Russell Westbrook: Is He an Elite Defender?

Earlier this week the NBA released their choices for the 1st and 2nd NBA All-Defensive Teams. The teams were made up of defensive specialists like Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard and runner-up Draymond Green. No surprise there. We also saw a few players that we always expect to make the list, like Chris Paul and Tim Duncan. Also no surprise.

What did seem to surprise people that follow the league was the fact that Russell Westbrook received votes to be considered one of the league’s top defenders.

Westbrook earned 35 total points, with many of them coming from the 13 first-team votes he received. This gave him the fifth-most total points of any guard. For some reason, these numbers…