The NBA’s All-Defense teams tend to be loaded with big men, so Fred Katz of The Athletic put together a list of the All-Perimeter Defense team.
Featured on the list is the Knicks‘ OG Anunoby. Katz points to a game against the Nuggets, when Anunoby guarded Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson, and Bruce Brown, and managed all of the matchups effectively. Anunoby is a key part of why the Knicks are a top-10 defense this season despite being built around Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Also on the list are Derrick White (Celtics), Scottie Barnes (Raptors), Ausar Thompson (Pistons), and Cason Wallace (Thunder). Thompson’s brother, Amen Thompson (Rockets), highlights Katz’s All-Perimeter Defense second team list (subscriber link).
We have more notes from around the world of basketball:
- Michael Malone made the news recently when he was named head coach for the University of North Carolina. The former Nuggets head coach had been in the NBA from 2003-2025 in various capacities, but will now embrace the challenge of college basketball. Details of his contract have now been reported, as Brian Murphy of WRAL News in North Carolina writes that he is set to make $50MM over six years (Twitter link).
- Lakers legend Michael Cooper will be the next head coach at Cal State LA, according to the City News Service at the Los Angeles Daily News. The 70-year-old Hall of Famer spent three seasons as a Lakers assistant coach from 1994-1996 before moving to the WNBA, where he was first an assistant and then a head coach, leading them to two championships and being named Coach of the Year in 2000. He was the interim head coach of the Nuggets for 14 games in the 2004/25 season. “I’ve always said it takes five Ds to win a championship: determination, dedication, desire, discipline and decision-making,” Cooper said. “I’ve incorporated those principles into my coaching philosophy, and they will be pillars of what we do here at Cal State LA.”
- Former Kings forward Sasha Vezenkov struggled during the 2023/24 season, his lone year in the NBA. Vezenkov’s agent, Nikos Lotsos, says part of that is because the 6’9″ shooter was doing it because of external pressure, not internal drive. However, Lotsos also says that Vezenkov never felt that he had the support of then-head coach Mike Brown. “Everyone else wanted him except for Brown,” Lotsos said, according to Stavros Barbarousis and George Adamopoulos of Eurohoops. The agent believes that the lack of faith from the coaching staff is part of why Vezenkov was unable to carve out a consistent role with the team.