With the NBA Regular Season in the books, the attention turns to the NBA Playoffs and NBA Award season. The voters have their ballots in hand now to cast its votes for all the major awards.
Oklahoma City should see plenty of representation across the board with the MVP, Executive of the Year and a plethora of defensive awards.
While the media handles voting on these honors with pride, it is unquestionably difficult to sift through defenders to cast your support for a Defensive Player of the Year and a pair of All-Defensive teams. It takes work, it takes talking to players and coaches and great responsibility not to just slip into old habits or narratives.
The Oklahoma City Thunder own a historic defense, with a 106.6 defensive rating (Best in the League), averaging 10.3 steals per game (An NBA Best), 5.7 blocks per game (Second in the NBA) and letting up just 42.5 points per game in the paint (best in the NBA).
This is only made possible by its high-end defenders Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Though, only four are eligible for NBA Awards with the new 65 games played rule.
The Oklahoma City Thunder became the second team in NBA history to have three players ranked in the top 10 in steals per game: Cason Wallace (3rd, 1.76), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (5th, 1.72), and Jalen Williams (7th, 1.61).
Count this scribe in for having all of them on one of the two All-Defensive teams, but at a minimum, Wallace, Dort and Williams must be included. It would be the first time any of them –– surprisingly for Dort –– would crack an All-Defensive list, but a well-deserved honor.
Lu Dort Deserves to be the NBA Defensive Player of the Year
Defense is hard to evaluate. It takes time. It involves looking up stats, watching film and talking to people actually in the league. No media member should have such hubris to think they have it all figured out.
While the natural narrative is to lean on big men for this award, viewing them as the anchor of the defense and the reason why any given team is elevated on that end, it simply is not the case. Take it from one of the best scorers of all time.
"It is a five-man game, you can have a great defender and four mediocre defenders around him and you will be a bad defense. You can have four great defenders and he can mask one guy that is a bad defender. It is a team effort, a team concept. You can not build a great defense without everybody on the same page and understanding one another," Durant explained to Thunder on SI last year.
The reason for the Thunder's historic defensive output? It is a team that is on the same page and all are bought into digging in on that end of the floor. However, that doesn't take away from what Dort accomplishes on his own as the head of the snake. Just as we have never penalized top scorers for his teammates making shots, understanding said scorer is the straw that stirs the drink, Dort is the same way on defense allowing the Thunder to play different looks and put guys in better spots to succeed due to his value and skillset.
"If you just do simple things, you can be an impactful defense. Playing hard is something everybody talks about, but there is no way you are a good defense if you do not have people that play hard," Kameron Woods, G League head coach and the All-Time Blocks leader in Butler University history explained to Thunder on SI. "You have to pursue through screens, make plays at the rim, rebound, there is no technique or skill I can teach you to make you do that better. It is all about effort."
Woods was a defensive ace in his day and the type of player that he described when asked what people miss about the defensive end of the floor is not only describing one position. It is traits that everyone has to have and Dort possesses.
There is this idea that only a big man can raise the tide of a defense, but that too can be dismissed in Dort's case. In the past 4 years, which includes a 24-win Thunder team and a play-in squad, the Thunder have finished top-17 in defensive rating.
In that play-in year, when the Thunder's rotation didn't include a center? Dort helped boost the Thunder's defense to a top 15 mark (13) in the league to allow them to win enough games to return to the postseason. Seems like a defensive floor-raising player to this scribe, regardless of what letter is in the position column.
Take it from the best scorers in this league who constantly issue praise to Dort and his skillset as a stopper.
"Going against Lu Dort, it's a tough job. He's one of the best defenders in the NBA," Doncic said a week ago about the Thunder defensive ace.
“Lu Dort,” Lillard said two years ago. “I think he has the perfect balance of strength, quickness, speed and desire to do it. And he’s young. So I just think he is the best at it.”
If the currency of basketball is having a No. 1 scoring option and if you lack that aspect of your team you lack championship aspirations. Isn't the most valuable defender the one who is best at shutting down those scoring options?
Sure, big men get the benefit of highlight blocks at the rim to make up for lackluster guard play that feel good on a mixtape. Yes, it is easier to see that impact because fighting over a screen to force a difficult look –– and drawling the third most offensive fouls in the league as a scrappy defender –– or playing high enough on an all-time great scorer that he becomes uncomfortable and gets off the ball is harder to quantify, but it doesn't make it any less meaningful.
Lu Dort is the best defender in this league; he spearheads the best defense in the NBA by a mile and takes on the toughest assignments each night and produces every time he steps on the floor.
Cason Wallace Needs to make an All-Defensive Team
Having already established it takes five guys to add up to a historical defense, Wallace's hounding nature suffocates matchups who are already worn down from dealing with Dort. The Kentucky product turns in 1.8 steals per game and is the best shot-blocking guard in the NBA to demoralize matchups.
"[Cason Wallace] doesn't do the normal prep that I think people do. Like [Cason] doesn't even watch film on players for real. He is just kinda going out there on instinct. I think we get a good amount of freedom defensively to play how we play and play aggressive, that fits the mold of how he is and that allows him to react," Jalen Williams told Thunder on SI.
Wallace confirmed that his prep work doesn't involve as much film time as you might think. "I let the instinct take over at the end of the day," the defensive ace said with a smile.
He revealed that he relies on knowing players' tendencies throughout the game and the Thunder's assistant coaches to bark out orders on positioning.
"At a young age, when I really first started, my dad instilled that in me. He told me 'everybody going to put the ball in the basket, but [defense[ is going to set you out to be different'" Wallace told Thunder on SI.
Another area where his childhood led to defensive success was his battles with brother Keaton Wallace, a 26-year-old guard for the Atlanta Hawks, growing up.
"He's older and he lived in the gym and he always kept a ball on him. I would have to take the ball from him if I wanted to play or shoot. So guarding him my whole life, easily the toughest player I had to guard," Wallace told Thunder on SI.
The Kentucky product should rightfully find his name on one of the two all-defensive lists this year, an honor he wouldn't take lightly.
"It would mean everything. Everybody wants an award and I hang my hat on defense. I come out every night and guard the best players in the world and I am turning them over, get steals and to be rewarded would mean everything," Wallace said.
Jalen Williams Case for an All-Defense Team
If nothing else, at least Williams played the ever-important center position to curry some favor with voters and filled in admirably at the position during an injury-riddled stretch of the season for Oklahoma City.
Williams' ability to truly switch 1-5 is hard to match around the league, especially generating elite output on the defensive end of the floor regardless of which position Mark Daigneault deploys him at.
The Santa Clara product produces 2.3 stocks (steals + blocks) per game, which speaks for itself but has also proven to be a big-game defender. A year ago, Williams was elite on that end of the floor when matched up with Kyrie Irving during the NBA Playoffs and it is a testament to his range on that end of the floor.
More must-reads: