The Los Angeles Lakers players were snubbed of the 2021 All-Defensive Teams despite having the best defensive rating in the league. The purple and gold put together excellent defenders, including 2020 DPOY award finalist Anthony Davis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dennis Schroder, and Alex Caruso.
In recent hours, the NBA announced the All-Defensive Teams, full of the best defensive players in the association.
Rudy Gobert, Ben Simmons, Draymond Green, Jrue Holiday and forward Giannis Antetokounmpo are part of the All-Defensive First Team.
Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid, Matisse Thybulle and Kawhi Leonard are part of the NBA All-Defensive Second Team.
As you can see, there’s no Lakers player on the list despite the team being the top-ranked defense in the league (106.8 defensive rating). It seems like it was more of a collective effort from the team than anything.
The Lakers had the league’s best defensive rating this season.
They have 0 All-Defense players. pic.twitter.com/NZQUa31ewg
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 14, 2021
Last year, Anthony Davis finished second in the DPOY ballot, losing the award to Giannis Antetokounmpo. Injuries deprived him of having a similar season, missing several games for the Lakers.
Davis did receive votes, just like Caruso, Schroder, and Caldwell-Pope, but they weren’t enough to get them a spot in any All-Defensive Team. This was the first season since 1999/2000 that the Lakers finished as the top-ranked defense in the league, but not a single player received All-Defensive Team honors.
