The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) decision on picking who is the best defensive player of the year (DPOY) has always been based on a panel of selected sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. In response, fans have consistently complained about what is the objective criteria that determine who gets it. In comparison to the Most Valuable Player Award (MVP), it is a more clear decision as you can compare the team’s wins when the player is and is not playing or even look at the player’s stats and advanced metrics. The NBA votes however do not include stats like steals blocks and rebounds, as seen in the past when players outperform others in most of these areas, but are still not given the award. Myles Turner and Hassan Whiteside are good examples of this as Turner led the league in blocks for two seasons and still has not received any accolades and Whiteside leading in blocks twice and rebounds once has only been in the All-Defensive 2nd Team once.

Leadership tends to be what NBA voters lean toward when deciding who deserves to win the DPOY for multiple reasons. A player such as Draymond Green is a good representation of this, as many people consider him a “floor general,” because he controls his teammates. By his ability to see what a team is doing well on offense, he can predict what their next move is and tell his teammates what they should do. Even though he has only led the league in steals once, he still is able to show impact through his experience and others. Even then, the DPOY has still been given to question who was been given the awards two players were in the All-Defensive 2nd Team and still won. Lebron James even spoke out on this saying that he would have been able to win both MVP and DPOY in the same year if it was not given to Pau Gasol in 2013, but was confused about why he won if he was on the second defensive team. A significant part of these decisions rely on narrative, and the voters could potentially be persuaded by their decision if there is a large amount of attention being put on a player. This could go both ways though as we have seen Rudy Gobert receive negative feedback on being awarded the DPOY 3 times.