I’m so surprised they don’t got at least one defensive player of the year award. Adebayo can guard every position on the court and switch between defensive schemes based on the game and possession. For example, he might drop back to tip a pass instead of stopping to contain the ball. It’s not just blocks where Davis makes his impact known. Davis protects the rim and is the main reason the Lakers are outscoring teams in the paint by an average of 5.3 points per game. The Lakers have few bigs available to complement or help Davis, so he has far more defensive responsibility than his peers on other teams.
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Did Bam and AD have seasons where they were DPOY worthy? Yes, especially AD.
Did Bam and AD have seasons where they deserved DPOY over the person won DPOY? No.
Marcus smart and Rudy Gobert rings a bell 🔔 that’s fs
What specific seasons would you give the award over Gobert?
And the year Smart won it, Bam was 4th and AD wasn’t in the top 11 for voting.
Both deserved their DPOY awards, especially Gobert.
Marcus’ was arguably a bit weaker in a year no one really stood out defensively, so they gave the award to the best defender on the best defensive team, but Bam was 4th that season behind Smart, Bridges, and Gobert. He wasn’t close to winning.
2018 when Rudy only played 56 games and AD had probably his best all-around season, finishing 3rd DPOY and 2nd most 1st place votes.
Smart’s year was voter fatigue for Rudy, but probably Bam’s best defensive season. You could argue that he should’ve won with precedent of Rudy’s 2018 dominant season and Bam playing 56 games himself in 2022
Nope its herbs time now
All I know is that in a perimeter oriented game… the guard/wing defenders do not receive the appropriate amount of love.
If Wemby stays healthy they may never
They gotta make two DPOY awards. One for backcourt and one for frontcourt.
Perimeter defense goes unnoticed so often in favor of bigs. Outside of Smart/Kawhi and possibly Giannis depending on whether you consider him a big or wing have won it the past 30 or so years.
With how the game is played today and the amount of switching, there’s a lot more value to a guy chasing through screens, etc., than ever. Rim protection is fine but Rudy is often unplayable if a big can space him out down there which is why he gets pulled out of games at times.
Once either one is the best defensive player in the league for a season, I agree they should. They haven’t been though, and they likely won’t get another chance with Wemby existing
Have they played at DPOY levels? Yes, but there’s other stuff that goes into voting besides the players talent unfortunately. Like I truly believe Draymond has been the best defender of his generation and he only has 1 DPOY. You just have to realize awards don’t dictate talent
Yea especially this award. I know I’ll remember Dray/Jrue/Kawhi/Lebron/AD right away for their defense more than I’ll remember Rudy.
Food for thought, lotta folks talking bout how Rudy (for example) shouldn’t have four in a row or whatever because other people are good too. That’s the same kinda shit people also complain about when they’re like “MJ lost an MVP to Karl Malone???” Or LeBron not having that many MVPs. People got bored and said “this dude is also very good; it’s his turn”
Ad is better than bam so no, Ad is probably top 5 but not number one
It’s a stat/narrative driven award. That’s why it surprises me AD never got it. Playing in LA, with Bron, and gets a lot of blocks. Bam plays way too much perimeter defense to get DPOY. His rebounds and blocks are never gonna be at the top of the league.