NBA award predictions: Will the Sixers finally get recognized?

2023 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Prediction

2. Draymond Green, Warriors 

3. Herb Jones, Pelicans

The discourse around Rudy Gobert, who has made four All-NBA teams and won Defensive Player of the Year thrice already, can get tiresome. He has for whatever reason become something of a political football. Certain factions of the NBA fandom revere him while others treat him like an English student treats a math problem.

As someone who adores English and hates math, let me tell you the truth as I see it: Gobert is the greatest defender of his generation. It takes seriously special ability to win four Defensive Player of the Year trophies. I think it will happen.

The Timberwolves are going to win a lot of games. Minnesota will likely field one of the top defenses in the NBA despite real concerns about how Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell will hold up in the new system. Gobert is more than a stiff shot-blocker in the paint. He’s a one-man system who single-handedly reforms how opposing offenses operate. Guards don’t challenge him at the rim. For every highlight of Gobert getting sauced by Devin Booker on the perimeter, there’s a clip of him defending in space before making a crisp rotation inside for the blocked shot.

There will naturally be others in the conversation — Draymond Green would’ve won last season if not for injury and Herb Jones is quickly climbing the ranks of elite perimeter defenders — but this is basically Gobert’s award to lose every season.