Oct 1, 2012; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri is interviewed by reporters during media day at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
Masai Ujiri is just as shocked as most people around the league are about Andre Iguodala being left off of either NBA All-Defense teams.
"“It’s mind-boggling to me,” Ujiri said in a statement to The Denver Post. “I mean, when the US Olympic team enlists a defensive stopper, there is no question who they choose – Andre Iguodala. Yet, for some reason he can’t be considered one of the top-10 defensive players in the NBA? It’s just shocking that he continues to be overlooked as a world-class defender in our league. I honestly thought he should be in the conversation for defensive player of the year, let alone first or even second team all-defense.”"
Iguodala took to Twitter to give his thoughts:
Can’t say I disagree what Ujiri said or condemn Iguodala for his comments on Twitter. I wrote a little about this yesterday:
"The Nuggets jumped up to the 11th best defense in his first year with the team. With Iguodala on the floor, the Nuggets defensive rating was 100.9, good enough for third in the league. With Iggy on the bench, that number rose to 105.4, per NBA.com, which would tie Denver for 13th"
I know that it’s cliche to complain about postseason awards but I have to say this: these awards are what’s written in history. One day, when people look back on careers/seasons they’ll never know how good Iguodala really was this season (and for his career) defensively. Iguodala is a game changer. And if we’re going to keep giving out postseason awards then we might as well do it right.
The league’s defensive player of the year, Marc Gasol, was put on the second team All-Defense. Does that make sense? Like, at all? The same thing happened last year when Tyson Chandler was on the second team after winning Defensive Player of the Year.
Oh well, the end of the season awards just gives the Internet another topic to blog about, so that’s something.
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