MIES (Switzerland) - Since being added to the list of our end-of-season awards in 2023, the Basketball Champions League Defensive Player of the Season award has been dominated by Spain.
Alberto Diaz won the inaugural award, followed by Howard Sant-Roos of UCAM Murcia in Season VIII. Last time around, it was Diaz again, winning it for the second time. The fact that his Unicaja also went back-to-back as BCL champions just shows how important defense really is to winning basketball games and lifting titles.
As usual, at this time of year, we start looking at who the early candidates are to win the end-of-season awards. For the best defensive players, it's not always as easy to see the great work they do in the stat sheet.
Yes, we can (and have) looked at who leads the BCL in steals and blocks, but we also needed some more subjective opinions to help us see the things that go unnoticed.
We asked the players themselves who the toughest defenders on their team are, and also who are the toughest defenders they have faced this season.
The following list is the five names that received the most mentions. It is not an official ranking, but it might open your eyes to watch them in a different way the next time they play.
RaiQuan Gray (AEK BC)
We start with the best defender on the best defensive team in the BCL so far in Season X, powered by Ameresco SUNEL.
AEK hold teams to just 0.96 points per possession, and if that wasn't mean enough, they are even meaner when Gray is on the floor. In lineups when Gray leads AEK, they allow just 0.92 points per 100, and when he takes a seat, the number jumps up to 0.97.
That jump may not sound like a giant leap for mankind, but it's already hard enough to keep teams at this level below 1 point per possession, and Gray is playing 30 minutes out of 40 every game.
As you can see in the video above, RaiQuan Gray has a laser-sharp defensive IQ and the physical ability to defend most positions on the floor. He not only leads the team for steals with two per game, but also sits in the Top 5, he's also the third-best confiscator of possessions left in the Round of 16.
Gray doesn't just wait for opportunities to steal the ball; he predicts them two or even three dribbles ahead of time. Combine that with the strength to defend in the post and the foot speed to stay in front of wings and guards, RaiQuan Gray is absolutely one of the premier defenders in the competition.
Martynas Paliukenas (Rytas Vilnius)
Up next, we move from the best defender on the best defensive team, to the most impactful defender in the competition.
Rytas may have struggled defensively this season, conceding 1.13 points per possession, but they would have struggled even more without Paliukenas on the roster. With him on the floor, they are a very efficient defensive unit, holding teams to 0.99 points per possession.
Without him? Glad you asked. That number balloons to 1.13 points per possession!
No other player in the league has such a large discrepancy. Martynas Paliukenas was also the joint-highest vote receiver from his peers. He is clearly doing some serious work on the defensive end.
The phrase "Nobody likes us, and we don't care" is the Rytas motto, and you would be hard-pressed to find a player who embodies that mentality better than Martynas Paliukenas. The clips above portray a character with the kind of dogged determination on defense that everyone hates to play against.
Paliukenas will bump you when you don't want to be bumped, he will push you in directions you don't want to go, and above all, he's never beat.
You know you need to watch him in passing lanes, and you know you need to keep your dribble tight when he's there, but even when you think you've gone by him, or even when you think you have an open layup at the rim, there he is out of nowhere, destroying your offense.
Adam Hanga (Joventut Badalona)
What do we need to tell you about Adam Hanga on defense?
We're talking about a player with a career that speaks for itself. It may seem like an age ago that Hanga won EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, but don't let that fool you into thinking Hanga isn't still one of Europe's truly elite defenders.
With age comes experience, and he may be more able to pick his moments to change games on defense, but his data still speaks for itself in the here and now. With Hanga on the floor, Joventut Badalona give up 0.93 points per possession - the second-lowest of any player in this list.
Without him, they allow 1 point per possession. That's a seven-point leap over 100 possessions.
The film for Hanga is just as impressive. On offense, we like to talk about pick-and-roll wizards and hard-to-guard shifters, but on defense, Hanga is probably the hardest player to screen in the BCL.
His length and defensive versatility make him able to guard almost "one" through "five," and we don't need to tell you about his work in the passing lanes.
Badalona look set for a deep Play-Offs run in their maiden BCL season. The deeper that run goes, the more important Hanga will become.
Zac Cuthbertson (Elan Chalon)
Elan Chalon might be the story of the season so far. They were very unlucky to lose their automatic spot in the Round of 16 to ALBA BERLIN, but they made up for that with a faultless cruise through the Play-Ins with a 2-0 series win over Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola.
This looks like a team that has played together for years and glue guy Zac Cuthbertson is a huge part of that.
Chalon are one of the most energetic and athletic defensive teams in the BCL this season, and nobody personifies that mentality and physical presence better than Cuthbertson.
Some of the players on this list you might need to watch a little closer than normal to see all the things they do defensively that explain why they are so respected by their peers defensively. With Cuthbertson, it's the very first possession you watch.
When you see a 2.01m guy with Go Go Gadget arms picking up point guards full court and terrorizing them just to make it past half court, and then in the same possession coming from nowhere to steal a ball from the passing lane, or block a shot out of the sky like a clay pigeon shooter, you know immediately you are watching an elite defender.
Kur Kuath (Dreamland Gran Canaria)
And last but very much not least, we needed a paint patroller. At 1.8 per game, Kur Kuath is one of the top swatters in the BCL.
Kur Kuath blocks 1.8 shots every contest and is a key cog in the third-best defense in the BCL so far this season. Dreamland Gran Canaria hold teams to just 0.98 points per possession, Kuath fits perfectly into a roster stacked with defensive playmakers in every position on the court.
Kuath has the length at 2.08m with a 2.20m wingspan, and the foot speed to dominate the painted area.
He reads attackers' steps and times his jumps perfectly to block shots that would usually be a guaranteed two points. He is one of the most impactful SDS (Shot Deterrent Systems) in the league, and that's not all.
His length and foot speed is also an excellent defensive rebounder, and his agility makes him a versatile pick-and-roll defender who is more than capable of switching onto smaller players when needed.
A Marquette alumnus and South Sudan international, Kuath's career trajectory has been anything but straightforward after spells in Spain's LEB Gold, but Kuath is finding his peak form in his peak years.
Perfect timing for Granca as well.