ESPN's Kendrick Perkins believes Lu Dort is the 5th-best defender in NBA

USA Today

07-08-2025

When you win an NBA championship, expect an entire summer's worth of praise from the national talking heads. That's what the Oklahoma City Thunder have experienced fresh off one of the greatest campaigns the league has ever seen.
The Thunder had a historic 68-14 regular-season record. They broke the NBA record for the largest point differential ever. That dominance carried over to the playoffs as they brought home the Larry O'Brien trophy. They destroyed the opposition with their defense, as most of their game-sealing runs happened from turnovers created.
A key contributor to their championship run was Lu Dort. In a locker room filled to the top with world-class defenders, it was Dort who his teammates campaigned for to represent them in the Defensive Player of the Year race.
Dort ultimately came up short in fourth place, but was rewarded with his first All-Defense Team honors. Something the Thunder feel like should've happened years ago, as one of the league's best one-on-one defenders since he debuted as an undrafted rookie in 2019.
Ranking the five best defensive players, ESPN's Kendrick Perkins gave Dort his flowers on the "NBA Today" program. He listed him as the fifth-best defender in the league. His teammate, Alex Caruso, was surprisingly ranked in first place.
Evan Mobley, Amen Thompson and Victor Wembanyama rounded out the top five as the second-to-fourth best defensive players in that order.
"Defensive tackle, linebacker, whatever you want to call him, a pest. The opponents hate to see him coming because of the physicality. Screeners hate to screen him because they can't. He's going to go through or fight over screens," Perkins said. "A key reason why the Thunder won the NBA championship this year. He addresses the problem of perimeter defense."
It shouldn't be surprising to see the Thunder have two of Perkins' five best defensive players. They had one of the greatest defenses ever. That side of the ball led them to an NBA championship. Dort is the reason why only a handful of perimeter players dropped 30-plus points against OKC this past season.