[steviechillzParticipant]

 Who do yall think is the best defender of all the PG’s all-time? WIth guys like CP3 and Rajon rondo being known as some of the best today, I wanted to compare them to the greats all time in defense.

 

My pick is Gary Payton aka "The Glove".  YOu don’t get that kind of nickname without impressing the league with quality defense.  His strength, knack for swiping the ball, and overall defensive intensity puts him on top for me.

[tiberiusParticipant]

 I think that Gary Payton is the greatest defensive pg of all time. But let’s not forget the great walt frazier who is arguably one of the, if not the second best defensive pg of all time. 

[ENOGSIWONdede]

Pete Myers

[True_JafiParticipant]

I would have to say Walt Frazier. He was a beast. He would play full court defense the entire game. He was the master of the swipe. 94 feet of defense for 48 minutes, so I would have to go with Frazier.

[meirmeir13]

Of course gary peyton and John stock, eric snow held his own as well. That could be from learning under gary and larry brown

[tiberiusParticipant]

Stock was good but not because of his defensive skills, more so because of his grittiness, toughness and dirtiness. He was also a relatively strong point guard so his aggressive defense played in his favor because of handchecking being allowed. I think that people forget that not only was Frazier a great one on one defender and team defender but just like lebron or scottie was a great defensive communicator. He gave the best orders to team mates to cover cutters and backdoor foxes. I think that being able to recognize the play, the situation and the positioning of the players is just as important as staying in front of them or blocking or stealing from them. It really is a thing that sets him apart from the typical lockdown pg. 

[meirmeir13]

He was the all time leader in steals are you serious? Almost 800 more steals than the second leader of all time

[TRC1991Participant]

Gary Payton has led the NBA in steals 1 time

Chris Paul has done it 4 times

 

something to think about

 

I still pick the glove personally

[blood]

 and imo these newschool pg dont know shit bout defense(not all),and cp3 in the same sentence as gp defensively is a joke,so what if he did lead the league in spg,AI also has shitload of steals and nobody isnt even mentioned him..

[mj23mj23besteverParticipant]

 imo this is one of those 1a 1b things with gp and stockton and frazier very close gp played the best on ball perimeter d of any pg ive ever saw stockton the all time leader steals and frazier who played full court harassing d

[ENOGSIWONdede]

 Pete  Myers was 6’6 why are you mentioning all these little guys?  The best in the game today is Avery Bradley definitely not midget Chris Paul.

[True_JafiParticipant]

Just getting a lot of steals dont mean your a great defender. Your teammate can poke the ball out and you scoop it up and your credited the steal but your teammate did the work. Thats how AI got his steals cause he was the fastest to loose balls (as well as passing lanes). Yes Stockton was a real good defender but he never really stopped his man per say. Isaiah rab circles around him as did others when it came to man on man d. But Stockon was a great help defender (taking charges) but was easy to post.

With that being said Frazier and Payton were the best cause they could stop the man in front of them without resulting in a steal (turnover, bad shot, or made give up the ball early).

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

Gary Payton, and it’s not even close…

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

Dennis Johnson were both tough on D. People forget them.

[JBickart14Participant]

 Walt Frazier Is My Personal Pick. To much pressure for two long, great defensive leader, never gets credit for those championships in the 70’s (my pick for both Finals MVP’s)

GP is a Close 2nd, but alot nobody mentioned Jason Kidd, Back in his NJ Days he was one of the most versital PG’s in the game, could guard 1-3 effectively and picked up alot of steals!

[Sharp ShooterParticipant]

Lindsey Hunter he has to be on this list

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 The Glove is the obvious and correct choice. But I’d like to add for your consideration Jason Kidd. I’m not saying he was better than the Glove on defense. However Kidd should be up there on defensive PGs. First of all he grabbed huge boards. Nothing reduces the other teams ability to score more than taking back a loose ball. And Kidd was (and is) sick at grabbing boards. His career 6.4 rbs per game would be impressive for a small forward. To think he did that over 18 years as a PG is shocking. F___k it. That is moment of silence shocking. 

Silence.

He also got good steals. Not Stockton level. But Stockton raised the bar too high. Kidd was top ten in the league in steals on a per game basis for 14 seasons. Between the rebounds and the steals the guy controlled possession. Sure he can’t stay in front of guys off the dribble for the last few years. But cut the guy some slack at 39. During all those years (and this is really important), Kidd’s size and strength meant he was an unlikely candidate for a post up. Few PGs have a post up game, but the ones that do (like Andre Miller) are deadly at it. Not being vulnerable to the post up play is a nice defensive skill of Kidd.  

So you have CRAZY rebounds, great steals, and the guy can’t be posted up because of his size advantage. Kidd is a really good defender. He should make any list of good PG defenders.  

[TRC1991Participant]

hahaha wow i got -7 points for what i said? that makes 0 sense

[theprophetParticipant]

 the glove is best

[BlueLacesParticipant]

I would say that the Glove is the best defensive PG of all time.

One player I wouldn’t sleep on is Jason Kidd.  He’s 2nd all time in steals, (I know steals doesn’t necessarily make you a good defender) ,9 all-defensive teams and even at his old age in the 2011 finals, he was able to stay in front of D-Wade all series and keep him in check. 

[F_S]

 in the 2011 finals Kidd did an excellent job on lebron (and kobe before that). wade successfully took kidd to the post so they assigned him to lebron, and lebron couldn’t do anything but try to blow by him using his quickness instead of strength.

that right there is to me the biggest reason lebron met up with the dr34m

[JoeWolf1]

 My vote is for Gary Payton with John Stockton as 2nd. I don’t think I need to make much of a case for Payton, but Stockton’s steals transcended through the end of the hand checking era.  

He was not just an example of enflated stats due to a non modern style of play.  Hand checking ended before the start of the 94-95 season, when Stockton was well into his 30’s and he continued to average 1.8 steals for the rest of his career including 1.9 steals per game at age 39 in the 2001-2 season or the "modern era."  A 26 year old Stockton in the modern era would have still been a 2.5+ spg player, and he didn’t just slack off and play the passing lanes, he was a mean defender.

[Author]

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