The NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award Problem

I believe most would agree the defensive player of the year award has become very divisive over the last decade. As we have seen the game change in terms of shooting and efficiency, the defensive player of the year winners haven’t followed the same path. We rarely see guards given the same defensive respect. Whether that is at award time at the end of the year or contract negotiations in the off-season. We will take a look at the current state of the award, the issues, and potential solutions. It should be noted off the jump, this isn't to discredit any previous winners or candidates, rather to shed some light on players who haven't received the defensive credit they deserve. Rudy Gobert is still arguably the best defender in the league for a few years now and its evident in his impact with the Jazz. I am far from a Gobert hater so this is not a piece to discredit his game.

Since 2002, there have only been two non-big man DPOY winners in Kawhi Leonard x2 (2015, 2016), and Metta World Peace in 2004 (via ESPN). For reference, the last guard to win the award was Gary Payton in 1996 and 5 guards in total won the award between 1983 and 2001. For the sake of this argument, Draymond Green, Giannis and Garnett will be considered big men. Garnett and Giannis both have the size and largely centered their game around other big men and inside the 3 point line. Draymond Green is a forward in terms of size but consistently guarded the opponent big man and was well known for his stretch-big man role on those dominant Warriors teams. As we can see below, the guards hardly show up in the voting dating back to nearly the last decade. While the award winner, in red, is ultimately decided by total votes, the percentage of first place votes are listed next to each individual below.

2013 DPOY voting 2014 DPOY voting 2015 DPOY voting

Marc Gasol 30% Joakim Noah 100% Kawhi Leonard 37%

Lebron James 18% Draymond Green45%

Serge Ibaka 14% DeAndre Jordan 32%

Joakim Noah 13% Anthony Davis 11%

Tony Allen 9%

2016 DPOY voting 2017 DPOY voting 2018 DPOY voting

Kawhi Leonard 84% Draymond Green 73% Rudy Gobert 89%

Draymond Green 44% Rudy Gobert 16% Joel Embiid 2%

Hassan Whiteside 2% Kawhi Leonard 11% Anthony Davis 5%

Paul George 2% Jrue Holiday 1%

2019 DPOY voting 2020 DPOY voting 2021 DPOY voting

Rudy Gobert 65% Giannis 75% Rudy Gobert 84%

Giannis Antetokounmpo 26% Anthony Davis 14% Ben Simmons 14%

Paul George 6% Rudy Gobert 6% Draymond Green<1%

Joel Embiid 1% Ben Simmons 1%

This award is voted on by 124 sportswriters and broadcasters, which has proven to be a very flawed method across multiple sports. All humans have biases, however sportswriters and broadcasters are often too close to certain markets while also not being held accountable for these picks. I believe the best way to go about this is to have a combination of coaches and/or players. I believe fan voting should be an omission from this award, given the lack of education on what effective defense is across the league. Most fans wouldn’t be able to tell you when they're looking at great defense, and that’s okay, but it has to be taken into account for this award. Coaches have to game plan for specific players and schemes daily while players have to physically go up against these defenders. Players and coaches are human so there will always be biases, however these are the individuals who would have the most authority on this topic.

The NBA has a league-wide problem not only with the way it markets defense, good defenders, and good defensive teams, but it also doesn’t know how to quantify what good defense looks like. When you consider the fact that most analysts take into account “stocks” (Blocks + steals) it all of a sudden makes sense guards and small forwards are not represented in this award. The league will also likely look at team defensive ratings, efficiency ratings and defensive win shares. The best defenders you find in today's game you won’t find in the defensive win shares column or top +/-, they are the players that are on winning teams and excel in their role. Please do not interpret this as good defense/defenders are limited to good teams because that is not true. Patrick Beverly is widely known as one of the best defenders in the league for the length of his career and is a consistent winner. Every year (excluding seasons with a season ending injury) Beverly has made the playoffs. He is a culture setter and sets the tone in terms of defense and effort. Mikal Bridges is my pick for the best 3 and D player in the league. He may not go out and guard the best player each play but his ability to guard 1 on 1 and provide efficient team defense means you must game plan around him. Lonzo Ball can be limited offensively but he has the length and size to not only body up most guards, but many forwards as well. He has fast hands and knows when to strike so coming up the court with nonchalant demeanor could have him running the break in no time. Marcus Smart is an inconsistent shooter at best, but consistently guards the best opponent because of his tenacity and effort. These players have all carved out impactful roles on winning teams even with clear deficiencies. Largely, you cannot depend on fans/sportswriters to truly watch enough games and know what they are seeing to vote this award in confidence.

At this time, the best representation for a good defender is the All Defensive team, which includes multiple positions and when looking into history, it appears to line up with some of the best defenders in the game. The players with the most All-Defense appearances are Tim Duncan (15 /8 1st team), Kobe Bryant (12 /9 1st team), Kevin Garnett (12 /9 1st team), Kareem (11 /5 1st team), and Scottie Pippen (10 /8 1st team). This All-Defense team was formerly voted on by coaches, however there was a change made in 2014 to a 100 team panel of sportswriters. You should see the disappointed look on my face after having to type that sentence out. Sportswriters absolutely cannot be trusted with this voting and this must change immediately. I believe the only solution is a combination of coaches and players, as a large chunk of their job is either playing against the candidates or having to watch film and game plan against them. Especially when you consider the financial and contractual ramifications of who gets selected to the All-NBA teams at the end of the year. As Kevin Durant said back in 2019,

"Yeah, but All-Defensive team is voted on by people who don't really know the game,"

Well said.