The history of the NBA can also be told through the prism and importance given to the defensive end as the game evolved. The death of Dikembe Mutombo or the induction of Michael Cooper into the Hall of Fame underline the popularity that defensive art enjoyed in other eras.
The African never scored more than 14 points per game in his career and his offensive contribution was rather brief in a basketball league Pick-and-Roll He didn’t open the doors that he is now collapsing. A reality that did not prevent him from collecting seven appearances in the All-Star and three in the best quintets of the season between 1992 and 2002. Cooper didn’t receive as much global recognition, although he did slip into vague voting from time to time. The MVP is based on the recognition Larry Bird gave him as the best defender he ever played against and the bias of a particular sector of the media, who sympathizes with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The striker, Magic Johnson’s eternal squire, belonged to an era in which the recognition of external defense could still be equated with central defense. A profile that combined both, Cooper shone primarily as a perimeter striker, which earned him the fourth winner of the “Defender of the Year” award founded by Sidney Moncrief in the 1982/83 season. Four of the first six awards went to underdogs until the tyranny of the giants ushered in the early 1996s. Since then, Gary Payton (2004), Ron Artest (2025), Kawhi Leonard (2016 and 2022) and Marcus Smart (2022) can be found. as the only representatives with external influence among the winners. With Draymond Green and Kevin Garnett being missing links that everyone is desperate to find again.
Marked in defensive blast
And if in a basketball with Hand control and triple as territory to explore big guys They have always been the focus of attention in the trenches, but today something strange is happening with the consideration of the little ones who look forward to tasks of destruction. Defense is an art that is despised by the general public. But usually, when it is said that there is no defense in the NBA (that eternal fallacy), the hackneyed idea creates in the prototypical mind an image embodied by fullbacks who are the perimeter dynamite that waters the competition except combat can be put into action. For the big man, simply because of the fact that he is close to the edge and disrupts any attack that ends there (shots that are less than three meters from the iron [44,5 %]continue to dominate the league compared to the threesome [42 %]), He often receives a pardon from the decent ones.
Advanced statistics come to the aid of these profiles like a lifesaver, the prevalence of which in the analysis of things highlights players who are hit by an offensive storm that reaches record levels of efficiency every year. Since the start of the last decade, it has become increasingly easier to match the best defensive quintets with players’ performance in key advanced defensive metrics. Which makes it clear that, for example, Keegan Murray has a weak system in defense, but is a very good defender in one-on-one situations or when navigating blocks.
The dichotomy, of course, lies in the observation that the same statistical stronghold that protects them prevents them from being seen as the planet’s best defenders in the face of ever-prevailing internal power. So. No matter how much times change, centimeters and kilos will always be two extremely decisive factors in the best basketball league in the world. It’s simple: the vertical space required makes the only essential action in basketball difficult to win a game: shooting in all its aspects. Therefore, the calculation is simple if one describes the players who achieve the worst odds against the opponent as the most impressive defenders. Kingdom to which the outsiders are rarely invited with the honors of those who inhabit the painting.
The rules of the game have changed
As if that weren’t enough, these interior spaces have invaded terrain that was previously inhospitable to them. The ability of players like Derrick White to correct situations near the iron can be seen as anecdotal when compared to the abilities of Draymond Green, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis or Victor Wembanyama. It is this appositional basketball that motivated the NBA to change a rule set in stone: that the season’s best quintets had to consist of two players guardsTwo forward and center; and now they wouldn’t care about any position.
Overall, a right decision due to the change in the game, but in the All-Defense section it has left a monstrosity, like the union of Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis and a Herb Jones in the first team that is there almost appearing to fill a quota as a representative of an inferior lineage.
Curiously, the second defensive quintet is full of wing players, highlighting the second position that Holiday, White, Suggs, McDaniels or Caruso will occupy.
Like basketball itself, the external analysis of the game changes dramatically when the playoffs arrive. And there, individual defensive errors are usually cited as a decisive factor for a player’s stability on the pitch. These moments remain in the memory when profiles like Gobert, Steven Adams, Andrew Bogut, Timofey Mozgov or Jusuf Nurkic are forced to the bench against systems that take advantage of this small ball. However, there is a double trap here:
- That the offense always has greater weight in decision-making.
- That there are more cases of minute restrictions on full-backs with offensive limitations.
I can’t think of any sport where the evolution of the game on a cultural, technical and regulatory level has resulted in the defense remaining balanced against the attack. The offside rule in football, the ever-decreasing permissiveness of referees on certain contacts in the NFL, even tennis and its technological advances are all leading to the pace of play accelerating and giving advantages to serve-and-volley profiles aimed at facilitating exchanges shorten. Obviously the NBA is no less, because three pointers and three defensive seconds are the origin of the revolution we are experiencing today.
The first to go
This context makes it impossible for the player to shoot from outside, but this results in many other virtues that he can add. So when it becomes impossible to keep two players in the quintet at the same time without a chance, the victim is almost always the smaller one, because it is so natural to relieve the outsider of responsibility. This is the product of the most basic logic and still places a stigma on the pure perimeter defender that was previously mandatory on every roster. A flaw that overshadows historical talents on this side of the field such as Tony Allen, Mathisse Thybulle or, in the future, Jonathan Isaac (the latter is more capable of mixing with the full-back).
Over the last ten years the ear has become accustomed to hearing the announcement of the death of the pure center. However, adopting traits traditionally bestowed by big men on perimeter players pushes away the very attack dogs who don’t even claim to be the best at what they do. As if excellence in the demolition of creation had an inferiority complex in relation to the correction of internal situations.
These aspects go unnoticed daily by those who look beyond the surface of the game and find countless articles extolling the virtues of these characters. Now when it comes time to pass judgment, the focus defaults back to the big man and predicts that tomorrow’s fans will attend these awards to get an idea of what the defense of the era looked like and Finding Interior Spaces He dominates the floor with the greatest perimeter power in league history. Then we must save the goodness of Luguentz Dort, Keon Ellis, José Alvarado, Dyson Daniels, Anthony Black, Lonzo Ball, Donte DiVincenzo, Dillon Brooks, Ausar and Amen Thompson… Those who live must be told.
(Cover photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
