Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert is a 3x Defensive Player of the Year, but fans in Salt Lake City hope he won’t rest on his laurels in pursuit of a fourth trophy. The Defensive Player of the Year award may not hold the same luster as the Most Valuable Player award (as casual fans tend to underrate the impact of defense), but it’s still a prestigious honor.
As always, the competition will be stiff. The NBA is littered with elite defenders. Furthermore, voters may have the image of Gobert struggling to defend against the Los Angeles Clippers’ five-out formations in the Western Conference semifinals fresh in their minds.
No matter: Utah Jazz fans should still like their guys’ odds. Rudy Gobert has been the best rim protector in basketball for several years now, and that trend projects to continue into 2021-22. Gobert will invariably be in the mix for his fourth award.
Here he is ranked among the other top candidate for the 2021-22 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.
5. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert vs Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo
Milwaukee Bucks fans may feel as if the Greek Freak is the rightful claimant to this award on an annual basis, and frankly, they may have a case. Antetokounmpo was the same two-way terror we’ve come to expect last season. It may have been the first season in two years that he didn’t walk away with the league’s MVP award, but we’re pretty confident he’s content with his Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA Championship.
In the second of those back-to-back MVP awards, Antetokounmpo also took home the 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year award. He became just the third player in NBA history to win both awards in a single season, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. That’s such rarified air that you don’t even need a vaccination to safely breathe it.
Having said that, Antetokounmpo’s Defensive Rating took a major slide last season, from a league-leading 97 in 2019-20 all the way to 107. If that trend continues, the superstar is unlikely to garner much consideration for the award.
Furthermore, Antetokounmpo faces a barrier that’s outside of his control in voter fatigue (more on that later). Without delving into a thorough exploration of armchair psychology, suffice it to say that it seems as if voters like rewarding new players with awards. Nonetheless, if anyone is capable of authoring a defensive season that simply cannot be denied, it’s likely Antetokounmpo.