THE TEN BEST DEFENDERS IN THE NBA THIS SEASON

Ten spots. Thirty teams. The NBA has become increasingly positionless — and the All-Defensive conversation reflects that reality every year, with voters listing seven forwards, three guards and no true centers, or the reverse. This publication took a different approach. Positional labels still matter when you are building something that has to function as a unit — two guards, two forwards, one center per team, mixed for versatility and coverage. The result is two teams built around switchable wings, disruptive perimeter guards and elite rim protectors. Teams that could actually play together. Here they are.

ALL-DEFENSIVE FIRST TEAM

Victor Wembanyama — San Antonio Spurs (C)

The conversation ends here. Wembanyama leads the NBA in blocks at 3.1 per game, leads the league in defensive on/off differential, and has constructed a defensive profile the sport has never seen: a 7'4" rim protector with guard-level footspeed, a 8-foot wingspan that erases angles that don't exist for anyone else, and the basketball IQ to be simultaneously a deterrent and a communicator. Teams don't just struggle to score against him — they change what they attempt. He forces pull-up jumpers over layups, mid-range shots over drives, corner threes over paint touches. The deterrence is as valuable as the block itself.

He is, by every advanced metric and every credible expert ballot, the best defender on the planet. That sentence will be true for a very long time.

Chet Holmgren — Oklahoma City Thunder (F/C)

The most underrated defensive player in the NBA. Holmgren anchors the league's best defense — Oklahoma City's defensive rating when he is on the floor is the best of any player-team combination in the league — and does so with a combination of rim protection, perimeter mobility and aerial combat that is genuinely unique. Among players who contested at least 300 attempts at the rim, Holmgren's 48% field goal percentage allowed is the lowest in the league. Wembanyama is second. No one else is close.

What separates Holmgren from a conventional big man anchor is his ability to step out on the perimeter and recover — giving OKC's aggressive guards the freedom to gamble and press because they know the safety net behind them is essentially unbeatable.

Ausar Thompson — Detroit Pistons (F)

The most disruptive perimeter defender in the NBA not named Wembanyama. Thompson leads the league in deflections, ranks in the top three in both EPM and DPM defensively, and generates a highlight reel of blocks, steals and altered possessions that no other wing player can match. His arms are everywhere. His timing is freakish. His ability to help off legitimate threats — MVP candidates, All-Stars — and still recover in time to erase the play is the kind of skill that cannot be coached.

He has rough edges. He fouls too often. None of that changes the fundamental reality: when Thompson is locked in, opposing offenses don't know where the problem is coming from. That uncertainty is itself a defensive weapon.

Stephon Castle — San Antonio Spurs (G)

The most important defensive piece on a Spurs team that finished second in the Western Conference with a top-three defense. When Wembanyama sits, San Antonio's defensive rating remains 2.3 points per 100 possessions better than league average — because Castle is on the floor. He is sticky, relentless and intelligent: the kind of point-of-attack defender who forces ball-handlers into decisions they don't want to make before the play has even started.

Castle is widely viewed as an All-Defensive talent who will anchor this conversation for the next decade. This season, he earned his first selection on his own merits. Mitch Johnson pairs him with Wembanyama knowing full well that facing that combination is cruel and unusual punishment for 29 other teams.

Derrick White — Boston Celtics (G)

The skeleton key of NBA defense. White does things on the defensive end that guards simply do not do — contesting shots at the rim at a rate that ranks him alongside young shot-blocking centers, navigating screens with timing and angles that baffle offensive initiators, and extinguishing plays on the weak side before they develop into anything dangerous. Boston's defense is fifth in the league. White is the primary reason.

Among 86 players who contested at least 200 shots at the rim this season, White held opponents to 55.6% shooting at the basket — ranking him between Alex Sarr and Yves Missi, two of the league's most capable young rim protectors. He is a 6'4" guard doing that. It makes no sense. It is absolutely real.

ALL-DEFENSIVE SECOND TEAM

Dyson Daniels — Atlanta Hawks (G)

Third in the NBA in turnovers forced. The only player in franchise history to record 900 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 100 steals and 30 blocks in a single season. The defensive IQ Daniels brings to Atlanta's guard positions — reading passing lanes, stripping ball-handlers, disrupting rhythm without fouling — is the kind of skill that doesn't show up in traditional box scores and doesn't stop showing up in winning.

After trading Trae Young mid-season, the Hawks rebuilt around two players. Daniels was one of them. Not for his offense. For exactly this.

Cason Wallace — Oklahoma City Thunder (G)

The most disruptive point-of-attack defender in the league outside of the First Team. Wallace presses from the moment the ball crosses halfcourt, turning ballhandlers into desperate escape artists and gumming up offensive sets before they have a chance to develop. Among qualifying players, only Ausar Thompson averages more steals and more deflections per possession. His hands are everywhere — off the ball he anticipates gaps, zoned up on the weak side, daring teams to swing it to his man.

On any given night in OKC, he might be the third-best perimeter stopper behind Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso. Over the course of a full season, he has been better than both.

OG Anunoby — New York Knicks (F)

The water-to-wine miracle of the 2025-26 defensive season. Anunoby steadied a Knicks defense that starts Jalen Brunson at point guard and Karl-Anthony Towns at center — two genuine defensive liabilities — and guided New York to a top-seven defensive rating in the second half of the season. He is a monster on-ball defender, a first-volume off-ball screen navigator, and one of the rare wings who can guard positions one through four without losing a step.

The advanced metrics love him. The eye test agrees. He may be the best defender in NBA history whose name never appears in the DPOY conversation.

Scottie Barnes — Toronto Raptors (F)

The definition of a 1-through-5 defender. Barnes is one of the only players in the NBA capable of switching onto point guards, locking down power forwards and protecting the rim in the same possession — and doing all three credibly enough that opponents cannot exploit the mismatch. He recorded over 100 steals and 100 blocks this season, a combination that no other player achieved. Zach Lowe and John Hollinger named him explicitly on their ballots. The Raptors' defense is what it is because Barnes holds every assignment.

Rudy Gobert — Minnesota Timberwolves (C)

Four DPOY awards. Still elite. The narrative around Gobert has shifted from "best defensive player in the league" to "taken for granted" — and that shift is itself a form of disrespect. He ranks first in defensive DPM, fourth in ESPN's net points, and seventh in EPM. Minnesota's defense is a top-two unit in his minutes. He has blocked 12 long twos this season — twice as many as anyone else in the league — simply by existing in the paint as a shape opponents spend entire possessions trying to avoid.

He would have received serious DPOY consideration this season if Wembanyama didn't exist. That is not a footnote. That is his season.

The frame: Five defenders across five different teams on the First Team. Five more across five different teams on the Second. No position redundancy, no overlap, no wasted selection. The best ten defenders in the NBA — ranked, defended, and done.