NBA Free Agents 2011: 15 Worst Defenders Teams Should Avoid

It doesn't matter if it's the NBA, NFL, NHL or competitive cribbage, the old adage always rings true, defense wins championships. 

The Dallas Mavericks may not have been the best defensive team in the league, but they were smart on defense and did what they needed to do to win the championship.

You can have a great team that is all offense, but it is unlikely that you will have a shot a title.  That's why the Phoenix Suns came so close for a few years but ultimately fell short of the Finals.

If you are looking to build up a stellar defensive team, the best way to do it is pick up already established defensive players rather than taking your luck in a young fellow, but you can also destroy your team by overpaying for a guy who can't play defense.

So if you are hoping that your team makes the moves to be a good defensive team, hope that they don't pick up multiple guys on this list, as it could turn them into an all offense, no defense team overnight.

15. Nick Young

Nick Young is still quite a young guy, and he has the right attitude, so I'm not going to say his ship has sailed yet.

He isn't a great defender at this point in his career, although he does give a good effort when he needs to, so I'm not completely down on him.

He just needs to work on his decision making on defense, and it would keep him from getting beat off the dribble and getting caught in screens.

14. Jeff Green

Jeff Green is built very well to be a basketball player.  He is a big strong guy with all kinds of athleticism, but unfortunately, he doesn't seem to know how to use it all together.

When he plays defense he does so with lackluster intensity, as if he is afraid that he is going to offend someone if he plays them too hard.

From time to time you see Green do some very impressive things on defense, you just don't see it often enough to think that this guy could be a good defensive player. 

However, with a mental adjustment and the right coach I really think he could.

13. JR Smith

J.R Smith has been your typical egocentric basketball player who has his mind completely set on offense mode when he is in the game.

Smith has all the tools to be a good defender, he is fast, strong and athletic, and at some points he actually looks like a smart basketball player, he just doesn't seem to care that much about having a good defensive game.

12. Marcus Thornton

Marcus Thornton's lack of defensive skill comes from his inability to make split-second decisions.

Whenever the league does come back and Marcus Thronton gets signed, watch him on defense.  When he is guarding the ball and someone comes out to set a screen on him, he usually sees it coming, but you can see on his face that he isn't sure what he is going to do, usually ending with him slamming right into the screen and getting caught.

Maybe he just doesn't have a high basketball IQ, maybe it's something else, but I'm not really sure how a player can fix this problem besides dealing with it more often in real time situations.

11. Jamal Crawford

When he's not motivated, which seems to be quite often these days, Jamal Crawford is a bad defender, but he has the ability to be a good one. 

During the playoffs, the Hawks were so secure in the belief that he would pick up his defense in a high-pressure situation that they stuck him on Derrick Rose when he was in the game (partly because of that and the other part being because they knew Kirk Hinrich couldn't do anything to defend the guy), and he didn't do terribly.

The only problem is that you don't know which Crawford you're getting, and that's part of the reason he has been better off the bench in his career rather than as a starter.

10. Josh McRoberts

Whenever you watch the Pacers play on television, either the play-by-play man or the color commentator will inevitably take a look at Josh McRoberts and say some combination of the words big, tough and mean.

The only problem is that he is just one of those three.  He has a wide body, so he can clog up a decent sized spot on the floor, but he doesn't play with any intensity to be considered tough or mean.

This is a case of someone earning a reputation after doing nothing to deserve it.  McRoberts isn't a terrible defender, but he isn't the type of player that seems like he could be a good one either.

9. Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson's deterioration on defense (and he was never really great to begin with) comes from two things.

First, he is getting older, so both the desire and ability to play good defense is starting to go out the window.

Second, he has been in situations in the past few years that didn't encourage him to play any defense. 

It was either, "stand over there and Steve Nash will get you the ball," in Phoenix or, "Don't worry, we need you as our biggest non-Dwight Howard offensive weapon, plus we have Dwight for that whole defense thing," on Orlando.

8. Tracy McGrady

Tracy McGrady is old, and I'm not sure if he actually has knees anymore, it may go right from thighs to calf at this point.

McGrady is still a smart-ish player, and that's enough for him to know what to do when he is in the game, but he is slow, he can't contest shots like he once could, and he just didn't seem to care for the past year when he played for Detroit.

Who knows, maybe a contender could pick him up and use him as a seventh or eighth man hoping he catches fire from time to time, but he won't be playing any kind of inspiring defense in that time.

7. Troy Murphy

If there is one thing that Troy Murphy can do, it's rebound, but that's all he can do on the defensive end.

Murphy's game includes no athleticism, the need to be assited on almost every shot that he takes and the inability to stay in front of any defender.

He is slow, has no lateral quickness and has a mediocre basketball IQ.

6. Mike Dunleavy

When you hear the name Mike Dunleavy, the first image your mind goes to is a man who aided in keeping the Los Angeles Clippers down for the better part of a decade and second to some lanky white dude shooting a three.

If it weren't for that pesky defense thing, Dunleavy would have had a pretty good little career because he has a good offensive game, he just looks clueless on defense however.

Dunleavy has no defensive IQ and none of the skills needed to be a good defender.

5. Michael Redd

Nobody has really seen Michael Redd play real basketball since 2008, but going on the fact that he was an average defender before his knees exploded, his aging on a bench rather than on the hardwood and multiple surgeries over the past three years, I would say that he is one of the worst defensive free agents out there.

I just can't imagine that he has any lateral quickness left in him, and I can't see any way that he can play with the intensity or physicality to make up for that.

4. Peja Stojakovic

Peja Stojakovic was never more than a decent defender, and the last time he was even that was back when he played for the Kings in 2006.

Since thin he has settled into his role with no arguments, doing the same thing every time.  Stand in the corner, wait for his man to be drawn away on a double-team, get the ball, shoot it.

Then he would run back on defense and pretend that he actually knew what he was doing.

3. Mike Bibby

Silly me, I was convinced that Mike Bibby had died two years ago, then at the beginning of this season he looked like he was actually playing well for the Hawks.  Lo and behold, he went back to being a walking corpse halfway through the season, and they released him.

Bibby either doesn't care on defense or knows how terrible he is so he figures there's no reason to try hard.

I mean, when you're getting beat off the dribble by a 38-year-old Jason Kidd, it's no wonder the Heat went to Mario Chalmers more often.

2. Jason Kapono

Jason Kapono has been in this league for one reason and one reason only, he is expected to stand on the wing and shoot threes.

It is so bad that in his career, he grabs just over one defensive rebound for every three-pointer he makes.

Kapono has the ultimate white guy build as a basketball player with no lateral quickness, no hops, no toughness and no basketball intuition.

1. Yi Jianlian

Forget terrible defender, Yi Jianlian is a terrible basketball player.

Remember when Yi debuted, and the first matchup between him and Yao Ming was the most hyped matchup of the beginning of the season.  The only thing that I can look back at and say was more over-hyped was Sebastian Telfair's potential.

The problem with Yi is that he isn't really good at anything, he has to shoot a hefty amount to put up any kind of decent numbers, and he doesn't have the skill set to put together a good defensive game.

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