How Many Sixers Should’ve Been Selected For All-Defensive Team?

On Wednesday the NBA announced the results of the voting for 2017-18 All-Defensive Teams: Robert Covington was voted member of NBA All-Defensive First Team and Joel Embiid was voted member of NBA All-Defensive Second Team while Ben Simmons received 16 votes from the media.  Covington was tied for the most Deflections Per Game (3.9) this season while finishing Top Ten in the NBA in Steals Per Game (1.7).  Embiid, who is also a finalist for NBA Defensive Player of the Year, was Third in Defensive Rating (100.5) and Fourth in the NBA in Blocks Per Game (1.8).  Simmons, who didn't accumulate enough votes for an All-Defensive Team selection, finished the season Ninth in the NBA in Defensive Rating (102.1) and Eight in Steals Per Game (1.7).

RealGM.com NBA Contributor Keith Smith joined Mike Gill on Wednesday and discussed the results of the NBA All-Defensive Team voting:

“This is a regular season award – The postseason doesn’t matter, how guys defend or play…It was a little surprising that the Boston Celtics, who by most measures were the NBA’s best Defense, only had Al Horford on the Second Team and didn’t get anybody else on either team.  Dejounte Murray showing up from the Spurs was a little bit of a surprise there and I thought Ben Simmons might see a little bit more love than he did.  But overall I think the voting did a pretty good job of getting the right guys in there with only a couple minor quibbles.”

Hear what Smith had to say about Cavs-Celtics Game 5, how Boston needs to respond after losing two straight in Cleveland, along with perspective on Rockets win over Warriors in Game 5