Cavaliers vs Hawks: 5 Things From Game 1
May 6, 2009About Time: Rafael Perez to Triple-A Columbus
May 6, 2009
And the awards continue to pile up during this amazing season. With LeBron James being the runner-up to Dwight Howard as the league’s top defender for 2008-09, today’s news comes as no surprise. Per the PD’s Mary Schmitt Boyer:
LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers has been named to the NBA’s All-Defense First Team, the league is expected to announced this afternoon.
The only other Cavalier to make the All-Defense First Team was forward Larry Nance in 1988-89).
There was a lot of argument that James should have earned the top honor over Howard, as he defends the opposing team’s best player every night and Orlando’s big man has to guard a position that has been considerably watered down since the days of Hakeem and The Chief.
Last season, James was left off of both teams, finishing behind forwards Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Shane Battier, and Tayshaun Prince.
As seen last night, LeBron was placed on Joe Johnson, who was relatively ineffective. The picture used for the PD has James guarding point guard Chris Paul. There isn’t a position that the Cavaliers will not put James in on the defensive end.
Couple this with his improved focus on defense and his significant increase in blocks – even those momentum-changing blocks from behind – and you have a player that should be All-Defense for years to come. It is crazy how much his game has elevated over the last 12 months.
(Update: The rest of the first team includes the abovementioned Paul and Howard, along with Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. Those who wanted Dwyane Wade to be DPOY have some ‘splainin to do.)
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(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
17 Comments
Any time there has been a knock on LeBron’s game, he’s come back better the next season.
Can’t shoot from outside? Check.
Can’t shoot free throws? Check.
Can’t play defense? Check.
This whole first team is a joke outside of LeBron and Dwight. KG played like 50 games this year, Kobe is overrated on D, and all CP3 can do is get steals. Kobe and CP3 especially shouldn’t be on here, if KG had played a full season, fine, but he didn’t. Neither Kobe nor CP3 are good one-on-one defenders, Kobe’s here because of his overblown reputation, and CP3 because he gambles in passing lanes.
I was surprised to see KG as well. Kobe was second overall in points – I bet I’d appreciate his game more if I stayed up later during the week.
Travesty that Battier didn’t make the list. And I am honestly not being facetious for once.
Per Windy’s Twitter, Andy got a few votes, but Delonte got none.
I think D-Wade should’ve been on there over Kobe, but Battier should’ve been on there over both of them.
I don’t understand how Delonte doesn’t even get a single vote. He should get first team consideration as far as I’m concerned. But to not even get one vote just goes to show you how meaningless this award really is.
@ #1 Hasn’t won a championship..
let’s get that one out of the way as well this year!
anyone who thinks Kobe’s D is overrated is probably not watching enough of Kobe. I would agree that Kobe applies 100% effort to defense less of the time than he used to, but when he is locked in he is undeniably the best perimeter defender in the league. It’s not close.
And remember these are awarded by the coaches, who probably know a thing or two more than the media when it comes to judging defense.
Derek Fisher got a first place vote – LOL!!
“And remember these are awarded by the coaches, who probably know a thing or two more than the media when it comes to judging defense.”
Howard was the DPOY, and one coach left him off of his ballot completely.
Four NBA coaches left LeBron off…
Yea, this award is entirely based on reputation, which should be a good thing for LeBron, because now he will be on the list for the rest of his career.
One of Battier and Ron Artest should have been on the list instead of Kobe (although I think he is still a good defender), and I probably would have picked Devin Harris or Chauncey Billups for the PG spot, they actually guard the position and aren’t a liability b/c of their size
“Howard was the DPOY, and one coach left him off of his ballot completely.
Four NBA coaches left LeBron off…”
Not sure what your point is there? Coach Van Gundy had to leave Dwight off, can’t vote for your own player. When you total the votes Kobe came in 2nd before Lebron. I’m just saying, i think it’s interesting the discrepancy between the media and the coaches.
And I agree with Ricky, this is mainly all about reputation, but great defensive players in the league are few and far between, so its no coincidence that if you get named to an All-Defensive Team you’ll probably stay on the list for a few years. This is in stark contrast to the media who need new and interesting stories to spin each season to make headlines and sell papers.
And then there is the TrueHoop argument about how he should be getting more fouls..
Poor Rob, he has no clue what he’s talking about.
Let me clear this up for you, buddy. There are 30 teams in the NBA. You can’t vote for your own player, so the most ballots you can be on are 29. We know Howard got 55 points and 27 first place votes. 27 * 2 = 54. So, if both of the other coaches who were eligible to vote for him did so, he would have had 56 votes. But instead, he only has 55, and thus that means that, as Scott pointed out, one coach (other than Stan Van Gundy) did not vote for Howard at all. Hope that clears things up for you.
And, since you evidently can’t figure out for yourself what Scott’s point is, I’ll spell it out for you. You made the claim that coaches know best who the NBA’s elite defenders are. Scott was pointing out the fallacy of that argument by showing you that there’s actually one coach out there who thinks there are 2 centers out there who are better defenders than Howard.
I’ve been very impressed with LeBron’s defense this season. But there’s no way he’s defensive player of the year material..yet.
I wrote about it here. Commence bashing. http://cursedcleveland.com/?p=1189
Did I see JR Smith got a 1st place vote as well? WHAT???
Rob D,
Are you kidding me? First of all, the two best perimeter defenders play on the same team….and that team is not the LA Lakers. Shane Battier and Ron Artest continue to be the two best perimeter defenders in the NBA, yet they seem to get overlooked about every other year.
But to say Kobe is the best perimeter defender in the league is asinine. Kobe Bryant is an above average defender but his defense is severely overrated. Not that he’s the end-all be-all but if you ever listen to Jeff Van Gundy commentate games on ABC, he says it all the time and I’m glad someone on TV isn’t afraid to say it.