Evan Mobley said his goal in the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers was to win the award to the NBA year defensive player.
He has done it.
The CAVS consider that Mobley is their best defensive player, and the league thought even more about him. Mobley held the finalists of Fulow Dyson Daniels in Atlanta and Drayond Green from Golden State for the award, the results were announced Thorsday Night on a TNT transmission.
“It feels great finally to get this award,” said Mobley.
Saying “finally” could be a bit exaggerated. Mobley is only 23-Fifth Youth Player to win the award, join his 23-year-old partner Dwight Howard, Years Jackson Jr., Alvin Robertson and Kawhi Leonard as winners of the Hakema Olajuwon trophy.
Mobley won the award in a season in which he was an All-Star for the first time and established a career in his career to score. But the case, Cleveland’s coach Kenny Atkinson, did for Moly, was how different the defensive numbers of the Cavaliers with Mobley were on the court and without them.
In a nutshell, with him on the court, they were Airithight.
“It is a great fall, like 12 places or something,” Atkinson said. “That really yells at me. The statistics probably no. 1 I look.”
Green won the award in 2017, was the best finalist for the fifth time, and was forcing himself to become the 11th player in the NBA history to win at least twice. Mobley won it for the first time, after finishing third in the vote in 2023. Daniels was a finalist for the first time.
Daniels was second in the vote, with Green Third.
Daniels had 229 robberies this season, the greatest amount of the NBA since Gary Payton had 231 for the Seattle Supersonics in 1995-96. Daniels was also the first player to average more than 3.00 robberies per game from Robertson for Milwaukee Bucks in 1990-91. Nate McMillan averaged 2,959 in 1993-94 for Seattle; John Stockton averaged 2,976 in 1991-92 for Utah jazz.
Based on Daniels, Green and Mobley, they are all finalists, it is reasonable to think that they will be in the team of every defensive when it is released by the NBA at the end of this spring. It would be the totally defensive ninth selection for Green, the second for Mobley and the first for Daniels.
Rudy Gobert de Minnesota won the award last season, his fourth DPOY TRYPHY of a record type.
The prize was voted earlier this month by a global panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who cover the league. The NBA launches a list of three finalists for its seven main individual awards: MVP, the most improved player, the coach of the year, the player of the clutch year, the rookie of the year, the sixth man of the year and the defensive player of the year, after the votes are counted, but maintains the order of completion in secret until the results are transmitted.
Earlier this week, Payton Pritchard de Boston won the sixth man of the year and Jalen Brunson from New York won the player of the year.
Associated Press reports.
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