The Defensive Player of the Year award traditionally goes to big men. Serving as the last line of defense, they tend to impact the game at a higher level on that end of the floor. The last two seasons have been unique in that a wing, Kawhi Leonard, has won the award.
Leonard’s success may have caused another of the league’s bright perimeter players to set his eyes on the prize. The Celtics’ Avery Bradley has made the award his personal goal for the season.
Following from Chris Fosberg of ESPN.com:
“If we’re playing well this year, I’ll give myself a chance [to compete for the Defensive Player of the Year award] because, to be honest, I feel like I should always be in that conversation,” said Bradley. “I think I’ve [been left off the] defensive team because of our [lack of] success in the past. We weren’t winning as many games and I’m not going to name some players, but when I was looking at the list I’m like, ‘That person got more votes?’ It’s just because they had a better year, they played longer, they were on TV more — all those things help you out. This year, I feel like the amount of TV games and how we should be playing this year should be able to help me be in that conversation.”
Bradley is definitely right about what it takes to win the award. The Celtics should be a really good team this year with the addition of Al Horford. Whether or not that can lead to Bradley actually winning the award is another question, entirely. The last guard to win DPOY was Gary Payton in the 1995-96 season.
Avery Bradley is certainly one of the est perimeter defenders in the league. But he doesn’t impact defense like a big and he’s not as good as Leonard. It would be a tough task to win the award, though it appears he will be trying his best.
