One Defensive Player of the Year award, nine All-Defensive 1st Team selections, one time NBA steals leader, eight years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

5th in steals, 179th in defensive rebounds

One of just two players listed at point guard to ever win Defensive Player of the Year, Hall of Famer Gary Payton took home the award in 1995-96, a season that saw him lead the league in steals with 2.9. Payton finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year vote two other times in his career.

Without a doubt, Payton is the GOAT when it comes to point-guard defenders, as he had elite lateral quickness, fantastic hands and played with a whole lot of tenacity and swagger on that end of the floor, making defense look cool. He also had a knack for getting in opponents’ heads with his trash-talking prowess.

His defensive aptitude led the Seattle SuperSonics all the way to the Finals in ‘96, a championship series that maybe could have gone differently had Payton been tasked with defending Jordan earlier in the matchup (via Sports Illustrated):

Payton didn’t guard Jordan until Game 4 – MJ averaged 31 points on 46.2 percent from the field in the first three games. He’s often said that his defense in Games 4 and 5 tired and took a toll on Jordan and that he wished he had guarded him before the SuperSonics went down 3-0 in the series “I was just coming off winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, first point guard to ever do it. Then all of a sudden, Jordan had got MVP. So Sports Illustrated put me on the cover of it – Mission Impossible, can I do it? And all of a sudden, they were putting the best defensive player in the NBA versus the best offensive player. I couldn’t guard him until Game 4. And I said forget this injury, we’re down 3-0, let’s try,” Payton said.

With Payton as his primary defender, Jordan’s numbers fell to 23.7 points on 36.7 percent shooting from the field over Games 4, 5 and 6 combined, two of which were victories for Seattle. 

Regardless, Payton was a nine-time All-Defensive player, earning 1st Team honors all nine times, tied for the most ever. All in all, there’s no question he’s the best undersized defender the league has ever seen.

Nine All-Defensive Team selections, two years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

2nd in steals, 32nd in defensive rebounds, 321st in blocks

No. 2 all-time in steals,  was a borderline savant on the hardwood, and that extended to both ends of the floor. Kidd had a great ability to read passing lanes and jump them to initiate consistent fastbreaks going the other way. He may not have been the most athletic but he did have great strength and solid lateral quickness, which made the one-time Cal Bear an effective defender.

Even in 2011 in his age-37 season, Kidd earned acclaim in the NBA Finals as a member of the Mavericks for the job he did helping slow down LeBron James, refusing to give up an inch when the much bigger James would try to post him up.

Kidd was a four-time 1st Team All-Defender.

: Six All-Defensive Team selections, five years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

59th in steals, 249th in defensive rebounds, 268th in blocks

A three-time 1st Team All-Defender,  is one of the best defensive players of his era, using his fantastic lateral quickness and strength to remain glued to opposing ball-handlers and his long arms to poke away balls to rack up steals for his teams. Had Holiday just had better size, he surely would have taken home a Defensive Player of the Year award or two, as his peers have always talked very highly about his impact and toughness on the defensive end.

Here’s how Holiday’s teammate, another great backcourt defender in , discussed the former UCLA standout’s defending:

Holiday is such a well-thought-of defender that he parlayed his point-stopping abilities into two Team USA selections, helping the Americans take home gold at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.

Eight All-Defensive Team selections

328th in steals

Defensive Player of the Year didn’t exist as an award until four years after  retired. Additionally, steals and blocks weren’t counted until the final six years of his career. Even then, Van Lier averaged 1.8 steals for his NBA career despite the stat not being recorded until later in his athletic prime.

Van Lier’s time in the NBA would be over by his age-31 campaign due to injuries sapping away his athleticism as well as drug problems. Van Lier became addicted to Quaaludes after taking a lot of painkillers to deal with “constant pain” during his playing career.

