Defensive Player of the Year
Ashlin: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Yes, the Greek Freak is my pick for both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. The Bucks are number one in the NBA in defensive rating.
Antetokounmpo himself is third in the league in defensive rating (minimum 70 games), which is eight spots ahead of Rudy Gobert.
His size and agility allow him to be an extremely versatile defender. He is one of only four players along with Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, and Andre Drummond to average 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals.
Gershon: Giannis Antetokounmpo
This seems like a two horse race between Giannis Antetokounmpo who will likely be the runner up for the MVP award, and Rudy Gobert who’s won the award the last two seasons. I’ll go with Antetokounmpo here since he can guard both the perimeter and paint at a high level while Gobert is more of an old fashion shot blocker in the paint.
Piper: Paul George
I think most people might lean towards Rudy Gobert and there isn’t a wrong choice here to me. Both players have led their team to top four in defensive ratings and are both very deserving of this award this year. I think Paul George, however, should be the DPOY this season.
The first reason is one that most of the voters probably won’t take into account, but I think they should. This is the fact that Paul George is leaned on very heavily on offense each night and that takes a lot of energy, so the fact that he is OKC’s best offensive player and best defensive player is very impressive to me. A majority of the time in the NBA if you’re known to be a scorer you usually slack a little bit on the defensive end, but Paul George is not built that way and works hard on both ends of the court every night.
The second reason is Paul George is leading the league in steals at 2.2 per game; Gobert, while producing a solid 2.3 blocks per game, is not leading the league in that category (3rd behind Miles Turner and Mitchell Robinson). Lastly, while centers and especially Gobert are typically the anchors of the defense and are tasked with protecting the rim, they don’t typically guard the teams best player on any given night. More often than not in today’s NBA, a teams best player is going to be a guard or a forward. Paul George is tasked with guarding the opposing teams best player more often than Gobert. Also, centers win the award too much, so I’m all for giving Paul George the nod this season.
Corn: Giannis Antetokounmpo
When looking up who I wanted to be my DPOY vote, I immediately went to Rudy Gobert. He averages 0.8 steals per game and 2.3 blocks per game to go with 9 defensive rebounds. He posted a 102.9 Defensive rating. Paul George, on the other hand saw under a block a game at 0.4 a game but gets 2.2 steals per game, which leads the league. He also snagged 6.8 defensive rebounds a game. His defensive rating is sitting at 103.4.
But the guy who I think has had the best all-around defensive year is Giannis Antetokounmpo. He averages over one steal or block in both major defensive categories, with 1.3 steals a game, and 1.5 blocks a game. Another thing besides him producing well in both defensive categories is his 10.3 defensive rebounds per game. His work on the defensive boards was better than Paul George and surprisingly better than Rudy Gobert. His defensive rating of 100.5 is also a very solid number. I’m picking Giannis based of the fact if him getting steals and blocks, along with his rebounding numbers on that end.