kris dunn is at a clear inflection point in his All-Defense campaign, with Los Angeles Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard publicly backing him for the NBA All-Defensive First Team and pointing to both this season and last season as evidence of sustained impact.
What happens when Kris Dunn gets a public All-Defensive First Team push?
Leonard has made his stance plain: Kris Dunn belongs on the NBA All-Defensive First Team. Leonard framed the case around year-over-year defensive value, saying Dunn “has been great all year, even last year, ” while also noting Dunn did not make it last season due to “minutes or something like that. ” Leonard added he hopes Dunn is “hitting those minutes” this season and projected that Dunn is “for sure gonna get a First Team or Second Team. ”
The endorsements did not stop with Leonard. On Monday, Leonard and Darius Garland reiterated their conviction that Dunn is worthy of the honor. Leonard’s message was direct: “Should be first team all defense this year. ” Garland offered his own emphatic praise, calling Dunn “just an animal. ”
What if the numbers keep matching the narrative?
The on-court snapshot that accompanied the renewed All-Defense discussion came in a Clippers win over the Golden State Warriors, 114-101. In that game, Kris Dunn finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, along with two steals. Leonard led the way with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Garland had 12 points in his debut with the Clippers.
Dunn’s season-long defensive profile in the available figures supports the tone of the endorsements. He currently has a defensive rating of 107. 1, and the context presented around him emphasizes that he is known as a major defensive presence. The same context highlights that Dunn is “so far eclipsing” his highest defensive rating of 114. 0 from the 2021-22 season.
There is also a recent historical marker for the type of defensive activity being associated with Dunn: during the 2024-25 season, he achieved 3. 3 steals per game during a stretch. While that figure is tied to a specific stretch rather than a full-season claim, it reinforces why teammates might describe his defense in such forceful terms.
What if the main obstacle is eligibility rather than impact?
Leonard’s comments introduced a key tension: Kris Dunn’s defensive impact versus the “requirements” that can shape postseason honors. Leonard suggested Dunn missed out last season not because of performance, but because of minutes. In Leonard’s telling, the central question is whether Dunn clears that bar this time.
That framing matters because it shifts the conversation from whether Dunn is performing at an All-Defense level to whether the season’s total body of work will be evaluated as fully qualifying. Leonard’s expectation—“First Team or Second Team”—signals confidence that Dunn’s play has reached the standard, leaving availability and threshold criteria as the lingering variable.
For the Clippers, the All-Defense push is also a form of internal validation: a star teammate is not simply complimenting effort, but campaigning for a specific award tier. For Dunn, the moment is less about a single game line and more about a season narrative that now includes repeated, on-the-record support from teammates.
In the near term, the storyline to watch is straightforward and measurable within the terms Leonard raised: whether Kris Dunn continues to pair his defensive rating profile and disruptive play with enough court time to remove any doubt about eligibility—and turn a teammate-led campaign into a league-wide result for kris dunn.
