This season's Defensive Player of the Year race might be as tightly contested as the Most Valuable Player race. Between the two of them, Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo have taken home the last four DPOY awards.
Both of them are leading candidates again this season, but with only a couple of weeks remaining in the regular season, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams, Mikal Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. are among the players with a strong case to win the award.
Will one of Gobert and Antetokounmpo be crowned Defensive Player of the Year again? Will we see a guard recognized for the first time since Gary Payton nearly 30 years ago? Which player on the Celtics deserves the most credit for their defensive dominance?
Let's take a closer look at the leading Defensive Player of the Year candidates.
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Leading Defensive Player of the Year candidates
Marcus Smart and Robert Williams, Celtics
Smart and Williams are a big reason why the Celtics have the best defensive rating in the NBA.
Smart is the heartbeat of Boston's defense. He picks up steals, deflections and charges at rates few players can match, and he's one of the more versatile defenders in the league. He might only be 6-foot-4, but he plays much bigger than his size, using every inch of his 6-foot-9 wingspan and every ounce of his 220-pound frame to his advantage.
Smart often plays traffic cop on defense, telling everyone on the Celtics where to go and what to do.
Williams, meanwhile, is an absolute menace around the basket. Only Jackson (2.3), Anthony Davis (2.3) and Myles Turner (2.8) are averaging more blocks than him (2.2) on the season, and opponents are shooting a measly 52.5 percent against him at the rim. Moving him off of centers and onto the opposing team's least threatening wing helped take Boston's defense to another level by allowing him to roam the baseline more.
With how important they've both been, there's a chance Smart and Williams will split DPOY votes.
Mikal Bridges, Suns
Bridges just missed out on making the All-Defensive Second Team last season. This season, he's helped the Suns reach new heights on that end of the court.
Phoenix spent much of the season with the league's No. 1 ranked defense and only recently slipped to No. 2 behind the Celtics. Bridges isn't the only stout defender on the Suns, but he's the best defender on the team and he consistently takes on the toughest defensive assignment.
One of his finest performances came early this season when Bridges helped the Suns limit Stephen Curry to 12 points on 4-for-21 shooting from the field, the Warriors star's second-worst shooting performance of the season. In addition to being excellent at navigating his way around screens, Bridges is a disciplined defender who uses his length well to harass slithery point guards like Curry and bigger ball handlers like James Harden.
If Bridges doesn't win Defensive Player of the Year, he'll almost certainly earn the first of many All-Defensive First Team selections to come.
Rudy Gobert, Jazz
It's no secret who Gobert is at this point. Many are quick to point to his limitations, but he is still arguably the NBA's best anchor. Not only is he averaging 2.2 blocks per game, tying him with Williams for fourth-most in the league, but he contests the sixth-most shots around the basket while holding opponents to a slightly lower mark (51.5 percent) than Williams.
Gobert will never be a switch-heavy defender, but he's even had some moments this season defending perimeter players on an island, his shining moment coming against Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.
The Jazz have slipped a little defensively this season, but the numbers point to them defending at an elite level with Gobert on the court and a below-average level with him off. His value was also crystal clear in the 14 games he missed between the start of January and mid-February, a stretch the Jazz struggled to get stops.
Gobert could very well win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, which would tie him with Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace for the most all-time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
Antetokounmpo has already won this award once. In fact, he made history the last time he did it, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in NBA history to be named MVP and DPOY in the same season.
The Bucks haven't been as dominant defensively this season as they were that season, but much of that has to do with Brook Lopez, who made the All-Defensive Second Team in 2019-20, being sidelined for 67 straight games. As a result, Antetokounmpo has been Milwaukee's only rim protector for much of the season, forcing him to play a lot more center than he has in the past.
That Antetokounmpo is even capable of filling in for Lopez speaks to how special of a defender he is. He's as good as it gets protecting the rim, and he uses his speed and length well to fly around the court and wreak havoc.
At 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, nothing ever comes easy against Antetokounmpo. He proved that in 2019-20 when he earned his first DPOY trophy, he proved it last season in coming up with countless stops in the NBA Finals and he's proving it again this season.
Jaren Jackson Jr., Grizzlies
Jackson has always been an elite rim protector, but he's blocking more shots than ever and, more importantly, fouling less than ever. He's likely going to lead the league in blocks, and he's been even stingier than both Williams and Gobert when it comes to locking down the paint, holding opponents to 49.3 percent shooting at the rim.
Jackson is unique in that he splits his minutes at power forward and center. He's agile enough to defend the 3-point line when sharing the court with Steven Adams while still being able to do stuff like this when he's the lone big:
Jackson prides himself on his versatility. He proved that recently in welcoming switches onto Kevin Durant down the stretch of the Grizzlies' win over the Nets.
It feels like the game has slowed down for Jackson in a big way this season, and the Grizzlies wouldn't have one of the best defenses in the league without him.
No surprise here, but Ja Morant has been leading the DPOY push for Jackson.
Also in the mix
Draymond Green, Warriors — Green was the favorite to be this season's Defensive Player of the Year before he got injured. He's likely going to finish the season appearing in just over half of Golden State's games, which probably isn't enough for him to win the award. (He would argue otherwise.) Still, Green is very much in the conversation for the league's best defender and will likely crack an All-Defensive team.
Bam Adebayo, Heat — Adebayo is actually the betting favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year right now, but he's in a similar boat as Green in that he might have missed too much time to take home the award. Had he been healthier, he would've given Green and everyone else on this list a run for their money. He unlocks a lot of what makes the Heat's defense, which is built to shut down anyone and everyone, special.
Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, Cavaliers — The Cavaliers have zigged while everyone else has zagged this season by playing big. The offense has been up and down, but Cleveland has been locking teams up defensively, led by its twin towers in Allen and Mobley. Mobley in particular feels like a safe bet to win DPOY at some point in his career. He's shown that much promise this season.
