Questions about Damian Lillard’s future captivated the NBA throughout the 2023 offseason until late September when the Portland Trail Blazers dealt him to the Milwaukee Bucks in a blockbuster three-team trade. 

But to hear at least some NBA coaches and assistant coaches tell it, the Lillard trade may not be the deal that most alters the league’s balance of power. A trade that occurred several days later and involved Jrue Holiday, one of the players Lillard originally was traded for, could end up being the move that makes the biggest impact on the NBA postseason.

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Holiday’s defense is that good, coaches said. And the Boston Celtics, the team that acquired Holiday on Oct. 1 from the Trail Blazers, elevated their title hopes by bringing him into their fold.

“I’m very interested in how he’s going to defend this year because of the trade,” one Eastern Conference assistant coach told The Athletic. “I think Boston’s going to enhance that, and I think if they meet Milwaukee in a (playoff) series, he’s the piece that can stop Damian Lillard.” 

Now 33 years old and with one NBA championship on his résumé, Holiday has always been a player even more widely respected by coaches than by fans — thanks largely to his outstanding defense. 

Throughout the spring, summer and early fall, The Athletic polled NBA head coaches and assistant coaches about a subject that can confound people outside the sport: Who are the league’s best defenders? This is the fourth consecutive year we have asked these experts how they would have voted for the previous season’s NBA All-Defensive First Team, Second Team and Defensive Player of the Year.

Members of the media vote for those honors, but the coaches are the ones who are most familiar with how well defenders follow through on game plans, adhere to defensive principles and work within team concepts. Coaches’ opinions are especially valuable because of the complexities involved; the coaches pore over every game and monitor players’ tendencies. As interesting as block shots and steal statistics are, coaches will tell you that both measures can be misleading when it comes to evaluating the league’s best defenders. 

We polled 12 coaches for their All-Defensive selections and 13 coaches for their Defensive Player of the Year choices. And we granted them anonymity so they could answer with total honesty without having to worry about upsetting their players or the opponents they have to face during the season or the postseason. Anonymity also was necessary because some teams prohibit their assistant coaches from speaking for attribution to journalists.

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The coaches faced the same requirements that NBA officials laid out to the panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters who voted for the league’s two All-Defensive teams and Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY). Each All-Defensive team must have two guards, two forwards and one center, and voters are asked to classify each player at the position where he plays most of the time. 

Coaches have not voted for the NBA’s All-Defensive teams since the 2012-13 season. Writers and broadcasters took over that responsibility for the 2013-14 season and have continued to vote for the honor since.

The Athletic’s new survey — in which head coaches and assistant coaches were asked to evaluate players’ defense for the 2022-23 regular season — should be considered a valedictory for several players, but especially for Holiday. 

Our polling suggests that, compared to other guards, coaches value Holiday as much as they have ever valued him. Holiday was the only player at any position in our coaches’ voting to be named to the All-Defensive First Team on all 12 ballots. 

In the league-run voting, media panelists also voted Holiday to their All-Defensive First Team, selecting him to the first team on 94 of 100 ballots. 

In our anonymous coaches poll, Holiday finished third in our 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year voting, trailing winner Jaren Jackson Jr. and runner-up Brook Lopez. While that third-place finish may seem unimpressive, Holiday was the only guard to receive a first-place vote. 

The Athletic’s anonymous coaches poll yielded another significant takeaway: Coaches gave more props to forwards OG Anunoby of the Toronto Raptors and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors than the league’s media panelists did. In our anonymous coaches poll, Anunoby and Green finished tied for an All-Defensive First Team spot, joining Jackson as the first-team forwards and keeping Cleveland Cavaliers’ forward Evan Mobley off the first team. 

In the league-run media poll, Anunoby and Green finished on the All-Defensive Second Team as forwards, while Jackson and Mobley made the All-Defensive First Team.

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It’s not that coaches don’t think highly of Mobley’s defense. The broader point is the coaches we polled regard Anunoby and Green as better. 

So, who are the league’s best defenders right now, according to coaches? 

Here is how they voted in The Athletic’s All-Defensive teams poll. When players received votes at more than one position, the players were slotted where they garnered the most votes, just as they are in the league’s All-Defensive teams voting. 

Coaches’ 2022-23 All-Defensive First Team

Our respondents chose Holiday unanimously as a first-teamer. 

“I think he’s one of the best on-ball pick-and-roll defenders,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach told The Athletic before Milwaukee traded Holiday to Boston. “From a coach’s perspective, I view it also as when you’re approaching a team and preparing for a team, who do you have to game plan for? And Jrue is one of those guys, with his ability to guard the ball, to pressure the ball and disrupt an offense.

“We all spend so much time covering the other team’s offensive sets or offensive plays and players, but he’s one of those guys you have to prepare for when you’re going in to play the Bucks and the kind of defender he is, just making sure you have your pressure releases. He can take a team out of their offense single-handedly.”

