Bledsoe was an All-Defense guard with the Clippers at the beginning of his career. George Hill was always regarded as an excellent defender. Wes Matthews was Portland’s best wing defender and continues to guard the other team’s best player. Middleton has turned into a very good defensive player, and DiVincenzo is a tough guy from Villanova schooled on defense.

Are you seriously trying to compare that group to Rondo, Kuzma, and McGee (who blocks shots but is really inconsistent on defense) and the other Lakers?

KCP has a very tight window of defensive skills on the perimeter and on chasing screens. But he can’t guard bigger players and sometimes forgets rotations.

Avery Bradley can play good perimeter defense but only against certain players; otherwise he can’t guard bigger players, and gets lost on switches.

Dwight Howard is still an excellent defender, but he doesn’t play in crunch time.

The only excellent perimeter defenders are Green and Caruso.

Davis has more steals and blocks than Giannis, and he plays in the West.

All those Milwaukee team stats are pumped up by playing so many bad teams in the East and stacking the paint with the whole team.

I don’t buy it.