All NSL D!!

All-NSL 1st Team D

G Lebron James - Sacramento Kings 

G Jimmy Butler -  Phoenix Suns 

F Kawhi Leonard - Portland Trail Blazers 

F Giannis Antentokounmpo - LA Clippers 

F Anthony Davis - Chicago Bulls 



(Anthony Davis; Lead vote getter with 9 first team votes... Giannis was second with 5...)

All the usual suspects. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be the All NSL 1st team as well, perhaps minus a player or two.... Here we have the cream of the crop when it comes to elite defence whether it be the traditional pack the paint and anchor the D, rim protection and smashing the boards... Or Elite IQ, Help D and switching on the perimeter or just shear athleticism and grit. These savages are the faces of and tips of the spear of some of the leagues most terrifying defence. 

Besides Giannis all the players listed here are a part of 4/7 of the best defences in the NSL. According to those who know jack shit, Lebron stopped playing defence years ago. In fact there were so many tears shed eventually 2k caved and knocked him down in “defensive consistency” Which is crap... LJ can play D whenever he wants he just doesn’t want to right now.... What actually happened is he’s had to take the foot off the pedal ever so slightly and has had to settle for being barely a toe behind those that are considered top tier defence at least on the perimeter, in this league. Please. Play your dude against Lebron, I beg you. 

Jimmy just anchors any Defence he gets his hands on. He’s all about that life and very few in this league are. Will leave you frozen on O and have you considering a change in career on D. He ended up changing places 3 times this season and always championed a gritty and physical style of ball on both ends regardless of location. I’ve openly said to those who care to listen that Jimmy is the only Guy in the league who’s actually limited Lebron *cough* in the regular season *cough* when it doesn’t matter *cough* and that’s a fete in of itself. 

O yeah by the way, Portland made a big deal this season if you didn’t know... Noooo not the deal that landed them Murray for a mouldy sandwich... Hahaha no no not the master class manoeuvre that netted him Murray for TLC and some picks 10 years from now... Scroll down, go back a few pages, hit Ctrl+F and eventually you’ll find it... I’m talking about shipping jimmy and someone forgettable for Kawhi. Pretty much the only other dude who can even legitimately claim being in the same league as jimmy on both ends... thing is he’s been sent from the future and they gave him big gorilla hands just for shits and gigs. Imagine the luxury of having a guy like Kawhi and tossing and turning at night wondering who he’s going to obliterate next. The blazers of course sported the best defence in the league this year and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Kawhi was the driving reason behind this. 

The Clips were polarising this season to say the least. Surprisingly they were a shade above league average in terms of stopping the opponent from putting the  ball in the round hoop. Although, that doesn’t really mean a whole lot when you look at what Giannis did night in and night out... To be honest If he wasn’t there then the clips would be dead last by a long shot, I know... spicy as fuck take hey. The leagues MVP was ranked 5th in rebounds (13.7), 5th in steals (2.1) and 3rd in blocks (1.9) with a 15.9 point differential when on the court and off... all this really only was overshadowed by the eventual and deserving defensive player of the year in AD. Giannis can’t be too mad though, taking home the MVP and so many regrets of passing it out to rondo, Harkless and Rubio for wide open bricks all series long.

What’s that!? Get this man some shooting!?... Nonsense. 

Not much else to say that hasn’t already been said at length. DPOTY and second in MVP behind Giannis (gotta sting). led the bulls to 63 wins falling just shy of the eventual champs Portland by only a few. He was ranked 6th in rebounds (13.7) and 1st in blocks and steals (2.1/2.7)... AD the was the puppet master behind the leagues 2nd ranked Defence and considering the witches hats he had on “defence” in the backcourt getting melted by third string guards/wings on the reg it’s impressive he was even able to hold down the forte in any sense of the word. He’s everything Kawhi is but pushing 7 foot and minus the monkey hands and plus a luscious uni brow.

