Jazz center Rudy Gobert has been selected as the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. This is the third DPOY honor for Gobert, who also won the award in 2018 and 2019.
During his eight NBA seasons, Gobert has established himself as one of the league’s best shot blockers. He averaged a career-best 2.7 rejections per game this season and ranked first in a number of defensive analytics stats, including defensive real plus-minus and defensive RAPTOR, by a wide margin.
“It takes team effort, mental toughness, hard work and dedication,” Gobert told Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link). “Every day you have to come in with a mindset to make your team better on that end.”
Gobert received 84 first-place votes, along with 14 for second place and two for third place for an overall total of 464 points, the NBA announced in its official press release.
The Sixers‘ Ben Simmons was second with 15/67/11 and 287 points, followed by the Warriors‘ Draymond Green with 0/13/37 and 76 points. The other first-place vote went to Bam Adebayo of the Heat, who came in fourth.
Eight other players received at least one DPOY vote, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Clint Capela, Joel Embiid, and Jrue Holiday. Perhaps the most unexpected vote belonged to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was placed third on one ballot.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Deserved, he is the main reason the Jazz had the best record in the league.
No he isn’t.
On defense he definitely is, but not so much on offense.
how many votes did Jrue get?
Patient 0
should of got it last year too, shuttn down the whole dang association.
Old joke, but nice wording fellas
Gobert #1 in the WDA! (pronounce huda)
Just rambling… No post from Sillivan
^(Who dat think they gonna…)
alright man, i’m cracking up lol.
Bullshit. Ben Simmons does so much more
Ben Simmons is a very good perimeter defender. However you can’t be DPOY when your not even the best defensive player on your own team.
Why not? He was runner up for DPOY behind someone from another team when he wasn’t the best defensive player on his own team.
You got a point….maybe Embiid should of been runner up for DPOY as well as MVP.
Not the best on the team? Even Joel calls him the DPOY. Ben is hands down the best, but I don’t care about awards.
Then Joel is wrong, Embiid’s presence in the paint makes Simmons a better defender as Simmons can get up in people’s grill knowing Embiid is behind him and will him bail Simmons out if he gets beat.
Don’t get me wrong Simmons is a great defender but much like Gobert makes O’Neale look good Embiid makes Simmons look great.
Simmons does a mix of things unexpectantly that can turn momentum.
It would be hard to find stats in either case, but for whatever it’s worth, BLK+STL, DWS, & DRtg are about the same, and DPM favors Simmons.
But hey, not all hope is lost! Maybe Simmons can figure out a way to steal R.O.Y. from LaMelo like when he stole it from Mitchell?
Strange how a player can be rookie of the year in his second NBA season.
Did he play? Do we bat an eye at ‘redshirt freshman’ labels? September call ups didn’t count toward ROY based on AB or Days on the Roster.
Wallywood still dont understand what is rookie mean..whats a stup1d man
Ask Blake Griffith, he might know the answer
Hate to point out the obvious, but a 6’11” point guard playing against 6’ foot guys is the reason why he will never win.
Simmons covers the other teams best player 1-4 each night with functionality at the 5 as well. No one else in the NBA does that, opponents (number 1 option by the way) shoot 40% when Ben is guarding them. Joel is great no doubt and to me on par with Gobert on D but to me Jo is our 3rd best defender. Thybulle is phenomenal in the stocks and man/team D and his stats while great…are only w/ 20 minutes a night. When Thybulle develops a shot (ok if) he will be playing 30 or more a night and he might be the one to take this award. I think Thybulle is the best, he just needs to be on the court more…but he is a negative on O (where Ben is still a positive because of his passing).
Ben Simmons, so overrated, not even as good as Westbrick.
lol
Wallywood : now u call westbrook as westbrick? Lol… Last season u l1ck westbrook 4 ss untill it clean.
Those voting on the post season awards are having a good year. Another no brainer in terms of impact.
that block on markus morris, for the potential tying 3…
I get your (vanishing) point. Great play by the Stifle Tower.
Nice.
So insane Dray had more assists and boards than points this year, along with the elite defense. If GSW can configure their roster correctly to promote Steph’s greatness, they will easily win a title next year.
Ok homer
Klay is the wild card to me. If he is healthy and still at a similar level….yeah they will compete with anyone.
One question mark is Wiseman. Can he develop into a serviceable player?
One negative is both the contract and play of Wiggins. He is atrocious on D and decent on O but I don’t like his court IQ. Can they unload his contract similar to the sixers with Horford? Not sure, Wiggins contract is as bad as it gets IMO. if not how can they hide him or maximize his skills?
The warriors should be competitive and contend if they are healthy either way. I think Wiggins is the weak link they need to address
I really don’t understand the Simmons defensive player of the year hype.
It feels like Doc told the press he was challenging Ben with that prior to the season, then Ben himself said ‘I am the DPotY’ then the media just assumed it was real.
The eye-test doesn’t correlate. He’s ok, but not great. When that’s all you can really offer consistently I’d expect Tony Allen-type intensity.
As a related aside – what’s with players claiming an award for themselves?! Let your playing do the talking. Brag afterwards for sure but prior? Cringe
Also, re. Ben – he’s being paid millions of dollars to play a game. The schedule means he’s got an average (can’t be bothered working it out properly) of 23 hours a day to work on his game. There’s absolutely no reason why his shot isn’t better.
Gobert has the same hours to work on his shot… but he is much worse than Ben… So what is your point?
No point just trolling a great player like Ben, thought so, right?
Same goes to him. His only skill is being tall. He has some of the worst hands and touch you’ll see. Ben is a great athlete, that’s about it.
Funny to give the DPOY to a player that all the top centers play their best game against him… clearly my concept of defense is different than the league!
IMO Ben, Giannis, Dray, AD & Embiid are the best defenders in the league, Gobert is ok not that good if you ask me!
I think Ben should have won, but not because Gobert is only ok? He is great and a perfect fit for the Jazz concept. He does struggle 1 on 1 against the best centers in the league…but so does every other center. Where Gobert shines is his team D. He closes off the lane brilliantly. The Jazz give up among the lowest points in the paint, uncontested 2’s and wide open 3’s. Forcing teams into the most midrange 2’s (the worst percentage shot in the game). That’s not possible without Gobert because no other center does that, with the exception of Joel (and playing 51 games won’t win any awards regardless of how great you are).
It’s also worth mentioning since there is so much Ben hate in this thread, his best game of the season came against the team with the DPOY.
Don’t really understand how his shot blocking is the one hallmark of his DPOY campaign. He’s not even the best shot blocker in the league. Myles Turner is miles better at it.
However, Turner doesn’t rebound like Gobert. I bring this up just to ask interested parties if people would be handing Turner awards if he came anywhere near a respectable rate of rebounding?
Simmons is too polarizing as a weird player to garner widespread acclaim until he proves he can be the pillar of a winning team. In his case, he probably needs a Finals MVP to quiet haters of his unorthodox gifts and shortcomings.