Defense wins championships. I’ve been preaching that since before half these NBA analysts were born, and Bleacher Report just spent a whole week trying to prove it with numbers I’d normally side-eye. Their NBA staff convened for a vote — advanced metrics, traditional stats, All-Defensive team selections, Defensive Player of the Year finishes, peak dominance, longevity, and what they call “the good, old-fashioned eye test.” The result is a 99-player ranking of the greatest defenders in league history, with player summaries written by Andy Bailey.
The list is part of B/R’s “NBA GOAT week,” a series that also includes the 50 best dunkers, 99 best shooters, 50 best trash-talkers, and the best player from every decade. The defenders installment runs 99 deep, starting at the bottom with Don Buse — a name that’ll send you to the record books if you’re under 50.
Buse, a 6’4″ point guard who played from 1972 to 1985 across the Pacers, Suns, Trail Blazers, and Kings, earned six First Team All-Defense selections. He led the ABA in steals at 4.1 per game in his final season before the merger, then averaged 3.5 in his first NBA campaign. Thirteenth all-time in career steal percentage. The man could pick a pocket clean, and the voters slotted him at 99.
Larry Nance Sr. sits at 98. The elder Nance — not the son who plays for the Hawks — blocked at least two shots per game in nine of his 13 seasons and reached 3.0 in 1991-92. One First Team All-Defense nod, two Second Team, and a top-10 DPOY finish. The athleticism that produced that iconic dunk-contest freeze frame translated to the other end too.
Eddie Jones landed at 97. Three Second Team All-Defense selections, two top-10 DPOY finishes, and he led the NBA in steals at 2.7 per game in 1999-00. Jones averaged at least two steals in five different seasons — perimeter defense that earned him three All-Star appearances despite offensive numbers that, as Bailey notes, didn’t exactly scream multi-time All-Star on their own.
Then there’s Karl Malone at 96, and that’s where you start squinting at the methodology. Malone is an all-time offensive force, no question. But four All-Defense nods — three First Team — and 9,464 defensive rebounds between his first and last All-Star seasons, a total Bailey writes was “about as far clear of second place as second was of seventh.” That’s a lot of cleaning the glass. Whether that makes him a better defender than, say, a specialist lower on the list is the kind of argument that keeps bar stools warm all summer.
Ben Simmons at 94 is the ranking that’ll get the most talk. Two First Team All-Defense selections, two top-four DPOY finishes by age 24, and a 6’10” frame that smothered guards. Bailey calls his career “one of the most fascinating (and potentially depressing) we’ve seen in recent memory,” noting that a shooting aversion and chronic back problems derailed what might have been a DPOY-winning trajectory. Simmons has talked about a comeback for 2026-27. The film doesn’t lie — what he showed defensively before the wheels came off was legitimate.
DeAndre Jordan at 93 anchored the Lob City Clippers with 10.0 defensive rebounds and 2.2 blocks during his four-year peak. The on-off split tells the story: plus-9.7 points per 100 possessions with Jordan on the floor, minus-2.7 without him. Joel Embiid at 91 has four top-10 DPOY finishes and three Second Team All-Defense selections but zero First Team nods — a reflection, perhaps, of a career still being written.
The full 99 spans from the 1960s to the present, covering rim protectors, perimeter stoppers, and the modern positionless defenders who can guard all five spots. B/R’s voters weighed eras against each other — no easy task when you’re comparing a 1970s ABA steal merchant to a 2020s switch-everything wing. The methodology is transparent, even if the results will keep people arguing until the cows come home.
Because that’s what defense is. It’s not glamorous. It’s setting your feet, reading the quarterback’s eyes, and doing the dirty work while somebody else gets the SportsCenter highlight. These 99 guys did it better than anyone, and Bleacher Report just put it on paper.