With the All-NBA Defensive Teams being announced, let’s take a look back at the players who made an All-Defensive team while with Washington. The Washington Wizards have a lot of defensive potential. From Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Marcus Smart, the team is full of willing and capable defenders. The team is building their identity as a long team who can get the job done on both sides of the court.
John Wall
Wall lead the Wizards to one of their best defensive seasons in the 2014-15 season. The team finished in fifth in defensive rating (103.0). Wall averaged 1.7 steals and .6 blocks . His defensive win shares were tied for first on the team with Marcin Gortat at 4.2. The team overall held opponents to .433 FG%, which was second in the league. All this earned Wall Defensive Second Team honor, the last Wizard to make one.
Larry Hughes
As a Wizard, Hughes led the league in steals at 2.9 per game in the 2004-05 season. Hughes earned First Team honors for that side of the ball, becoming only one of two Wizards players to make the First Team. The Wizards were near the bottom of the league in defensive ratings (19th), but not due to Hughes’ numbers and effort. He led the league in steal percentage at 3.8 and was first on the team in defensive win shares with 3.1.
Manute Bol
The legendary Manute Bol was one to marvel at. As a rookie, Bol lead the league in blocks with an average of five per game. Standing at 7’7”, opposing players thought second about taking the ball up against Bol. Bol finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year race in 1985-86, his rookie year and made the All-Defensive Second Team. He lead the league in total blocks with 397. He did all this while only playing 26.1 minutes per game. Bol finished top eight in the DPOY race in his first four seasons with Washington but only made the All-Defensive Team his rookie year. His defensive win shares was 9.1 for his career with Washington and at 4.2 his rookie year.
The Defensive Young Core:
Alex Sarr is already a powerhouse on defense. He averaged 1.5 blocks and recorded the most games by a teenager in league history with at least one 3-pointer made and one block.
He also joined LeBron James and Tracy McGrady as the only players to record 800+ points, 150+ assists and 80+ blocks before turning 20 years old.
Kyshawn George holds the best defensive field goal percentage (DFG%) In The 4th quarter this season, holding opponents to 37.4% guarding a minimum of 200 field goals. He is also tenth in DFG% this season guarding a minimum 500 field goal attempts, holding opponents to 42.3%.
Here are some of the percentages of some of the top players in the league when guarded by George:
Also, Coulibaly locked the stars. Here are the percentages he held them to:
All three of these guys have amazing upside defensively and they will all make an Defensive Team multiple times in their careers.
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