“The real competition started at that final first-team slot and coalesced around the league’s two best perimeter defenders: Jones and White. You cannot go wrong. White has inherited Dwyane Wade’s title as the world’s best shot-blocking guard. White challenged 3.8 shots per game at the basket. Opponents hit 57.4% in the restricted area when White was the nearest defender. There are centers that would be happy with those numbers.
White reads opposing offenses from one or two steps ahead and can adjust tactics on the fly without any blips of uncertainty. He is the best defender on the league’s No. 2 defense.
The advanced metrics love both players. In the end, I was persuaded by Jones’s size — 6-foot-8, compared to White at 6-4 — and the versatility that enables. (Jones has a 7-foot wingspan.) Jones is skinny, but he can slide across the positional spectrum a bit more easily.
**Opponents averaged only 0.81 points on isolations against Jones — the 20th-stingiest figure among more than 300 players who defended at least 50 such plays, per Second Spectrum.** (White allowed about one point per possession — in the middle of the pack.)
J**ones is a little scarier leaping to contest jump shots — one reason (among many, including luck) the Pels have allowed a lower-than-expected field goal percentage on jumpers for the past two seasons.** White is also surrounded by All-Defensive candidates: Holiday, Tatum and Brown. ([Kristaps Porzingis](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3102531/kristaps-porzingis) and ol’ reliable [Al Horford](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3213/al-horford) are very good too.) Jones is … very much not. **The Pels would be in big trouble without him.”**
by kingralek
2 Comments
He deserves to get 1st team this year but we are NOLA so I wouldn’t be shocked if he doesn’t. Since he has been drafted our defense has been one of our stronger aspects and that wouldn’t be the case without him out there
So did Rusillo and Simmons. Rusillo had him 3rd on his Defensive player of the year also.