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L-R: Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies, Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns, Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, are named for the 2021-22 NBA All-Defensive First Team. /CFP
The NBA on Friday announced the rosters for the 2021-22 All-Defensive teams as the following:
Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns, Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz in the First Team.
Jrue Holiday of the Bucks, Matisse Thybulle of the Philadelphia 76ers, Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat and Robert Williams III of the Celtics in the Second Team.
Bridges, Jackson Jr. and Williams III made their first selections for the All-Defensive teams. Bridges is the Suns' first choice to guard the opponents' back-court ace; Jackson Jr. is the NBA blocks leader in the regular season; and Williams III has been seen as the best defender of the Celtics, though his teammate Smart was named the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY).
L-R: Robert Williams III of the Boston Celtics, Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks, Matisse Thybulle of the Philadelphia 76ers, Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors are named for the 2021-22 NBA All-Defensive Second Team. /CFP
Of course, all three have their problems. Bridges has sometimes ceased to be a reliable defender when he had to face someone who had power advantage. Jackson Jr. can get reckless easily. He averaged 3.5 personal fouls in the regular season, the third-most of the league and 4.4 fouls in the playoffs, the second-most of the league. Williams often had to deal with injuries and only played 61 games this season.
The other seven are all familiar choices for the All-Defensive teams, not to mention that Antetokounmpo, Gobert and Green have been named for DPOY before. Smart joined them this season. Gobert won the award three times and is only one time away from matching Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the NBA All-Time leaders in this category. But he should be happy with his sixth straight selection for the First Team as he surpassed Hakeem Olajuwon and Abdul-Jabbar in the center position.
This is the seventh time for Green to be selected for an All-Defensive team though he only played 46 games for the Warriors this season because of injuries. Only Scottie Pippen (44 in 1997-98) and Andrei Kirilenko (41 in 2004-05) played fewer games than him as All-Defensive teams members, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Only Smart, Williams III, Green and Adebayo are still competing in the playoffs with their teams.
