No fair, they’re already trading/releasing/devaluing these guys!

Yes, even as I was finally writing this 2017 NBA No-Defense Team item, I had to bob and weave through the great waves of activity that already have begun in the league’s movement period.

Many of these things involving the dumping of particularly poor defensive players, and those guys are the stars of this annual column.

So it goes. Once again, the Warriors’ long, long, long journey through the playoffs has delayed this by months — it was so much simpler when I didn’t have to worry about 9-10 weeks of daily playoff detailing and could get right to the construction of this annual item by mid-April, or May at the very latest.

But here it is, and I can proudly say that this is the 10th annual version — yes, I started doing this in 2008, and I hope to keep doing this for 10 or 20 more years, and I think Jamal Crawford might be mentioned in every single one of them from here to 2035, at the least.

For past reference:

–James Harden was the No-Defense Player of the Year last year;

–Damian Lillard was NDPOY in 2015;

–It was Kyrie Irving in 2014; Kevin Martin in 2013; Carmelo Anthony in 2012; Al Jefferson in 2011; Hedo Turkoglu in 2010; Kevin martin for the first time in 2009; and Steve Nash as the inaugural winner in 2008.

* My usual quick No-Defense philosophical review: Offensive skills are important, but I think the value of defense is often overlooked; I definitely think that the cost of lousy individual defense is never highlighted enough.

Lousy defense hurts just as much, or more, as lousy offense. And great offense ALWAYS gets praised–by the media, fans, coaches, execs, PR people, owners, TV people…

There’s room for at least one subjective list of the worse defenders, and I’ve decided to compile it, nine times now.

As always, I use the Eye-Ball Test first and foremost, which is best summarized by two questions:

–Do opponents’ eyes light up when they realize they’re being guarded by one specific player?

–Do coaches have to change the defensive system strictly to protect one player, and if they do, does the guy still screw up, and do those issues show up on the team’s defensive performance?

-Last note: I lean towards the bad defensive players who get the most minutes (and therefore hurt their teams the most) and often to the teams with the highest payrolls/expectations (because the bad defense is less explainable in those situations).

– As always, my cut-off point was about 30% of the team’s minutes this season (around 1,200 total minutes) to qualify for this list just because the more you play the more your bad defense hurts a team, though I dropped the limit for certain specific players as noted.

-I also lean on two overall metrics: Defensive Real Plus Minus (which standardizes a player’s individual effect for opponent, pace & other factors), from the ESPN stats and the on-the-court/off-the-court comparisons of individual players, thanks to the 82games.com index (how many points per 100 possessions a team gives up when a specific player is on the floor vs. how many points it gives up per 100 when he’s out of the game).

-There are many advanced stats out there. Some better than others. These are the ones I mainly use for this item.

-Finally, I understand there is both a plus and a minus to watching the Warriors blow through so many defenses so often…

The plus: Nobody can isolate and expose a bad team individual and team defender more swiftly or brutally than Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant & Co. at their best or even at their most mediocre;

The minus: Sometimes they can make decent defenders look so bad that it gets skewed, so I try very hard to watch every team at least twice in non-Warriors games to lessen the GSW-influence, though I cannot guarantee that this happened for every team this season.

Here we go…

—FIRST TEAM NO-DEFENSE/

* 2017 No-Defense Player of the Year PG Isaiah Thomas, Boston.

If there ever was such a thing as defensive usage rate, which there isn’t (I don’t think), I have every belief that Thomas’ number would stun and astound us all.

It would be almost null. Basically, what Bismack Biyombo is to offense, Thomas is to defense. Non-existent.

Yes, I know he’s only 5-foot-9 (listed), and that puts him at an immediate disadvantage in this sport. I’m trying to account for that. And also: I doubt 5-9 Calvin Murphy was as diffident and irrelevant on defense during his career as Thomas was this season for Boston.

My point is that, when I watch Celtics games, Thomas not only gets the obvious Courtesy Defensive Assignment every time (guarding the guy Brad Stevens feels is least likely to drive to the hoop or post up), Thomas might be the high-minute player who plays the least help-defense in the league.

Maybe ever. OK, well, at least right up there with James Harden, and Harden is much taller and stronger so when he accidentally wanders near the ball he can swipe at it or challenge a shot or two.

This is not the case for Thomas, who usually just stands next to his CDA on the perimeter, takes one or two half-steps towards the ball if his guy doesn’t have it, and is wholly irrelevant to anything else that happens on that possession. He doesn’t even get that many steals (0.9 per game this season).

This might be partly Stevens’ strategy — just try to keep it 4 on 4 if possible and eliminate Thomas’ defense from the equation, like good offensive coaches try to eliminate their worst offensive players in half-court sets except for screens and offensive rebounding (hello Bismack!).

But it’s also bad defense; the best defenses have five guys moving together, switching when necessary, rotating on the weak-side, protecting the rim, and always having somebody to challenge the ball.

Watch the Warriors. Watch the Spurs.

