Ranking the 10 best lockdown defensive prospects in the 2023 NBA Draft

With just two weeks until the 2023 NBA draft, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. While scoring buckets is the most important part of basketball, the need to be a good defender in today’s NBA has taken on even more importance with the smart, cerebral offenses that every team can trot out.

At the top of the draft, Victor Wembanyama is a sensational center prospect who is both a major mismatch on offense and an eldritch horror on defense. Outside of Wembanyama, however, there are a number of centers and non-centers who also figure to make a notable impact on the defensive end even in their rookie year.

When considering defense, there’s an important idea to consider: even if a guard prospect is a great defender, they can only have so much of an impact compared to a rim protector. Being an intimidating interior presence grants a player more of an overall chance to change the complexion of a game than just being a lockdown perimeter defender.

That’s part of the reason that only Marcus Smart, Gary Payton, Kawhi Leonard, and Ron Artest have won defensive player of the year awards at positions other than power forward or center over the last thirty seasons. While there are a bunch of great perimeter defenders in the draft class, they won’t be as important as others at the NBA level.

They still deserve credit for their excellent talents, however, alongside the towering monoliths who guard the rim. Thus, without further ado, here are the best defenders in this draft class!

Best Defensive Player #10: Jaylen Clark, UCLA

Almost all of Clark’s junior season went just as he wanted, as he broke out in a major way on both ends of the floor. While his improvement as a scorer and shooter is important, Clark’s defense is his calling card on the perimeter.

Clark won the Pac-12’s defensive player of the year award by smothering guards and forwards left and right. Clark has a solid frame that can absorb contact, has fast feet to keep up with drives, and also combines his long arms and great instincts on defense to be a menace to anyone who wants to drive on or near him:

Clark won’t average 2.6 steals at the NBA level, both due to the increased competition and the need to recover from an unfortunate late Achilles injury, but he can be reliably counted on to guard guards and wings at that level in the league. Although he may go undrafted due to his injury, Clark’s defense may one day earn him a rotation spot on an NBA team.

Best Defensive Player #9: Andre Jackson Jr., UCONN

The 2023 Connecticut Huskies stormed their way to the national title in the midst of one of the crazier NCAA tournaments in recent memory off of great offense and defense. During the run, players like Jackson Jr., Jordan Hawkins, and Adam Sanogo popped enough to get onto the NBA’s radar.

Jackson Jr. is one of the more interesting evaluations in the whole draft class. He’s a flawed offensive player due to his inability to shoot, which dampens his effect as a passer and cutter. Defensively, however, there are fewer questions, as Jackson Jr. is a scary athlete who can stay with any perimeter player and send their shots to the stands:

Any team that drafts Jackson Jr. will be banking on him being good enough on offense without a jumper that they can take advantage of his great defense on the other end. If he can do just enough as a connective wing, Jackson Jr. could be a second-round steal and quality bench contributor as a rookie due to his athletic and defensive abilities.

Best Defensive Player #8: Jordan Walsh, Arkansas

Despite their success in the offseason with both high school recruiting and the transfer portal, the Razorbacks fell a bit short of expectations. The team was a preseason top ten team, but after a number of injuries hit the roster hard, Arkansas was lucky to upset Kansas on the way to getting bludgeoned by Connecticut.

While Anthony Black emerged as a draft prospect and Nick Smith Jr. watched his star dim due to his knee ailment, Jordan Walsh was shunted off into a smaller role than projected. Even with fewer minutes and touches on offense, Walsh’s great frame, athleticism, and defensive tools shone bright enough to lead to him staying in the 2023 draft:

The appeal of Walsh is that he’s already a good defender and he’s barely scratched the surface of his game at any level. If an NBA feels confident in his tools on the perimeter growing at the same rate as his offense, they could take him in the later first-round, but it’s likelier that Walsh will be a second-round swing by a team that’s banking on his athletic gifts and defense.

Best Defensive Player #7: Rayan Rupert, New Zealand Breakers

Unlike the past few seasons, there isn’t a young player in Australia’s NBL that figures to crash the NBA lottery due to their massive potential. Just because a player won’t go in the lottery, however, doesn’t mean that a player like Rayan Rupert doesn’t deserve first-round consideration.

Rupert is a definite project, as he’s still young and has fairly rudimentary ball-skills on offense. On defense, however, he’s already a pesky wing defender. He has a 7’3” wingspan, which he uses to harass drives, disrupt passes, and thwart shots at the rim. Coupled with his great leaping ability and reflexes, all of Rupert’s tools make him into a plus defender:

Whoever drafts Rupert will need to give him a lot of time and space in the G-League to let him reach his ceiling, but on a young team, he could both get valuable minutes and have the chance to show the rest of the NBA how good of a defender he is today and can be tomorrow.

