Is NBA All-Defensive Team positionless? Closer look at annual honor to best defensive players in regular season

As basketball offenses become increasingly dynamic, earning a spot on an NBA All-Defensive Team becomes more meaningful. As the saying goes, "defense wins championships," and these teams, along with the Defensive Player of the Year award, are indicators of good defense.

Traditionally, NBA All-Defensive Teams, like the All-NBA Teams, are determined by position, with two guard spots, two forward spots and a center spot.

In the 2022-23 season, the NBA All-Defensive First Team included guards Jrue Holiday and Alex Caruso, forwards Evan Mobley and Jaren Jackson Jr. and center Brook Lopez.

The season prior, it featured Marcus Smart and Mikal Bridges as guards, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jackson Jr. as forwards and Rudy Gobert as center.

However, a recent change took effect at the start of the 2023-24 season, as both NBA All-Defensive Teams and All-NBA Teams adopted a positionless format. This adjustment was part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiated between the NBA and the NBPA.

Commissioner Adam Silver has acknowledged on multiple occasions that the move to a positionless format in awards recognizes the evolving skill sets in today's NBA, as players like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, typically categorized as centers, can now handle the ball like guards.

Some people might argue that the change could favor centers, who are typically the defensive anchors for their teams and whose height enables them to block more shots and challenge shots at the rim.

With the change, it's now possible for multiple centers to be selected for each NBA All-Defensive Team. For instance, Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo—all centers—could potentially make up an NBA All-Defensive Team.

---

What makes a player eligible for an NBA All-Defensive Team?

A panel of writers and broadcasters is responsible for voting for regular-season awards. They can base their votes on traditional statistics like steals and blocks, as well as advanced defensive metrics such as defensive rating and defensive win shares.

The voting process works this way: Each first-team vote earns a player two points, while a second-team vote earns them one point. The top five players with the highest point totals make the first team, and the next five make the second team.

In case of a tie for the fifth position on either team, the roster is expanded, and six or more players could be included on either team. The most recent tie occurred in 2013 between centers Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah, who both made it to the first team.

The new CBA also indicates that players must participate in at least 65 out of 82 games to be eligible for selection to an All-Defensive Team or other regular-season awards.

For a game to count towards a player's eligibility for awards, he must have played for at least 20 minutes, although there are exceptions for games where a player played for 15 to 19 minutes.

---

Players with most NBA All-Defensive Team selections

Tim Duncan holds the record for the most NBA All-Defensive Team selections, having been chosen 15 times in his career — eight times for the first team and seven times for the second team.

However, despite this record, Duncan never won the Defensive Player of the Year Award. He also doesn't hold the record for the most first-team selections. That distinction belongs to Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Michael Jordan, who each have nine first-team selections.

Garnett and Bryant are tied for the second-most selections all-time with 12 each. Following closely behind is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in third place with 11 selections.