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Jackson and Lopez each received 10 first-team votes, garnered no second-team votes and finished with 20 total points. 

The 2022-23 season was Jackson’s fifth NBA season, all of them with the Memphis Grizzlies. He led the league in blocked shots, averaging 3.0 per game. 

“He’s a tremendous force blocking shots, and having the luxury of Steven Adams (as a teammate) to bang down low allowed him the ability to roam a lot,” a Western Conference assistant coach said.

Lopez’s Bucks finished the regular season fourth in defensive efficiency, trailing only the Cleveland Cavaliers, Celtics and Grizzlies. Now 35 years old, Lopez is enjoying one of the most fascinating late-career surges in recent NBA history. 

In 2022-23, Lopez earned the first All-Defensive First Team selection of his 15-year pro career. He accomplished that feat while taking on new, more expansive defensive responsibilities for Milwaukee, whose coaches gave him more freedom in drop coverage to make reads on the sidelines and, if Lopez chose to do so, start his coverage higher on the floor than usual. 

The league’s player-tracking data shows Lopez contested 18.6 2-point shots per 36 minutes during the regular season — leading the league by a wide margin. The next closest rotation player was Utah Jazz rookie center Walker Kessler, who contested 14.5 2-point attempts per 36 minutes. 

“It’s been a renaissance for him these last few years,” a Western Conference assistant coach said. “Anything above or below the restricted area, he’s got it covered. He has a real knack for protecting the rim and blocking shots.”

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The Chicago Bulls’ Alex Caruso nailed down the second guard spot on our poll’s All-Defensive First Team. 

One West assistant called Caruso “one of the best point-of-attack perimeter defenders in the league.”

An Eastern Conference assistant coach said, “With just his overall competitiveness on the ball, Alex Caruso’s actually really good.”

Anunoby, who is 26 and is about to begin his seventh NBA season, has never been named to the league-run All-Defensive First Team, although he notched his first All-Defensive Second Team appearance last season. 

He fared better in our poll, finishing tied with Green for the final forward spot on the coaches’ first team. 

“The thing that stood out to me about OG was his ability to guard people one-on-one and at the same time be super-disruptive in terms of getting steals,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach said. “I think sometimes you get one or the other. You have a great individual defender who might not have the statistics or you have a guy who’s good on the weak side, gambles, gets statistics but isn’t always the best one-on-one defender. 

“I think he does a great job of doing both. Often, obviously, in Toronto’s system, they were asking him to guard multiple positions, big or small, and I think he did a great job of balancing those two things: playing one-on-one defense, taking the individual matchup challenge, but also being disruptive and creating those turnovers.”

Green was the most divisive player mentioned in our anonymous coaches poll. Many respondents lauded him for communicating with teammates and holding together Golden State’s defense. Others were down on his candidacy because his Warriors finished 14th in the league in defensive efficiency. 

“I thought Draymond should’ve been left off this year,” another West assistant coach said. “No disrespect to him. He’s a great player. But their defense wasn’t that good. To me, I think you have to drive a top-10 defense to be on one of these teams, and the Warriors just were not that.”

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Coaches’ 2022-23 All-Defensive Second Team

Adebayo headlines the coaches’ second team, joined by former Memphis Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks at a guard spot, Mobley at forward, Marcus Smart at the other guard spot and Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo at the other forward.  

It should be noted that in our poll Adebayo finished with more total points than first-teamers Anunoby and Green, but Adebayo was left off the first team because he trailed Lopez at the center position. Anunoby and Green are considered forwards for this exercise, and they filled the final available forward spot. 

“Bam is, I would say, Miami’s saving grace,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach said. “There are a lot of little details that Bam Adebayo does that do not show up on the stat sheet. If you’re a person who breaks down the game, you will see those details pay big dividends for Miami. He calls out rotations. He makes those rotations. He triggers those rotations sometimes.

“When you have a big that can cover ground like that, that gives you a lot of layers that you can add on our defensive principles and your defensive foundation as a team. That gives a luxury to Erik Spoelstra and his staff to also play zone defense.” 

Brooks, who is now with the Houston Rockets following an offseason trade, earned plaudits for his overall intensity. 

A Western Conference assistant coach praised Brooks’ “dogged mentality.” 

“His mindset of wanting to guard the other team’s best player and doing — and saying — whatever he feels he needs to to get underneath the other team’s best player’s skin (is what distinguishes him),” the coach said. 

Mobley finished with the third-highest point total on the second team, and he might have edged out Anunoby and Green for first-team honors if we had polled a larger sample of coaches.

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Mobley’s Cavaliers led the league in defensive efficiency, limiting opponents to 109.9 points per 100 possessions. 

“He’s shown that he can protect the rim at a high rate,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach said of Mobley. “Then, when we played them, he switched well. He actually can guard guards. Some of the physicality of bigger guys kind of bothers him, but I think he moves his feet so well, and his timing on blocked shots is impressive.”

