Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama makes history as the first rookie to make the All-Defensive First Team

Victor Wembanyama just accomplished something no other NBA player has ever done.

On Tuesday, the San Antonio Spurs’ towering big man became the first rookie in league history to be named to the All-Defensive First Team.

Wembanyama joined Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, Miami Heat great Bam Adebayo, New Orleans Pelicans guard/forward Herb Jones and Los Angeles Lakers great Anthony Davis on the first team.

Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso, Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs, Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels and Celtics guard Jrue Holiday made up the second team.

Gobert led the voting, receiving all 99 first-team votes from the panel of writers and broadcasters who submitted their ballots. Gobert’s unanimous selection for the first team comes as no surprise. Minnesota, with Gobert protecting the rim and receiving excellent contributions at the rim from McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, finished the regular season as the league’s best defense, limiting opponents to 108.4 points per 100 possessions. Gobert ranked fourth in defensive rebounds per game (9.2) and sixth in blocks per game (2.13).

The all-defensive first Kia NBA team 2023-2024:

▪️Bam Adebayo from @MiamiHEAT
▪️Anthony Davis from @Lakers
▪️Rudy Gobert van @Houtwolves
▪️Herb Jones from @PelicansNBA
▪️Victor Wembanyama from @tracks pic.twitter.com/Ye6oB0T5VV

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 21, 2024

Two weeks ago, Gobert received the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award for the fourth time.

Wembanyama was elected to the first team on 86 of the ballots and to the second team on 12 ballots. Although his Spurs finished the season ranked 21st in defense in the league, he was already earning a reputation among his peers as a great defender. In The AthleticsAccording to the 2024 Anonymous Player Survey, Wembanyama was the top vote-getter when players were asked to identify the league’s best defender, named on 15.2 percent of the vote. Wembanyama led the league in blocks (3.58 per game) and collected 27.3 percent of all available defensive rebounds.

Adebayo was the cornerstone of the Heat’s fifth defense. Frequently praised for his ability to switch to opposing guards – no small feat for a strapping 6-foot-4 big – Adebayo offers the versatility and grit the Heat are known for.

Jones earned his first All-Defensive team selection. Tall and slim at 6-foot-1, Jones was a key contributor to a Pelicans defense that ranked sixth in defensive efficiency.

Davis finished the season third league-wide in defensive rebounds per game (9.5) And fourth in blocks per game (2.34).

The all-defensive second Kia NBA team 2023-2024:

▪️Alex Caruso from @Chicago Bulls
▪️Jrue Holiday by @keltiek
▪️Jaden McDaniels from @Houtwolves
▪️Jalen Suggs from @OrlandoMagic
▪️Derrick White from @keltiek pic.twitter.com/IdaekqTeHs

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 21, 2024

This was the first season in which the league voted ‘rankless’ for the All-Defensive and All-NBA teams and the first season’s players had to play a minimum of 65 games (in most cases) to qualify for an All -Defensive team.

In previous years, voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each of the two All-Defensive teams and each of the three All-NBA teams. But not anymore. This year, as a result of the collective bargaining agreement ratified last year, voters were tasked with selecting the most deserving players, regardless of their position.

The All-NBA teams will be announced Wednesday at 8 PM ET.

The NBA named the first All-Defensive teams after the 1968-69 season. For this year, only five rookies had ever been named to an All-Defensive team: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969-70 season), Hakeem Olajuwon (1984-85), Manute Bol (1984-85), David Robinson (1989-90) and Tim Duncan (1997-98). But Abdul-Jabbar, Olajuwon, Bol, Robinson and Duncan were named second-team All-Defensive players as rookies, not first-team All-Defensive players.

What’s the biggest takeaway?

League officials and the players’ union switched to positionless voting to ensure the most deserving players receive recognition.

This year, Abebayo and Davis took advantage of that change.

Although Adebayo has been considered an elite defender within league circles for a number of years, he was a second-team All-Defensive player in each of the previous four seasons, often finishing behind the likes of Gobert, Draymond Green, Jaren Jackson Jr., Brook Lopez and Evan Mobley.

This year, Adebayo finally broke through to the first team for the first time in his career, and rightly so.

Questions remain about the long-term consequences of the move to positionless voting: How should voters rate the defense of perimeter players relative to the defense of big players? Will the bigs now dominate the All-Defensive First Team voting in most years, and would that be a positive or a negative?

Caruso almost certainly would have made the All-Defensive First Team this year if the league had retained the position-based voting system.

What was the biggest surprise?

It’s a pleasant surprise that the Timberwolves and Celtics, the top two teams in points allowed per possession, each placed two players on the All-Defensive teams. Minnesota had Gobert and McDaniels, while Boston had White and Holiday.

Who faced the greatest criticism?

Look no further than the Oklahoma City Thunder, who finished the regular season with the league’s fourth-best defensive rating and entered the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference but had no players on the first or second teams.

Wing Luguentz Dort narrowly missed the second team. He collected a total of 34 points in the vote, the eleventh highest total. Holiday, the last player selected to the second team, received a total of 36 points. Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City’s rookie center who ranked fifth in blocks per game, had the 13th-highest vote total.

Required reading

(Photo by Victor Wembanyama and PJ Washington: Jerome Miron / USA Today)