The NBA has unveiled its two best five defensive majors of the season and the French pivot Rudy Gobert, voted best defender of the season, appears in the first five unanimously.
Fifth consecutive selection in the best defensive five of the season for Rudy Gobert! Unsurprisingly, the one who was elected for the third time in his career best defender of the season (after 2018 and 2019) appears in the “NBA All-Defensive First Team” unveiled by the NBA on Monday night. The pivot of Utah was selected unanimously (200 points out of 200 possible), as the leader (or strong winger) of Philadelphia Ben Simmons.
The two players are accompanied by strong winger (or pivot) of Golden State Draymond Green (176 pts), leader (or rear) of Milwaukee Jrue Holiday (157pts) and strong winger of Milwaukee Giannis Antetokounmpo (135pts) . In the second best defensive team, we find the pivot of Miami Bam Adebayo (111pts), the back (or winger) of Miami Jimmy Butler (111pts), the pivot of Philadelphia Joel Embiid (87pts), the back of Philadelphia Matisse Thybulle (63pts) and Los Angeles Clippers winger Kawhi Leonard (43pts).
Gobert still far from Duncan
Rudy Gobert is the only player among these ten lucky winners to be selected for the fifth time in a row in the best defensive team. But he still has some way to go before joining Tim Duncan, the record holder, selected 15 times during his career, including eight times in the first team. Kawhi Leonard, for his part, is for the seventh time in one of the top two defensive teams. Rudy Gobert, who averaged 14.3 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in the regular season, now hopes to appear in one of the three “All-NBA Team”, the best teams of the season., as was already the case in 2017 (2nd team), 2019 and 2020 (3rd team). These teams should be unveiled in the coming days. Even if of course, it is the title of NBA champion that he covets above all. His Jazz team is currently tied (2-2) with the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals.
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