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.
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.