#2 NBA Defender Of All-Time According to InsideHoops

[MrC1991]

Dennis Rodman...but KG number 1 for real? thats crazy.

[The-Legend-24]

@ Bill Russell, put Steve Nash in that era, and he's considered the goat defender.

[BIZARRO]

Wilt.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Sheed.

[LAZERUSS]

@ Bill Russell, put Steve Nash in that era, and he's considered the goat defender.

Interesting...

Russell was considered the best defensive player of his era, which included Nate Thurmond. Thurmond faced a peak Kareem in 40 H2H games, and KAJ posted a total of FIVE games of 30+, with a HIGH game of 34 points. Not only that, but Kareem shot .440 against Nate in those 40 games. This from a KAJ who was averaging over 30 ppg and shooting over .550 from the field in those seasons.

And yet a 38-39 year old KAJ, who couldn't jump over a matchstick, averaged 32 ppg, on .621 shooting, in ten straight games against Hakeem. Included were THREE games of 40+ (40, 43, and 46 and in only 37 minutes.) Hell, a 37-41 year old KAJ, and against a 23-26 year old Hakeem, outscored Olajuwon in their 23 H2H games, and outshot him from the field by a .607 to .512 margin. Oh, and Kareem only had three games, in those 23 H2H's, in which he failed to shoot at least 50%, with 12 games of .600+, and five of 70% shooting!

Do you think KAJ would be a crappy player in today's NBA? If you do, how about Hakeem, then?

[Milbuck]

James Harden

[Black Mamba's B]

Dark horse Eddie Jones

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

Dennis Rodman...but KG number 1 for real? thats crazy.

Not as crazy as u think Rodman is a better defender than KG

Im the only one who voted for Hakeem nikkas really saying MJ and Pippen are better defenders WTF

[tgan3]

Ben Wallace, he has the resume.

4

[DMV2]

He was the third best defender on his team.

Dumbfck, Jordan was better than Pippen on D, on O, on everything.

[Psileas]

Not a lot of seriousness in this thread, I think we'll wrap this shit up. Thought we could make something fun.

But can't be done

Great post Laz and to all who took this with a little bit of seriousness.

Υοur first thread didn't exactly reek of seriousness, either. You should have required some minimum amount of effort (=explanation) behind each choice.

[SHAQisGOAT]

Bill Russell didn't get 1st? Celtics were always clearly the best defensive team with him except once I believe, not even close before or after, all the reports/quotes, always impressive to see him play defense, very athletic, great fundamentals, really smart... Lots of ignorant people around here, I guess.

Well, I would vote for Hakeem at #2 but since Russell wasn't 1st he gets my vote.

[trabash]

Hmm... Dennis Rodman

[LAZERUSS]

Good post but never seen any real footage from them myself and they all played long time ago.

Who would you say is the best defender in modern NBA?

If you have time do this.

Best post defender
Best help defender
Best perm defender

And best all around defender.

I would say that Bruce Bowen, or perhaps Michael Cooper, were the two greatest perimeter defenders that I witnessed.

As for centers, Russell defense covered the most area, and he was a great "help" defender, as well.

Duncan is probably one of the greatest "help" defensive centers (yes, he was almost always playing center on defense.)

Thurmond was arguably the greatest "one-on-one" defensive center (although Chamberlain reduced his opposing centers nearly as much.)

And Chamberlain was, without question, the greatest post defensive player in NBA history. Watch CavsFan's "block party" footage when you get a chance. He was blocking nearly everything at the hoop. In fact, he was clearly the greatest shot-blocker of all-time, ...which was amazing considering his reputation. Every team in the league knew that he would eat up anything in the lane, and yet, he was still blocking 8-10 shots per game nearly his entire career.

[coin24]

Rodman