2022 PBT Awards: Defensive Player of the Year

Kurt Helin

1. Rudy Gobert (Jazz)

2. Marcus Smart (Celtics)

3. Bam Adebayo (Heat)

Marcus Smart could be Mr. Steal My PBT Award here — I almost put him No. 1. Bam Adebayo could be Mr. Steal My PBT Award — about a week ago I had him on top of this list. Every other award we have listed this week here at NBC is what my ballot will look like when I send it off to Ernst & Young, but DPOY… I am still not settled. I’m still talking to people in the league, watching film, trying to figure out where I stand here. Jaren Jackson Jr. could finish in the top three, as could Mikal Bridges. Midway through the year Draymond Green was running away with this award, but he missed too much time to injury to win it, and that created a vacuum I have yet to totally figure out how to fill in a way I am comfortable with.

Rudy Gobert is still an elite defender and is not the reason the Jazz defense slipped this season, it’s that Utah went with more offense and less defense around him, asking him to do even more. When Gobert is on the court, the Jazz still have an elite defense. Boston had the best defense in the NBA this season, but that is an ensemble effort where everyone on the floor can defend. How do you parse out what Smart meant to the defense vs. Robert Williams III, who also was fantastic this season? Bam Adebayo was a switchable force for the Heat, but he missed a lot of time, and you can’t help a defense from the bench. There are cases for and against everyone. In the end I lean Gobert because of what is asked of him in Utah, they run everything through him and ask him to make up for lesser defenders more than others on this list.

Gobert gets my DPOY vote… unless someone steals it.

Dan Feldman

1. Rudy Gobert (Jazz)

2. Bam Adebayo (Heat)