Regardless, Van Lier was a tenacious and impactful defender, earning 1st Team All-Defense honors three times and overall All-Defensive Team honors eight times. Van Lier and Bruce Bowen, are the retired players with the most All-Defensive Teams on their resume not to be in the Hall of Fame.

Nine All-Defensive Team selections, six times NBA steals leader, eight years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

2nd in steals, 86th in defensive rebounds

Defense may not be the first thing you think of with  due to his lack of size, but the future Hall of Famer used his smaller stature expertly on the defensive end, combining it with his outrageous quickness to be an absolute pest on the defensive end. Although he never finished Top 10 in the final ranking, Paul received Defensive Player votes eight times in his career despite being six feet tall (on a good day).

He was also a 1st Team All-Defender seven times, the ninth-most such honors for any player ever. On top of that, Paul has enjoyed great longevity and has been able to pick up so many steals over such a long career that he ranks third all-time in career takeaways.

Seven All-Defensive 1st Team selections

407th in steals

The great , best remembered for his smooth, crafty scoring and playmaking, has become underrated for his defensive contributions. Frazier made an astounding seven 1st Team All-Defenses in his career, earning the accolade every year from ’69 to ’75.

His career steals numbers also would have been more impressive if the stat had been recorded earlier than 1973-74 when Frazier was already in his age-28 season. Even then, the Knicks legend averaged 2.0 steals from ’74 to ’77 despite no longer being in his athletic prime by then.

Frazier’s two-way play was hugely impactful to New York’s two championships during his time there, especially in the 1973 NBA Finals against  and the Lakers. Frazier held West to just 21.4 points per game in the five-game series victory for the Knicks, a far cry from the 27.0 points per game West averaged for his career.

Five All-Defensive Team selections, five years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

7th in steals, 435th in defensive rebounds

Younger people may better remember him for his time as a head coach but was even better as a player, earning Hall of Fame honors in 2018 thanks to his four-time All-Star, one-time champion playing career.

Of course, there have been Hall of Fame snubs with better accolades than that, but what those players lacked that Cheeks had was defensive acumen. Cheeks made five straight All-Defensive Teams in his career, including four straight 1st Teams from ’83 to ’86. Elite quickness combined with great instincts, Cheeks averaged 2.1 steals for his career, the ninth-highest such average of any player ever. To this day, he ranks just outside the Top 5 in all-time steals.

And despite being an average-sized 6-foot-1 point guard, Cheeks finished Top 5 in Defensive Player of the Year voting three times in his career, including a third-place finish in ’83, all of which prove what an effective defensive pest Cheeks was during his time as a player.

Five All-Defensive Team selections, two times NBA steals leader, two years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

1st in steals, 286th in defensive rebounds, 485th in blocks

had great quickness and lightning-fast hands on the defensive end of the floor. Stockton also had ridiculous longevity, playing until his age-40 campaign, which helped him secure the top spot in the NBA’s all-time steals list in what looks like the league’s most unbreakable record right now.

On the other hand, Stockton did develop a reputation for being a dirty player, the annoying type who would get away with elbowing an opponent but flop like he was the one getting fouled to get calls (via ESPN):

Even so, the feisty Stockton never backs down from a challenge. Clarence Weatherspoon, six inches taller and 100 pounds heavier, sets a pick on Stockton. The little man digs an elbow into the big man’s ribs, throws a shoulder into Weatherspoon’s chest, then falls to the floor. The ref whistles the foul against a confused Weatherspoon.

Stockton had to make up for his physical limitations somehow. For what it’s worth, Dennis Rodman respected Stockton for his questionable methods on the defensive end:

The street in Stockton was also what made then-Spurs forward Dennis Rodman respect and admire him. “Stockton’s as mean as they come. Everybody might think he’s a choirboy, but he’ll slip you an elbow when the refs aren’t looking, or he’ll talk some junk. I like that in a guy,” Rodman remarked.

In that same article, you can find a quote from , who faced off against Stockton a plethora of times in the ’90s, saying he loved Stockton off the court but that on it, he was a “dirty b——“.

