There’s been a lot of buzz about defense this season. With referees turning a blind eye to offensive players trying to draw BS fouls with irregular shot motions and other things that should be automatic offensive fouls, the value of defense has become apparent.

The #1, #2, and #4 defenses in the league measured by defensive efficiency (for the last 15 games) per ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry are respectively the #1, #2, and #4 net-rated teams in the league. The Warriors and Suns, the top two records in the NBA, are those #1 and #2 rated teams respectively. There is a trend of winning this season with top-rated defenses, even with poorer offenses like the Cleveland Cavaliers (#22 offense, #3 defense, #6 overall net rating).

When you get into what makes a defense good, you generally look towards their personnel in both a off-ball and on-ball capacity. Defensive rating is generally a team-based stat, but it can show you who’s really damn good at defense. It figures if a team has a good defensive anchor, they will be good at defense.

Let’s look at the middle of the floor. The top 5 defenses by Goldsberry’s efficiency measures all have one thing in common: A marquee defensive player who is good at defense. The Warriors have Draymond Green, the Suns have Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges, the Bucks have Giannis, the Clippers have Paul George, and the Cavs have Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

Let’s look at overall defensive rating by itself, instead measured over the whole season. The top 5 looks mostly similar, although the order shifts a little with the Clippers in 3rd, the Cavs in 4th, and the Bulls tied with the Bucks for 5th. All of these teams have a player capable of anchoring the defense together and quarterbacking them when the need arises, but the best of the bunch by far? Draymond Green.

Green has the best defensive rating in the league at 97.0. By causation, the Warriors have the best team defensive rating in the league at 100.2 - and second place Phoenix isn’t particularly close, at 104.6. That’s a bigger gap than between the Suns and the 15th ranked team, the Denver Nuggets. While the Warriors have a lot of guys in the top 25 players in defensive rating this season, there are some guys who you see on that list which probably are anomalies: Steph (while underrated) is 3rd and Jordan Poole is 10th. Andrew Wiggins also makes the list at 11th, but if anything, it just shows how important Draymond is for this defense to have two offense-oriented guys in the top 10, even.

Let’s move on to the second titular character of this article: Rudy Gobert. Per Goldsberry, the Jazz are rated #11 in defensive efficiency. In terms of defensive rating, the Jazz are 7th. Gobert, however, is 2nd. There’s a lot of wonder as to why this is, until you realize (thanks again, Kirk) that he’s first in shots attempted against as the closest defender while also allowing the lost field goal percentage on those shots.

That’s a pretty cool stat, but let’s give it some context, as Patrick Beverly did earlier this week. Gobert is a paint patroller. He gets the reputation as a defensive anchor because he’s a very good shot blocker, but he’s too slow-footed to guard anybody but centers. If Gobert isn’t even guarding Karl-Anthony Towns, the player on the floor at his position, that alone should disqualify him from Defensive Player of the Year. Let’s call it strike one.

Quinn Snyder’s defensive schemes have turned Rudy Gobert into a playable center defensively, and allowed him to thrive. The Jazz don’t run a switch-heavy scheme, often opting to fight through. This is specifically because if Gobert gets caught on a switch by anyone not a center, he’s going to get cooked. This will be strike two.

We can talk numbers all we want, even though those numbers argue Draymond Green is still way better, but when you go into the eye test, there are very few people guarding every position like Draymond Green. Him being the anchor is the main reason the Warriors can play so switch-heavy and have the best defense in the league: His defensive IQ is higher, his command of the floor is higher, he’s a better on-ball and off-ball defender, but because he doesn’t get the blocks, he doesn’t get the credit.

I’m not saying Rudy Gobert is a bad shot-blocker. He’s good, excellent even, at that facet of the game. But defense is a whole lot more than that. His value on the floor factoring defense alone is immensely higher. There have been several playoff series, where defense is considered paramount, that Gobert has been driven off the floor in. The Nuggets hunted him constantly with Jamal Murray, the Warriors hunted him with Steph Curry a few years ago, the Clippers hunted him last year with Paul George. You cannot be the Defensive Player of the Year if you are getting played off the floor. And here we have strike three.

The rankings reflect that. He’s a defender who elevates the floor of his team, much like Stephen Curry elevates the floor of the offense of his team. He is one of the most special defenders of all time, and for a 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, he’s already been robbed once. It’d be criminal to let it happen again, and it’s time to admit that Gobert is just what he is: A shot-blocker that team’s hunt on the perimeter for free buckets.

Draymond Green is the best defender of the NBA. Let’s not get that one twisted again this year.

(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)