It turns out the Minnesota Timberwolves can defend quite well without Rudy Gobert. Just ask the Denver Nuggets.
That doesn’t mean Gobert didn’t earn recognition for his impressive defensive play this past season — the expected is now official and Gobert has been voted Defensive Player of the Year.
The anchor of the NBA's No. 1 rated defense... Rudy Gobert is the 2023-24 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year!#NBAAwards | #KiaDPOY | @Kia pic.twitter.com/YWjXu6lD76
— NBA (@NBA) May 7, 2024
This is Gobert’s fourth time winning the award, the previous three were when he was with Utah. The only other four-time DPOY award winners are Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace.
Gobert anchored the best defense in the NBA this season, but he’s better now than in those previous, Utah iterations. For one, Gobert moves much better now and can step out on the perimeter better than he used to. Plus, his experience has led to brilliant anticipation plays.
Nuggets ran their patented 3-man "Elbow" action between Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokić, and Aaron Gordon that is widely considered unstoppable.
— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) May 5, 2024
Rudy Gobert, with help from Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid, just stopped it.
We are in for a SERIES. pic.twitter.com/PLFsnsAtXW
Gobert won comfortably, getting 72 first-place votes from the 99-member media panel who cast ballots for the award. Victor Wembanyama was second in the voting and the Heat’s Bam Adebayo placed third. Adebayo deserves to win this award at least once, but it feels like Wembanyama will own it for the next decade or so.
Anthony Davis finished fourth in the voting, very close to Adebayo. Not that it’s going to make him happy.
The complete voting results for the 2023-24 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/SpApbyUUw2
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 7, 2024
(As an aside: Domantas Sabonis got a vote? I’m going to assume someone had trouble with the drop-down menu used for voting because otherwise… that’s a choice).
