Today I am predicting the defensive player of the year award! Enjoy!
Dark Horse – Hassan Whiteside
Hassan Whiteside is my underdog for the DPOY award. Some games, he can put up as many as 10 blocks. In the 2015 season, he averaged 3.7 blocks. In 30 minutes, I have to say 3.7 blocks is pretty good. However with the improvement of his offensive game, his blocks have decreased. Last year he only averaged 1 block a game. The year before it was at 2.1 per game. His totals have been decreasing, but with the acquisitions of Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo, it will provide options on defense for Whiteside. Against top centers and power forwards in the league, Whiteside will be looking to block many shots. He is unlikely to win DPOY, which is why he is my dark horse for the award.
Runner-Up: Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard is not winning defensive player of the year. If the NBA gave out awards to the players that deserve it, Leonard would always win DPOY and Lebron would win MVP every year. The NBA doesn’t like to give awards more then 3 times per player, it gets to repetitive. You have to be one of the best players of all time to get 4 MVP’s, and if you get back to back to back MVP’s you are probably the best player of all time. What I mean by this is the NBA doesn’t want to give the award to the Claw. He leads the Spurs through defense, with 1.8 steals and 0.7 blocks. He is my pick for the MVP award because of defense(Kind of wish I had picked the Greak Freak for MVP.) With this in mind, the Spurs need Kawhi Leonard to come back from injury.
Winner: Rudy Gobert
The Jazz have looked good this season, and it is because of Rudy Gobert. I made my picks for all these awards before the season started, however Gobert has already backed my pick up. He has got 3 blocks in 3 games, as well as 3 steals in 3 games. 2 of the teams he faced were the Timberwolves and the Nuggets, who have Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic on the respected teams. If you ask me, those are 2 of the best centers in the league. Towns could be considered as the best Center in the league. For him to provide that presence on defense is insane. When he faces teams with not as good frontcourts, it will be domination for Gobert. Gobert should of won DPOY last year, however this year he can be a bigger presence on the defensive side of the court for the Jazz.
Thank you for reading this post, and have an amazing day!
Four Foot Nuttin 