It felt inevitable, but on the TNT NBA broadcast tonight, Memphis Grizzlies All-Star big man Jaren Jackson Jr. was named as a finalist for an All-Defensive team.
Jackson put together a dominant defensive season. He led the league in blocks at 3.0, while also averaging 1 steal per game. He joined David Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Marcus Camby, Andrei Kirilenko, and Larry Nance Sr. as the only players in NBA history to average at least 3 blocks and 1 steal per game over an entire season. In addition, he also boasted a Block Percentage of 9.6, the 12th-best single season mark in NBA history.
Jackson also transformed this team defensively, catapulting it into an elite unit. The Grizzlies allowed 5.5 fewer points per 100 possession with Jackson on the floor, which fell in the 90th percentile among big men per Cleaning the Glass. His defensive efforts spearheaded a defense that ranked 3rd in defensive efficiency.
If you need to see Jaren Jackson’s Defensive Player of the Year campaign, see what my colleague Shawn Coleman has to say: