JEFF HAYNES/AFP through Getty Photos
Prime defensive accolades: Eight All-Defensive Crew picks, seven years receiving Defensive Participant of the 12 months votes
NBA rank: 382nd in steals, 453rd in blocks
Probably the most tenacious wing defenders ever, Bruce Bowen earned 1st Crew All-Protection honors 5 instances in his profession and 2nd Crew All-Protection thrice. Bowen was an elite 3-and-D participant in his prime, capturing 39.3 % from three for his profession and enjoying an enormous half as a job participant on three championship-winning Spurs groups.
Bowen was so properly considered a one-on-one defender on the wing, nearly all the time in opposition to stars, that he completed second within the Defensive Participant of the 12 months vote thrice regardless of averaging simply 0.8 steals and 0.4 blocks in that stretch. Bowen’s impression as a fringe defender went far past the stat sheet.
However, Bowen’s tenacity on the defensive finish bordered on the soiled at instances, with the previous standout defender creating a unfavourable popularity as a result of repeated situations of him placing his toes underneath the place opposing shooters had been going to land, which might be a flagrant foul in at present’s recreation.
And people had been simply examples in opposition to Vince Carter.
Nonetheless, soiled ways or not, Bowen, together with a participant developing afterward this record, is tied for having essentially the most All-Defensive Crew honors in a single profession (eight) with out being within the Corridor of Fame, so clearly his ways on the point-stopping finish of the ground had been efficient.
