San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, in the follow-up season to his 2014 Finals MVP run, has been named the NBA's 2014-2015 Defensive Player of the Year. Rather surprisingly, Leonard took 37 first place votes to finish with 333 total vote points, 16 ahead of second-placed Draymond Green. Here's how the voting shook out:
Complete voting for NBA Defensive Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/4Ddc9dRsr3
— SI NBA (@si_nba) April 23, 2015
Kawhi played in 64 games. Missed almost 1/4 of the season. Not on my ballot for that reason. Draymond, DeAndre and Tony Allen were.
— Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) April 23, 2015Green narrowly lost out on the award, taking eight more first place votes than Leonard, but still finishing in second. In 64 games this season, Leonard impressed voters enough with his lockdown perimeter defense, a playing characteristic that generally doesn't get much love come awards season. The last swingman to win DPOY was Ron Artest in 2004—centers and power forwards have historically dominated the award. In 65 games, Leonard finished the season with 2.3 SPG, lead the league with a 96.4 defensive rating, consistently made shooters worse, and generally swallowed-up all dribblers in his path.
Steph Curry knows this all too well.
Get in, Kawhi.
Kawhi Leonard is just the 3rd player in NBA history w/ both an NBA Finals MVP & a DPOY award on his résumé. (Kawhi Leonard is 23 years old)
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) April 23, 20152.
3.
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[via @si_nba on Twitter]