Four All-Defensive Team selections, one time NBA steals leader, four years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

52nd in steals, 230th in defensive rebounds

Two-time NBA champ  was a point guard known for having a ridiculous 6-foot-9 wingspan and enormous hands, which made him a very impactful defender in his prime, particularly picking pockets and creating havoc off the ball in passing lanes.

A young Rondo was an elite role player for those great Big 3 Celtics teams of the late ’00s, especially as a help defender alongside Garnett. Rondo ranks nearly Top 50 all-time in steals and made two All-Defensive 1st Teams in his career.

One Defensive Player of the Year award, three All-Defensive Team selections, three years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes, three Hustle awards

191st in steals

One of just five guards ever to win Defensive Player of the Year, Marcus Smart earned the prestigious honor in 2021-22.

There was some discourse on how deserving of a winner Smart was that year for the award, though. Voter fatigue might have hurt Rudy Gobert in the vote that season, but even so, Boston ranked first in defensive efficiency that year and Smart was probably the team’s most impactful defender.

Regardless, Smart is a tenacious defender who always gives it 100 percent intensity when he’s on the floor. He’s also closing in on 1,000 steals for his career, no small accomplishment. 

Five All-Defensive Team selections

244th in total rebounds

The Logo  is one of the greatest players in NBA history. And though he may be remembered mostly for his smooth off-the-dribble jumper and his playmaking, West was a monster defender, too, earning 1st Team All-Defense honors four times in his career despite the award only starting to exist when he was already 30. Playing with nonstop effort and tenacity, West was willing to put his body on the line to make plays, be it on the offensive or defensive end of the floor.

The NBA didn’t track steals until his final season, but that year, 1973-74 when West was already 35, the legendary guard still averaged 2.6 steals, albeit in 31 games. If we conservatively estimate that West averaged 2.4 steals over the other 901 games of his career, that would put West at 2,243 career steals, firmly in the Top 10 in league history.

Three All-Defensive Team selections, five years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes, one Hustle award

385th in steals, 445th in blocks

A pest of a defender who thrived in one-on-one situations against fellow point guards,  carved out a solid 12-year NBA career thanks to his hard-nosed, high-effort defending. Beverley was also an elite trash-talker who could get inside the heads of opponents and disrupt opposing teams’ game plans that way.

Beverley made 1st Team All-Defense in 2016-17 and was a respected 3-and-D point guard during his time in the league.

Six All-Defensive Team selections, two times NBA steals leader, three years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

13th in steals, 374th in defensive rebounds

Earning 1st Team All-Defense honors back-to-back years in ’93 and ’94,  was a monster defensively, leading the league in steals twice, once in ’97 and then again in ’98. Blaylock’s 2.3 steals per game for his career is the fifth-highest steals average of all-time.

Blaylock also averaged more steals (2.3) than personal fouls (1.9) in his career, a very rare feat for a defensive specialist at the guard position (just as an example, Patrick Beverley, a respected guard defender from this era, averaged 1.1 steals to 2.9 fouls for his career). This was broken down in depth by SBNation back in 2020:

Generally speaking, the average NBA player commits nearly three fouls for every steal they get. For bigs it’s usually more, for perimeter players usually fewer. But even for guards, more steals than fouls is an uncommon occurrence. That’s true of individual seasons, where no more than a few players do so annually, but it’s especially true across an entire career, which we’ll get to in a bit. …. Remember how it’s exceedingly rare for anyone else to have even had a decently voluminous season with over 1.2 times as many steals as fouls? Well, Blaylock maintained that rate across his entire 13-year career. … It would appear a longshot at best that Blaylock’s career ratio of 1.23 to 1 will ever be approached among high-volume players. In the last few decades, Iverson and Butler are the only players who’ve (barely) eclipsed even 1.1 to 1 — and while Butler’s still active, it’d take a miracle for him to catch up to Blaylock.