The dude shut down Siakam and kept him to 8/4 shooting 35% from the field down from his regular season numbers of 14/8/2/1.8 shooting over 50%... he kept DJ and the horde of freak show bigs over at Miami at bay the next round... spoiled the wizards Cinderella story welcoming BC to the NSL good and proper keeping him to 10/6 compared to his season averages of 14/9... They swept their way to the finals and met a brick wall. It is what it is but the display this dude put on was epic and one for the history books. 

All-NSL 2nd Team D 

G Jrue Holiday - Toronto Raptors 

G Paul George - Cleveland Cavaliers

F Robert Covington - Golden State Warriors 

F Karl Anthony Towns - SA Spurs 

F Joel Embiid - Atlanta Hawks 



(Joel Embiid; Lead vote getter for 2nd team with 4 first place votes over KATs 2... He was in fact a mere two points away from nabbing a first team nod over Lebron!)

This one was tricky. Everyone had a hard on for big men and conveniently forgot that defence is also played outside of the paint. I’m all for being progressive and liberal with the whole position-less ball deal but I had to make a few calls here to have a somewhat balanced starting 5. Honourable mentions to elite big men Ayton from the dubs, Adams from the spurs, Tatum from the Celtics and Whiteside from the Sixers.

Jrue bounced around a bit starting at the blazers and before even playing a game packed his bags and embarking to the kings... We loved him so much we couldn’t keep him from everyone and so then on to the raps to play Robin to Dames Batman. He found his groove and excelled, winning 6th man comfortably and seemingly being the missing piece for the Raptors, while on the way to 51 wins with an impressive run home to secure 4th seed and home court advantage. Pity he couldn’t do much about Big Dick Book and the boys down at the Monday night Div 4 open men’s Knox team who graciously volunteered to fill out the roster... 

Another guy who hopped around and even now as I sing his praises has teamed up with his aforementioned back court buddy in Holiday. They will be giving opposing players nightmares of blown offensive sets and freaky defensive intuition next year. Top 10 in steals and when he’s clicking he’s good for almost 8 boards a game, which as a wing is elite and in rare company. You know That small handful of guys I was taking about before with Kawhi and jimmy? Yeah PG is right there with them and the Raps don’t have to worry about having to hide their franchise guy Doug MacD and Tony Bradley. 

The only “role guy” across both teams known around the league for his elite defence and ability to make team mates better with what he can do on the hard wood. 2k Bob aka Cov aka sideshow bob aka RoCo aka Glovington is Exactly what you want If you want to win games... I’m actually low key chuffed as that a guy like him gets some love in this category to add a bit of flavour in there... O and word on the street is another team has enlisted his services... 

I keep banging on about how we’re “playing 2k boys” when it comes to justifying majority of my bs ass trades whether I’m getting fleeced or am the one doing the deed. Lucky for KAT this statement rings true as the real life NBA Kat is a borderline liability on that end most possessions and is a few missed calls away from crying a river any given night and torpedoing his teams chances at winning consistently. If Jimmy can’t fix it then no one can. Cool fact!: Jmac now isn’t the only one with an award that means nothing because it was achieved through nefarious means.... But in NSL though, he’s big, long, quick and has bogus af defensive ratings to “check all the boxes” of 2k’s nonsense overall rating algorithm. Nether the less the spurs are reaping the rewards and look to build on their impressive choke job going into next year on the back of KATs faux defensive prowess. 

The numbers say Embiid is elite on the defensive end. We know he is anyways, we don’t need the numbers to validate that. That being said though the hawks were pretty average on defence this year and it was essentially their biggest flaw which saw their undoing among other things in the post season in dramatic fashion. Looking at his supporting cast it’s not hard to see how it’s was really just him out there by himself trying to bucket water out of a sinking ship. He’s now on the Pacers, so perhaps his defensive stock goes up next year but for now you can’t be mad at 2nd team among some of these other names.