Best Defensive Player #6: Cason Wallace, Kentucky

The litany of talented guards that have stopped in Lexington, Kentucky for their freshman season before starring in the NBA is as impressive as anything else John Calipari has ever done. While Cason Wallace clearly looks like he’ll fit into this group this year, he’s done it in a way that’s distinctly different than prior Wildcats.

Wallace makes his money on the defensive end, locking up opposing guards with great technique, lightning-quick feet, and aggressive hands that generate steals without drawing fouls. Wallace knows how to use his length and body at the right time to disrupt what opponents want to do, earning him a bevy of transition opportunities off of his own steals:

What drops down Wallace to sixth in these rankings isn’t about his actual defensive abilities. In the NBA, he’ll step in and be able to give all but the best guards fits on defense. Instead, because he’s a point guard defender who is best used at the point of attack, Wallace’s overall impact on the defensive end is lower than the players above him.

Best Defensive Player #5: Anthony Black, Arkansas

One prospect’s misfortune is another’s lucky season. While Nick Smith Jr. didn’t get a chance to start and dominate for Arkansas, Anthony Black was a constant plus for Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks team and showed enough on both ends to make him a likely lottery pick.

Black isn’t a natural scorer and still has some parts of his game to iron out on that end, but as a defender, he’s a great specimen. He has awesome positional size as a big guard, has great fundamentals with his feet and positioning on defense, and has a preternatural sixth sense to snatch steals out of thin air:

In the NBA, teams will likely face a complex problem of how to keep Black from having an effect on their gameplans. His size and smarts are good enough that, with enough development, Black may one day develop into an all-defensive team member at the peak of his powers.

Best Defensive Player #4: Taylor Hendricks, UCF

Before the season, few outside of Orlando had heard of Taylor Hendricks. Over the course of his breakout freshman season, all Hendricks did was establish himself as a tantalizing scoring prospect, emerge as a frightening defender, and play himself into lottery contention.

The appeal for Hendricks on the defense comes from his great physical tools and his nose for the ball. He’s long, athletic, and twitchy, which makes him a great weakside shot-blocker. Those blocks are vicious and perfectly timed, sending shots raining back to the earth, but Hendricks is also improving as a perimeter defender who can switch and contest shots beyond the arc:

His next team will likely want to play him next to a true center so that Hendricks doesn’t take too much physical punishment in his first few years, but that won’t stifle his rim protection. If he can reach his ceiling, Hendricks should become one of the best weakside anchors in the NBA while holding his own in a switching system, versatility that will be prized and coveted by all.

Best Defensive Player #3: Dereck Lively II, Duke

After a lot of preseason hype, it’s hard to totally quantify Dereck Lively II’s season with the Blue Devils. On one hand, he had a handful of rough games towards the beginning of his career and looked out of place outside of lobs and putbacks in the paint.

On the other hand, Lively II grew into an absolute terror as a defender, using his great length and timing to contest shots at the rim and wall off the paint. He had a number of standout games as a shot-blocker, which reignited his NBA ceiling and has propelled him into first-round contention:

Any team that drafts Lively II will need to be patient with his development, as he’s incredibly skinny and needs to put on weight to have his peak impact as an NBA player. If given the right team environment to support his prodigious shot-blocking, however, Lively II could drastically outplay his draft stock and become a star defender.

Best Defensive Player #2: Jarace Walker, Houston

Remember when I mentioned that interior defense is inherently more valuable than perimeter defense, which affects these rankings? Welcome to the exception to that rule. Jarace Walker is that good of a defensive prospect that his ability to defend both inside and out ranks him just below a generational center.

The appeal for Walker as a defender comes from all areas of his game. He can stick with quick guards on the perimeter, is able to body forwards due to his beef, and can block shots and disrupt passes off of the ball. What makes him such an impactful defender is he can often do all of the above over the course of a few minutes in a game:

While he can’t single-handedly turn around a team like a transcendent center, Walker figures to be a major boon for any team that drafts him. He could pick up star players from day one, can mop up the deficiencies of defensive weak links, and still has room to grow as a defender once he gets into an NBA system.

Best Defensive Player #1: Victor Wembanyama, Metropolitans 92

It takes a special player to be considered a generational talent at the game’s traditional position for defense. No matter how you slice his game apart and dissect it, Victor Wembanyama looks and plays like a center who could one day reframe what fans and analysts alike consider a top-tier NBA defender.

He’s unfathomably long, which helps him cover more ground vertically and horizontally than his peers, but not all of Wembanyama’s appeal comes from him being taller than everyone. Instead, his instincts, aggression, and quickness are all aspects that combine with his great measurables to make him into the most fearsome shot-blocker in a professional league already:

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Wembanyama figures to immediately improve the San Antonio Spurs, who had a tough defensive year last year and are desperate for a change of pace that only player of his caliber can deliver.

While it might take some time to fully develop, it’s fair to expect Victor Wembanyama to not only be the best defender in the 2023 draft class but potential the entire NBA in his prime.