Then watch Isaiah. He mostly stays still. It’s not good. It’s like he’s not there on most defensive possessions, trying to make himself invisible — in transition, in the half-court, whatever the offense is doing, usually Thomas’ defense is not even a minor impediment.

And he got an All-Defensive team vote! Awesome!

OK, I rush to add that Thomas is an incredible offensive player (5.72 Offensive RPM, third-best among point guards) who is absolutely vital to Boston’s success and who had an amazing offensive year… and who isn’t the only reason the Celtics’ D got blown out by the Cavaliers in the playoffs (and he got hurt).

Isaiah is a GOOD PLAYER, overall.

But his Defensive RPM this season? -3.89, second-to-last in the league, out of 468 players ranked. (Hell, this entire last page of DRPM rankings is interesting.)

Last season, Thomas’ DPRM was -1.89, so this season was worse. I saw it. Maybe Thomas was saving his legs for offense and especially the fourth quarter, but whenever he was on the floor, Boston was a poor defense, it’s there in the stats.

When he was the floor, Boston gave up 113.0 points per 100 possessions. When he was off, Boston gave up 103.5 points per 100, which is a -9.5 on/off difference that is just astounding for somebody who played over 2,500 minutes in the regular season.

That’s what happens when you take a guy totally out of the defensive plan because he doesn’t play any.

For all that and for getting me to invent the defensive usage rate idea, Isaiah is richly deserving of the 2017 NDPOY, and he can celebrate by standing still over in the corner, and waiting patiently and quietly and doing nothing until he gets to dribble the ball again.

* PG Dennis Schroder, Atlanta.

You’ve got to admire a young player who works towards it and works towards it and then finally comes into his own, in his fourth season, as clearly one of the worst defensive players in the league.

This is only partly a tribute to Schroder yelling at teammate Dwight Howard long enough to turn his back to Stephen Curry while theoretically trying to guard him (and, of course, then watching Curry drill a three-pointer), though that alone seemed like the full maturation of a No-D superstar.

But that play was perfectly representative of Schroder’s defensive performance this season — distracted, disinterested and thoroughly erratic — and had him pulled out of games by coach Mike Budenholzer a few times even though Schroder is a dynamic offensive player.

When I saw a Hawks opponent get a ridiculously easy break-away lay-up, more times than not when I rewound the play, it clearly looked like it was Schroder who failed to rotate back in transition. Or even try to rotate.

One large stat, among many: Atlanta was a much worse team overall specifically when Schroder was ON the court (-76 in about 62% of the minutes) than when he was OFF (+6 in about 38%).

Zeroing in on the defense: Atlanta was a good defensive team specifically when Schroder was OFF the floor (allowing 103.5 points per 100 poss’s) and poor specifically when he was ON the floor (allowing 109.2 points per 100).

There is always talk about Schroder using all his athletic talents and blooming into a very good point guard, but he’s 23 now and I think this is pretty much what he is and always will be.

* SF Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota.

Captain of the He Really Should Be Better on Defense Shouldn’t He Team. Except this was Wiggins’ third season, he has already logged almost 9,000 minutes, and he’s actually getting a little bit worse every year.

(I have continued to suggest that Cleveland shouldn’t have traded him for Kevin Love because I think Wiggins might be able to play decent wing defense to help out LeBron James, but so far this has not been the case and maybe I should stop arguing this.

(At this point, I think Love might be a better defensive player than Wiggins, now and forever, and I do not say this to compliment Love’s D.)

According to stats pointed out by the FiveThirtyEight website, Wiggins had the least affect on shooters when he was the nearest defender — if he challenged a shot, it mattered the least among all players.

When you watch Timberwolves games, this is immediately noticeable; Wiggins is the guy who usually gets tougher assignments because of his size and athleticism, seems to be around the shooter, and then… just melts away when the shot goes up.

The shooter almost never seems bothered. The shot almost always goes in. This is the exact opposite of what happens when, say, Kawhi Leonard is defending somebody… or Andre Iguodala.

I would also point out that Wiggins had a -3.16 DRPM, which ranked 460th in the league; this is heading in the wrong direction… and this season was with great defensive mind Tom Thibodeau in charge.

Last season, pre-Thibodeau, Wiggins’ DRPM was -1.84. Thibs, what’s up with that?

* F Carmelo Anthony, NY Knicks.

He saved his energies to defend himself against Phil Jackson’s PR campaigns, I guess, and it took it’s toll because obviously Anthony stopped caring about defense during the actual games again this season.

Reminded me of the great NDPOY 2012 effort — dying on every screen, playing hard for the first 10 seconds of the possession and then checking out, not getting back in transition… classic ‘Melo!

I won’t get too far into the stats, but I’ll just say that the Knicks were stunningly worse in the minutes that Carmelo played this season than when he didn’t, and that the 115.6 points per 100 that NY surrendered with Carmelo on the court was one of the highest overall numbers I saw for a star player.

