over the past two seasons the warriors have been at the top of the league in steals. but otherwise i agree with you, there won’t be a lot of good news until we buckle down on d. i think when keith smart takes over the reigns for nelly (assumption) that our team will focus much more on defense. Besides good defense always leads to good offense.

What exactly goes into these things?

It looks like they just plugged in their marketing machine and set it as:

Give me 5 guys who’re going to the playoffs, have decent defensive numbers, and who are stars. Give bonus points for being on this list in the past. Voila!

Here’s a little excerpt:

Often criticized for his penchant for overplaying the passing lanes and gambling for steals, CP3 defensive stats are unquestionably impressive. He is a tremendous rebounder for a PG, and of course he racks up steals at an alarming rate.

Summary: Well, he’s criticized for going after steals instead of playing solid defense, but hey, look! He gets a lot of steals! Isn’t that awesome!

For Howard they simply say “The numbers speak for themselves.” For LBJ, they say “The team is statistically the best, and he gets the most statistics on the team, so he must be good”… “Kobe can be great when he when he wants to because he’s so awesome”.

For Bowen, they say “Well he’s been really good in the past, but he’s fallen off and he’s not getting any PT [despite the fact that Manu has been injured all season], but people are still afraid of him.”

Crappy writing for a crappy marketing gimmick. Can’t we ask the players themselves? I’d be far more interested in hearing players say “So and so is so good at reading tendencies from film, every time I play against him, he’s always one step ahead of me.” or something of the like. Instead we’ve got to listen to some writer who doesn’t even care enough to write an article more in depth than “Hey, here are some stats, isn’t that awesome, oh, and by the way, this guy is in the MVP running as well, and that other guy has been injured.” A completely mailed in article about a completely mailed in award.

There are also plenty of guys who shut down offensive players without earning the fancy stats.

Heck, we have seen Morrow and Belli shut some excellent shooters down. They dont get any blocks or steals for the stat sheet, but do limit the other player’s points and get deflections which are a big deal.

I have a feeling LeBron and Superman would be at the top of the list, but the other top ten players chosen by the players themselves might be really interesting

The Dubs got a lot of company, adn it should be an all Northern California edition. The Kings are WORSE than the Dubs are.