Somewhat quietly, Blaylock was a historically impactful defender for a guard, it may have just gone somewhat unnoticed due to him spending his entire prime on good-but-far-from-great Nets and Hawks teams.

Two All-Defensive 2nd Team selections, one time NBA steals leader, three years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

44th in steals, 433rd in blocks, 462nd in defensive rebounds

Top 50 all-time in steals,  led the league in nightly takeaways in 1993-94 with 3.0. McMillan had five seasons in which he averaged at least 2.0 steals, too.

Better known for his long stints as head coach of the Pacers and Hawls, McMillan was able to carve out a solid 12-year NBA career in large part because of his one-on-one and help defending, as the two-time 2nd Team All-Defender never averaged more than 7.6 points in a campaign.

Two All-Defensive 2nd Team selections, three years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

15th in steals, 492nd in defensive rebounds

Mavericks legend  made two 2nd Team All-Defenses in his career and also received Defensive Player of the Year votes three times during his time in the NBA, peaking in 1989-90 with a third-place finish.

Harper enjoyed an eight-year stretch in which he averaged 2.0 steals per game, playing tough and impactful perimeter defense for some very good Dallas teams, including one in ’88 that got as far as Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, where they finally eventually fell to the Showtime Lakers.

Six All-Defensive 1st Team selections, one time NBA steals leader

109th in steals

A very effective playmaker and an even more impactful defender, Don Buse led the NBA in steals per game once (at a ridiculous 3.5 per game mark in ‘77, the second-highest single-season average in NBA history to this day), and the ABA in steals once (at an even crazier 4.1 steals per game rate in ‘76). 

Buse’s 1.8 steals per game for his NBA career is the 32nd-best mark ever in the NBA. He was a four-time 1st Team All-Defender as well as a two-time 2nd Team All-Defender. What’s more, in 1978-79, he helped lead the Suns all the way to Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals with his steady playmaking and his gutsy defending as the team’s starting point guard.

Two All-Defensive 2nd Team selections, one year receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

157th in steals, 400th in defensive rebounds

A two-time 2nd Team All-Defender, Chauncey Billups was the point-of-attack stopper for some all-time Pistons defenses, with the point guard playing an important role in slowing down backcourt attackers for those elite Detroit defenses. Billups used his strength and lateral quickness on the perimeter very well to be an effective defender.

In 2003-04, the year the Pistons won their most recent championship, Billups was part of a Detroit defense that gave up a very stingy 93.9 points per 100 possessions.

Four All-Defensive 2nd Team selections

74th in steals

He may be best known today for being an analyst on Pacers’ television broadcasts but in his time as a player, Quinn Buckner was an impactful defender, earning 2nd Team All-Defense honors four times, including three years in a row from 1979-80 through 1981-82. After that stretch, Buckner joined the Celtics dynasty, even playing a role on the team’s championship run of 1983-84 with his feisty backcourt defense.

One All-Defensive 2nd Team selection, two years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

39th in steals

Mike Conley was never a super elite defender but for a player with his size and athleticism, he was quite effective on that end of the floor for a long time, using his lateral quickness well to remain glued to opposing ball-handlers. Conley earned 2nd Team All-Defense honors once in his career and was the point-of-attack defender for some ‘Grit and Grind’ Grizzlies defenses during his prime. In 2012-13, the Grizzlies’ defense gave up an absurd 89.3 points per game, the best mark in the league that year, with Conley spearheading that defense from the front.

One All-Defensive 2nd Team selection, three years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes

27th in steals

13th all-time in career triple-doubles with 43, Fat Lever could do it all on the floor – score, rebound, create and defend. Lever may have just one 2nd Team All-Defense on his resume but he finished Top 10 in Defensive Player of the Year voting three times in his career, peaking in ‘88 when he finished fifth in the overall vote. Lever had great quickness and fast hands, which helped him rack up nightly steals, as Lever averaged 2.2 takeaways for his career, the fifth-highest rate in NBA history.