We can blame Phil for some of this, too, and James Dolan, too. If you’re not in the mood to play a lot of D in your older NBA years, those guys aren’t exactly the ones to squeeze it out of you.

* C Frank Kaminsky, Charlotte.

He’s 7-feet tall. He played almost 2,000 minutes this season. He blocked 34 shots. And grabbed 336 rebounds. Total.

Draymond Green is 6-7 (maybe). And blocked 28 shots… in 593 playoff minutes this year. Also grabbed 155 rebounds.

Steve Clifford is at his most creative when he’s coming up with CDAs for Kaminsky, but it isn’t easy. Now he has Dwight Howard, too. Is that good?

—-SECOND TEAM NO-DEFENSE/

* No-Defense Sixth Man of the Year F/G Kyle Korver, Atlanta-Cleveland.

Just a snapshot of his defensive production in his 35-game stint with the Cavaliers to finish the regular season after the trade…

-Cleveland gave up 117.1 points per 100 poss’s when Korver was ON the floor and 109.8 when he was OFF, which is a massive -7.3 difference from a team that was already struggling on defense.

-Cleveland was out-scored by 59 when Korver was ON the floor… and Cleveland out-scored opponents by 320 in those 35 games when he was OFF the floor.

Thomas was the No. 1 Opponents Eyes Light Up When He’s Guarding Them player this year; and I’d have to say Korver was probably No. 2.

* SG DeMar DeRozan, Toronto.

Last year I said DeRozan sometimes on offense reminds me of a young Kobe Bryant and on defense reminds me of an old Kobe, and at this point (DRPM -2.04, 83rd among shooting guards) I’d say DeRozan at age 27 is the player most similar to Kobe… when he was 33 (pre-Achilles tear).

* PG Reggie Jackson, Detroit.

I had Jackson neck-and-neck with previous NDPOYs Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard for this last guard spot, but it was notable that Jackson got even worse this season (DRPM from -1.82 to this season’s -2.94, ranked 81st among point guards) and also I leaned to the new name.

Let’s give Reggie the Jose Calderon Memorial Can’t Stay In Front of Anybody award this year.

* No-Defense Rookie of the Year F Marquese Chriss, Phoenix.

Edges out Sacramento’s Buddy Hield and Philadelphia’s Dario Saric because of Chriss’ monster -6.3 ON/OFF differential in opponents points per 100 poss’s.

Explosive player, and he was only 19 this season, but so far he is just lost on defense.

* PF Julius Randle, LA Lakers.

Not the worst player in the league who got regular rotation minutes (more on that later), but Randle gave a good go at it, and I think we’ve learned from Randle’s short career already is that he doesn’t quite have a position on offense and he can’t guard any of the positions on defense.

Quick stat: The Lakers were -455 in the 54% of their minutes that Randle played… and only -110 in the 46% of their minutes that he didn’t.

* C Jahlil Okafor, Philadelphia.

Last year I said Okafor is turning into Al Jefferson. After this season, check that: He’s turning into Jason Thompson.

—HONORABLE MENTION/

* C Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota. Another young T-Wolve who should be much, much better on defense. Towns’ DRPM was -1.41, ranked 70th among 70 centers.

* C Enes Kanter, Oklahoma City. As is now OKC tradition, every Thunder player who got more than 30% of the playing time was in the plus-side on the ON/OFF defensive numbers… except Kanter, who played 39% of the minutes and was a flat negative.

Also, being able to read coach Billy Donovan’s lips when he says “can’t play Kanter” in the playoffs because of his atrocious pick-and-roll defense vs. Houston… that’s why this item even exists.

* F Doug McDermott, Chicago-Oklahoma City. Finished dead last in DRPM -3.92.

* F Jeff Green, Orlando. Transitioned from being a really undependable player to just a really bad player overall.

* G Jamal Crawford, LA Clippers. No Doubt No-D Hall of Famer.

* SG Ben McLemore, Sacramento/

Might be the worst player in the league who got more than 1,000 minutes, barely edging out teammate Arron Afflalo, Brooklyn’s Randy Foye, Orlando’s Jeff Green and maybe Julius Randle.

The dubious double-negative: -1.56 DRPM, -2.88 ORPM.

(Last year’s WPINLWGMT1000M was Terrence Jones, who I think is now basically out of the league.)

McLemore didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Kings so the 2013 No. 7 overall pick will become an unrestricted free agent. Same thing is happening to the No. 9 pick from that draft, Trey Burke, who has been cited on this item in a previous year. Bad defense = career-shortening, usually, unless you’re terrific offensively.

* SG Monta Ellis, Indiana. Salute to the ol’ Great Time Out superstar who was so instrumental to Klay Thompson’s 60-points-in-29-minutes outing vs. the Pacers this season.

* Old favorites that I don’t want to neglect but couldn’t get back to the top of the list for some reason…

-PG Damian Lillard, Portland, PG Derrick Rose, NY Knicks, PG Kyrie Irving, Cleveland.