I don’t remember exactly who said it, but I remember a baseball player asking what he had to do to win a gold glove. The cynical albeit rather true answer: hit better.

All-NBA teams are generally a mark of what someone does on offense. It’s probably a result of a game where points are plentiful even between top defensive squads compared to other popular sports. Offense is conspicuous; there are many stats for it. Defense is not so conspicuous. Not many stats and those that exist aren’t understood very well. Lip service paid to “it’s half the game” aside, most fans and most writers rate players according to their scoring average. Most GMs are guilty of this as well. Their ratings show up as dollars paid. Scoring points is the easiest way to get a fat check, even if you do it in losing cause after losing cause. It’s as if it cannot be the fault of a 20+ppg scorer that his team is a perennial loser.

This mindset carries over to other aspects of the game. All defense teams are also largely a mark of what someone does on offense it seems. The exceptions are usually big men who can rebound and/or block shots prodigiously. A rare guy gets credit for being a lockdown guy away from the basket (ala Bowen) but I think that public opinion only has room for one of these guys at a time, and though Bowen seems to have slipped quite a bit, he’s got that position sewed up right now. Reputation precedes at this point. I Otherwise, you have to have some ability to at least be a consistent outside threat or hit a very high percentage of your limited shots.

I don’t think Paul is as terrible as some, but neither is he particularly good. In his favor, he’s a very good rebounder for a guy his size and every defensive board he gets does mark a defensive stop for his team. No, he’s not entirely responsible for those stops, but they did happen. That said, if he ups rebounds by a couple a game when he plays over a competitor, but ups opponents made baskets by 3 over the same time, it’s a net negative. But Paul is (rightly so) regarded as an elite player and so sportwriters, when it comes time to filling out ballots don’t put that much thought into things. “OK, I’ve got Kobe there. I need another guard on my ballot though. Lemme think. Who’s out there. Paul, yeah. That kid’s good. OK, Paul it is!”

I thought Jax had a shot at the all defensive team this year because his scoring average went up considerably. It’s a shame he didn’t get some sort of recognition. I realize he got worse as the season wore on and he got tired, but without him, I wonder if the team would have rivaled the Westhead Nuggets for points surrendered.