It's probably not much consolation, after a postseason run that ended two rounds sooner than he would've liked, but Kawhi Leonard just earned a unanimous selection to the NBA's 2016 All-Defensive First Team.
After getting selected on all but 13 First Team ballots last year, the San Antonio Spurs star and reigning and back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year received first-place nods on all 130 ballots cast by sportswriters and broadcasters, earning a perfect 260 possible "award points" in voting. (You get two points for each First Team selection, and one point for each Second Team nod.) Leonard is once again joined on the First Team by Golden State Warriors forward and DPoY runner-up Draymond Green, who received 123 first-place votes, and Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who made 47 First Team ballots and 43 Second Team slots to total 137 points, good enough for his second All-Defensive berth.
Jordan's teammate, point guard Chris Paul, joined that frontcourt troika on the First Team for the second straight season, receiving 59 First Team votes and 30 Second Team votes (148 total points) to make his sixth First Team. While he was joined in the backcourt last year by Memphis Grizzlies stopper Tony Allen, though, the final 2015-16 First Team spot went to Boston Celtics perimeter ace Avery Bradley, who received 62 First Team votes and 30 Second Team votes for a total of 148 points, slotting him comfortably ahead of his nearest contenders for top-team status and earning him the second All-Defensive bid of his career (he landed on the Second Team after the 2012-13 season) and his first First-Team spot.
Allen joined Chicago Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler, Indiana Pacers star Paul George, versatile Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap and shot-blocking Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside on the All-Defensive Second Team. It's the fifth All-Defensive trip for Allen, the third for both George and Butler, and the first for Whiteside, whose rocket ride from playing in Lebanon and China to likely receiving max contract offers this summer remains one of the NBA's craziest stories, and Millsap, who finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting after acting as the all-court linchpin of the Hawks' second-ranked defense.
None of the 10 selections seem especially out of place to Your Man's eye, and none of the "also receiving votes" players who might arguably be considered "snubs" seem especially egregious. For the second straight year, the guy with the biggest gripe is probably Rudy Gobert, who remains an amazing rim protector, shot-blocker and defensive rebounder. The French 7-footer held opponents to a microscopic 41 percent mark on attempts at the rim when he was in the neighborhood, and improed the Utah Jazz defense by 3.1 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court this year.
But he also missed 21 games due to injuries, and Jordan was arguably the single biggest factor in the Clippers tying for fourth in the NBA in points allowed per possession, which allowed them to weather the loss of Blake Griffin for about two-thirds of the season, and Whiteside was often a spectacular shot eraser and paint deterrent who seemed to improve his awareness and team-defensive work over the course of the campaign. Gobert made sense, but so did those other dudes, and so here we are.
Ditto for Bradley's Celtic teammate, Jae Crowder, who was tremendous as both a perimeter pest and, at times, a small-ball four for a Brad Stevens-led team that also finished tied for fourth in defensive efficiency despite lacking a top-shelf interior stopper and rim protector. Crowder finished with 47 total award points, one fewer than Second Team forward George, which is tough:
 | @ESPNForsberg | |
Messenger: Jae, sorry, but you missed All-Defense by one media vote. Crowder: pic.twitter.com/qqAu8KzhEC
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... but also, y'know, Paul George was pretty amazing this year, and so was Millsap, and Leonard and Green finished 1-2 in DPoY voting, and you only get four forward spots. Apologies, too, to Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio, Celtics grinder Marcus Smart, Detroit Pistons perimeter ace Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and San Antonio Spurs
3-and-D stalwart Danny Green. Times are tough all over, I'm afraid.
There were, as there always are, a couple of head-scratching ballots cast — Hawks reserve Mike Scott and the 2016 version of Dwyane Wade for All-Defense, huh? — and you can check them out here to laugh or get mad, if you're so inclined. By and large, though, the voting body seems to have acquitted itself well, from the unanimous nod for Leonard on down.
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