Isaiah Thomas is deservedly an All-NBA player and likely finished fifth in MVP balloting after a monster season. Damian Lillard is an All-Star level player who averaged 27 points a game for Portland last season.
Neither of them are good defenders. At all.
Both got one NBA All-Defensive second team vote.
There are no great defensive metrics, but the best snapshot one out there is ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus, which weighs a lot of factors into how a player and team defends. Thomas finished 86th out of 86 potential point guards, and second to last in the entire NBA (to answer your question, Doug McDermott was worse). Lillard finished 65th among point guards, in the range of Brandon Jennings and J.J. Barea. One stat certainly should not be a deciding factor for voters, but Twitter was rightfully confused how either of them got an All-Defense vote.
When you see #IsaiahThomas get a vote for All-Defense @NBA @BleacherReport #NBA #NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/slnO40F5LC
— Gentleman's Sweep (@GentlemansSweep) June 26, 2017
👀
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) June 26, 2017
Isaiah Thomas received a vote for All-Defense.
Isaiah Thomas got an ALL-DEFENSE vote! Boston writers remain undefeated. https://t.co/qpvgVZ2BdP
— Joseph Flynn (@ChinaJoeFlynn) June 26, 2017
Damian Lillard receiving an All-Defense vote is just as bad as IT getting one, though. Yikes.
— Joshua Howe (@Howevolution) June 26, 2017
Isaiah Thomas chimed in, but he wasn’t defending himself.
On Tuesday the NBA will release a full breakdown of which media members voted and who they voted for on all the awards. (For the record, I had a vote, and I didn’t vote for either of them here). The NBA’s voting system can be a challenge because it’s pulldown menus with a lot of players, it could just be an error, but you can bet Twitter will be ready to ask.
