We’ve reached the midpoint of an NBA season that has been filled with injuries to top players — Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid already have missed too many games to qualify for end-of-season awards — and plenty of surprises, like the Cleveland Cavaliers atop the East and the fast rise of the Houston Rockets in the West. The midpoint also means it’s time to take stock of the NBA postseason awards. All week long, I will make my picks for some of the NBA’s top awards at this point in the season. Today: Defensive Player Of the Year.
NBA DPOY: Victor Wembanyama
2. Evan Mobley
3. Ivica Zubac
This is a no-brainer.
That is with all due respect to the others on this list and a few just off it, Wembanyama is clearly the most impactful and best defender in the league. It’s not just the 3.9 blocks a game that put him at the top of the list (although it is 1.4 more a game than second-place Walker Kessler), it’s how he changes everything on the defensive end of the court. Take last night’s Spurs win over the Lakers, where he had “just” two blocks — one on a Dalton Knecht corner 3. There were two times in the game where a Lakers player drove past a close-out into the lane with the intention of scoring at the rim or putting up a floater, only to have to stop, pivot, and kick the ball back out because there was no way he could make a play (Dorian Finney-Smith once, Gabe Vincent once). This happens every game.
He just changes everything on the court with his defense.
When Wembanyama is on the court, the Spurs have a top-six defense in the league, despite having some players opponents clearly target. When he is off the court, that rapidly falls to the 24th-ranked defense (overall that leaves the Spurs 12th in the league defensively, in the middle of the pack).
Evan Mobley has deservedly received a lot of praise this season for his improved play and aggressiveness on offense, but he has always been an elite defensive big — and with the freedom to roam a little thanks to Jarrett Allen, Mobley has been a force this season. The Cavaliers have a top-10 defense behind him, although one could make the case Allen deserves as much credit as Mobley.
The Los Angeles Clippers have the fourth-ranked defense in the NBA this season and Ivica Zubac anchors that in the paint, he is quietly having an amazing season. Zubac is not just a big body in the paint, he can step out and hold his own on the perimeter in spots, he is a versatile defender.
There are others that have to be considered for the final two spots on this list. Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. — a former DPOY — is on that list.
Perimeter players get shorted by some voters, the idea being bigs have a larger defensive impact because they protect the rim, but that idea is increasingly dated in a 3-point gunning NBA. With that, Amen Thompson deserves serious consideration for his play this season in Houston, another team with an elite defense. Dyson Daniels in Atlanta is in that same boat.
Oklahoma City has the best defense in the NBA, but the challenge with them and this award is there is no one player to single out — every defender the Thunder roll out is at least solid to good. It’s the epitome of a team defense. Heck, they bring their best perimeter defender, Alex Caruso, off the bench. Isaiah Hartenstein would be in my mix for one of the bottom two spots but he missed 15 games to open the season with a fractured, hand, if he misses three more all season he will not reach the 65-game threshold. Lou Dort could be given a nod as a representation of the collective efforts, but that’s a bit of a cop-out.
Orlando is much the same, an elite team defense where it is hard to single out a clear DPOY player. Jonathan Isaac is a stopper when he plays, but he comes off the bench for 17 minutes a night and that’s just not enough to have DPOY impact. Jalen Suggs is in my mix.
The bottom two spots to make my end-of-season ballot feel wide open, but it’s hard to imagine Wembanyama not getting the top slot.
