By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor
As the NBA's best of the best teams are revealed in the coming days and Ben Simmons already solidified himself as a member of the All-Rookie First team just a couple days ago.
Voted by writers, Sixers small forward Robert Covington was named to the NBA's All-Defensive first team, and center Joel Embiid was named to the second team.
Covington had 27 first place votes.
2018 NBA All-Defensive teams:
First team: Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, Victor Oladipo, Jrue Holiday, Robert Covington.
Second team: Joel Embiid, Draymond Green, Al Horford, Dejounte Murray, Jimmy Butler.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 23, 2018
Embiid, a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, missed the cut of the first team to the two other finalists for the award, Gobert and Davis.
Covington was 12th in the league for defensive rating (102.6) and fifth in defensive win shares (4.5). He was also 12th in the NBA in steal percentage (2.6), and ninth in steals per game (1.7). Covington finished fourth in defensive player of the year voting last season.
Embiid was third in defensive rating (100.5), 13th in defensive win shares (3.8), seventh in block percentage (4.8), eighth in rebound percentage (19.4), fourth in blocks per game (1.8), and 15th in defensive box plus/minus (2.5).
Ben Simmons even received votes to be on the All-Defensive teams due to his excellent year on that side of the ball.
Ben Simmons also received 16 total points (5 first team votes, 6 second team), https://t.co/DSSgmikZw0
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 23, 2018
So, after all of that, the NBA really recognized just how good of a defensive team the Sixers were this season. Simmons almost nearly made the second team which would have then pushed the number of Sixers on either team to three.
Next is the All-NBA teams, which I envision Joel Embiid to have a pretty decent shot of at least getting on the third team, with a possibility of being named to the second team.
