My NBA Awards ballot: picking every NBA award for the 2023-24 season
By Ben Handler
Defensive Player of the Year
The pool of players for this award was very deep and the battle for All-Defense teams will be a doozy. There were a number of elite defensive guards who deserve to be mentioned but couldn’t crack my top 3 like Alex Caruso, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Jalen Suggs.
There were also multiple wing defenders who stood out like Herbert Jones and Jaden McDaniels. Those guys were monsters on the defensive end, but they just didn’t quite do as much as the elite big men rim protectors around the league.
Victor Wembanyama will probably hold this award for many years to come, he single handedly took the Spurs from the worst defense in the league to a top 5 unit when he was on the floor. But overall his team and defense weren’t good enough and he didn’t switch to center until about 20 games into the season. He’ll win plenty of these, but not quite yet.
Chet Holmgren did wonders as the lone big for the Thunder, manning the paint and being a key factor in an elite defense. And Bam Adebayo carried the Heat’s defense on his back while everyone else was in and out of the lineup.
But the player who stood out above the rest is the man who has already won this award multiple times, Rudy Gobert. Last season was a rough one for Rudy and the T-Wolves, but this year he bounced back and then some, having perhaps his best season yet.
He was absolutely dominant on the defensive end and had the Timberwolves defense locked in the number one spot all season by a healthy margin. We’ll see if he can hold up in the playoffs, but there’s no question he was the best defesnive player this regular season.