A Western Conference assistant said: “I think Cleveland’s team defense was the real driver of their success. He’s a great young player, but I don’t know that he’s first-team All-Defense just yet.”

Last year, Smart won our coaches’ 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year award and also won the league-run Defensive Player of the Year voting for that season. This year, he lagged behind Holiday and Caruso in the coaches’ first-team voting. He also didn’t make the league-run first or second teams; instead, his Celtics teammate Derrick White was named to the media’s All-Defensive Second Team. 

“He’s a phenomenal defender,” a West assistant said of White. “But I’m almost certain that Marcus Smart (was) a bigger driver of Boston’s defensive success. I didn’t see a significant drop off in (Smart’s) performance last year versus the previous season.”

Antetokounmpo earned a second-team selection in our voting.

Others receiving votes: Guards

Others receiving votes: Forwards

Others receiving votes: Centers

Jackson won the league-run 2022-23 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award with Lopez finishing as the runner-up and Mobley placing third. 

Jackson also finished first in our coaches’ DPOY voting. 

Coaches’ 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year

“(The media voters) hit the nail on the head,” a West assistant coach told us about Jackson. “The only knock on him is his rebounding. He doesn’t rebound at a high level. But he’s so versatile. He can do so many things for you.”

Lopez came in second in the coaches’ voting.

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Asked how Lopez, who is 7 foot 1, is so effective even though he’s not a good leaper, one Western Conference assistant coach answered: “It’s a really good combination of scheme and maximizing his strengths as a defender. So, they play in a very deep drop in a lot of their coverages, and he does an excellent job of getting deflections and altering shots and/or blocking shots at the rim using his size and his athleticism and his length.”

The Athletic’s coaches’ ballots differed from the media’s ballots in one significant way — and, in the process, the coaches showed how highly they regarded Holiday’s defense. 

Although Holiday placed eighth in the media’s DPOY voting, the coaches we polled voted him a solid third. 

The coaches love the 6-foot-5 point guard’s versatility. Holiday can defend a wide array of opponents, ranging from wispy Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young at the point of attack to bruising New York Knicks power forward Julius Randle in the low post.

“He guards multiple positions,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach said of Holiday. “He plays with a level of physicality. He has a really strong base. If you ever took a look at his physique from the waist down, he has a very, very solid base, which gives him an advantage to defend on the ball, to defend off the ball and also defend post players in the post.

“If he’s ever caught in a switch and bigs think it’s a mismatch, it’s very difficult to score on him down there. He has really good instincts. He knows how to anticipate angles when guys put the ball on the floor and then try to finish at the rim or get into their jump shot. He’s a jack of all trades.”

Defensive up-and-comers

We asked the coaches to name a few of the league’s young players who one day will challenge for first-team or second-team All-Defensive honors. 

The coaches mentioned these players: 

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors forward/wing (22 years old): “He’s a young guy that has the ability and the size. He has the same concepts as these other guys: a pure defensive versatility with his size and speed and strength, the ability to guard multiple positions and multiple coverages.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

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Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons center (19): “He should be able to be super versatile, and he should be able to be a major rebounder in the years to come.” —Eastern Conference assistant coach

Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves guard (22): “I think people who are paying attention saw it a little bit in the summer with USA Basketball. … Obviously, he plays with (Jaden) McDaniels, who is another really good defender as well. Anthony doesn’t have to take the best player (on the other team) for the majority of the game, but then when he does switch to (the other team’s best player) in the fourth quarter, he can get away with things that other players may get a foul called because refs don’t want to make that call against him sometimes. There are times when he steps up his level of physicality, his ability to stay into the basketball, fight over screens. He can be really, really good. He showed it at times.” — Western Conference assistant coach

Jaden Ivey, Detroit Pistons guard (21): “What immediately stands out is his pure athleticism. He has the size, the speed, the quickness to be very disruptive, especially on the perimeter. For him, it’ll probably be more about how does he develop, how does he continue to improve defensively? But he also seems like a guy that takes pride on that end of the court, which is important.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

Herb Jones, New Orleans Pelicans forward (25): “He falls under that category, for sure, where you’ve got to mention how good a defender he is in the game plan.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

Walker Kessler, Utah Jazz center (22): “Just watching him, he kind of runs like a gazelle. I can’t wait to see his young body continue to grow. But he sprints the floor well. He has great instincts at the rim. It’s pretty impressive at a young age.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves guard (23): “He’s just not afraid to guard and to get into somebody and to try to change the tempo, change the pace, and he does it with his length and his athleticism.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder guard (22): “I think he’s a really good young player and has the potential to be a really good, versatile defender.” — Eastern Conference assistant coach

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos: Joe Murphy, Brian Babineau, Megan Briggs / Getty Images)

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