2021 Awards Shilling—All-Defensive Teams/Coach of the Year Part 1

Making The Case*
All-Defensive Team/Defensive Player of the Year & Coach of the Year

Lots of players, but Riquna “Bay Bay” Williams & Bill Laimbeer

I’m sure the first question in your mind already is ‘why are we merging the All-Defensive Team and Coach of the Year awards into one article?’

Well, we are only partially doing that to make an excellent point, but the simple answer is that the recent award winners in each of these categories have been a bit of a head scratcher. Part of that is because two different groups used to vote for these awards—media for Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, and coaches for the All-Defensive Team.

Now that these awards are all in your hands, I am hoping you can help bring some sanity to the proceedings

Let’s talk defense.

The Las Vegas Aces have had the first or second most efficient defense in the league in each of the last three seasons (1st in 2019, and 2nd in 2020 and 2021). In other words, the Aces have been great defensively over the past three years. This is objectively true.

How many of the 20 spots on the All-Defensive Teams in 2019 and 2020 were occupied by members of the Aces?

One.

A’ja Wilson received a second-team nod in 2020.

Last season, the team that had the third least efficient defense in the WNBA, had two players make the first team.

In 2019, the team that finished with the 5th most efficient defense had 3 players on the all-defensive teams. The team with the 4th most efficient defense had 3 players on the all-defensive teams. The team with the 6th most efficient defense had 2 players on the all-defensive teams.

So if the Aces didn’t have all-defensive team worthy players, they must have had amazing coaching. Particularly when you factor in the different rosters the team had had in each of the last three years.

In 2020, the Aces were without starters Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum for the entire season, and still had the second most efficient defense in the league. They added Angel McCoughtry and Danielle Robinson as free agents during the offseason.

In 2021, the Aces have been without Angel McCoughtry the entire year, without Kelsey Plum for six games, without Liz Cambage for five games and without Dearica Hamby for three games, and they still have the second most efficient defense in the league. They added Chelsea Gray and Riquna Williams as free agents while losing Kayla McBride and Danielle Robinson.

So which one is it, dear voter? Do the Aces have great defensive players, or a genius for a head coach?

Maybe both?

}:>)

So who do you vote for from the Aces on the All-Defensive Teams? That’s where things get a little difficult, because unless players are accumulating blocks, steals or defensive rebounds, we don’t have any easily accessible ways to gauge defense from a stats perspective.

Where do the Aces excel the most as a team defensively?—the perimeter. Las Vegas has held the opposition’s starting guards this year to 27.8 percent shooting from three-point range—nearly 100 points lower than those guards shoot from distance against the rest of the league (.371).

The Aces player charged with checking the opposing team’s best guard—Riquna “Bay Bay” Williams.

Click here to download a poorly edited video of Coach Laimbeer and Riquna’s backcourt-mate Chelsea Gray talking about Bay’s defense. They say it better than numbers ever could.

Other players deserving of your consideration?

A’ja Wilson is 6th in defensive win shares per basketball reference and 9th in defensive efficiency rating.

Liz Cambage is 5th in defensive rebound percentage, 2nd in block percentage and 3rd in defensive efficiency rating.
In the meantime, I encourage you to reach out to other coaches and players and ask them about the Aces’ defense, particularly Bay’s contributions to the cause. You’ll be glad you did.

Next up, we will paint a more complete picture of the Bill Laimbeer Coach of the Year case, since we focused primarily on defense in this piece.

Enjoy today’s Aces game vs. the Wings!

* Case and Aces have the same letters, just arranged differently. I tried to come up with something clever for that in the title, but could not.