On Monday night, the hotly contested race for Defensive Player of the Year between Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert, and Kawhi Leonard will be decided, and so when the NBA released the All-Defensive teams for the 2016-17 season prior to the show, it came as no surprise to see those three names at the top of the first team.
Green led all players with 99 first team votes, while Gobert had 97 (and two second team votes) and Leonard had 93 first team votes (and six second team votes). One person must have turned in a blank ballot (or a really, really weird one) as all three were left off of a single ballot, preventing them from being unanimous selections like we saw on the All-Rookie teams, but the results were otherwise as expected.
Along with the DPOY finalists, Chris Paul and Patrick Beverley rounded out the first team All-Defense with the voting split being by a fairly wide margin from the first team to the second team, led by Tony Allen and Danny Green. With Green and Leonard, the Spurs were the only team to land two players on the All-Defensive squads. You can see the full teams and voting breakdown below.
First Team
Draymond Green, Warriors: 198 points (99 first team, 0 second team)
Rudy Gobert, Jazz: 196 points (97 first team, 2 second team)
Kawhi Leonard, Spurs: 192 points (93 first team, 6 second team)
Chris Paul, Clippers: 140 points (61 first team, 18 second team)
Patrick Beverley, Rockets: 110 points (38 first team, 34 second team)
Second Team
Tony Allen, Grizzlies: 80 points (17 first team, 46 second team)
Danny Green, Spurs: 68 points (21 first team, 26 second team)
Anthony Davis, Pelicans: 58 points (0 first team, 58 second team)
Andre Roberson, Thunder: 53 points (3 first team, 47 second team)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks: 35 points (7 first team, 21 second team)
