the All-Defensive teams felt criminal. He’s the best defender on the Phoenix Suns’ sixth-ranked defense, showcasing terrific instincts in playing the passing lanes, coming up with deflections and steals, and swooping in from nowhere for blocks with those Gumby arms of his. “Mikal Jail” has become a legitimate thing, despite an increased offensive load and being tasked with defending opposing teams’ best wings (or even guards!) on a nightly basis.

Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t quite at the same DPOY level he was last year, but he’s still the central cog of Milwaukee’s top-10 defense, averaging 1.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per game in a “down” year. In this case, Joel Embiid gets slid to a forward spot so we can make room for Clint Capela, whose inclusion is more important than any of our remaining wings or guards. Embiid didn’t make our All-NBA First Team because everyone else on that list was deserving and there’s no shame in Second Team. For the All-Defensive teams, though, stubbornly keeping him as a center would boot him off the list, since there is no Third Team All-Defense. That’d be a mistake.

Both Capela and Embiid deserve to make one of these teams for their rebounding, shot-blocking and improved ability to hold their own on the perimeter despite being drop-back bigs. Capela finished first in the NBA in rebounds (14.3 per game) and fourth in blocks (2.0 per game), and he was an intrinsic part of the Atlanta Hawks’ midseason leap on that end of the floor. Embiid anchored the league’s second-best defense with 1.4 blocks and 1.0 steals per game and was dominant by most metrics, so we’re making room for both of them here.