The NBA season has officially been underway for three weeks and so much has already happened. The Rockets and Magic are pretty good, and the Clippers, Suns, and Bucks have struggled to start the season while the 76ers, Celtics, and Nuggets have been dominant.
The play of the players has also been great as Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid are the two front runners for MVP for the fourth straight year. Cam Thomas has finally gotten his chance and has been one of the most improved players. There is a great battle between Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year.
It is natural for fans to be looking at who the early award winners would be through the first three weeks. The Defensive Player of the Year race has been very interesting to start the season. Usually, the winner of this award is on a playoff team and a lot of the players you expect to be in the conversation aren't because their team has been bad.
Here are your early front runners for Defensive Player of the Year
Honorable mentions: Evan Mobley, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Chet Holmgren, Bam Adebayo, Joel Emiid, Jaren Jackson Jr.
NBA Defensive Player of the Year power rankings
3. Anthony Davis
The Los Angeles Lakers have been disappointing to start the season but not bad enough for Anthony Davis to be out of the Defensive Player of the Year conversation. To start the season, Davis has been the dominant defensive player that we know he is.
Davis has been the best rim protector thus far in the NBA. He has been averaging a league-leading three blocks per game and a total of 24 blocks, which also leads the NBA. The only thing that will hurt his rim protection game will be him getting hurt so far he's only missed one game.
Looking at Davis' other defensive stats, he is 23rd in defensive win shares with 0.4, 54th in defensive box plus-minus with a +0.8, and shockingly 126th in defensive rating with 109. Usually this poor performance in the advanced defensive stats hurts someone's chances of winning Defensive Player of the Year. These stats are also affected by how the rest of the team plays and the Lakers haven't been good defensively outside of Anthony Davis.
Davis' poor advanced defensive stats is the reason he is number three. Also he is this high because one, he is leading the league in blocks and also leading the league in blocks plus steals per game at 3.9. The stat leader in blocks and blocks plus steals are always in the Defensive Player of the Year conversion.
Also the other players that are supposed to be in the conversation are on teams that have been performing worse than the Lakers. As of right now the Lakers are a play-in team while some of the other top DPOY candidates are on teams that aren't in the play-in or have bad records.
The season is still young and a lot can change but fully expect Anthony Davis to continue his defensive dominance. Expect the Lakers to be even better defensively when Jarred Vanderbilt comes back and when he does, Anthony Davis is going to take another step defensively and that will be scary.
2. Mitchell Robinson
Ever since Mitchell Robinson came into the NBA, he has always been a great defender and through the first three weeks, he has been the second-best defender in the NBA and a reason the New York Knicks are currently on a three-game win streak.
Robinson's stats have not been updated from the Knicks win over the Hornets yet so through his first eight games is averaging 1.5 steals and one block per game. The blocks per game are low for his standards but behind those blocks are multiple altered shots that have caused at the rim. Through his first eight games, he is one of very few players to be averaging at least one block and one steal per game.
More importantly, Robinson is also dominating the advanced defensive stats as well. He is currently fifth in defensive rating with 100.7 and tied for fourth in defensive win shares with 0.8. All of this has led the Knicks to the second best defensive rating in basketball and currently a 5-4 record.
Robinson is one of the few players in the league to average at least one steal and one block, top five in two advanced defense stats, along with his team being good and having the second-best defense in the NBA. He is without question in the defensive player of the year conversation.
His defensive intensity isn't going to go anywhere because he has been great defensively his whole career. The defensive intensity that he has been anchoring on the Knicks is second to only one player in the NBA.
1. Rudy Gobert
A familiar foe has risen to the top of the Defensive Player of the Year rankings as three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner, Rudy Gobert, has been the best defensive player so far this season.
In Gobert's first eight games of the season, he is 12th in the NBA in blocks per game at 1.9 and averaging 0.9 steals per game. He also has a league-leading 13.1 rebounds per game. What Gobert has done so far is nothing that we haven't seen from him before.
Even though his blocks have been from years past, his advanced stats have been the best in the NBA. He is currently leading the NBA in defensive rating with 96.6 and he is also first in the NBA with defensive win shares with 0.8. In defensive box plus-minus he is tied for 18th with a plus 1.8. Above all the Minnesota Timberwolves have the best defensive rating in basketball and have a 6-3 record.
Gobert has been amazing defensively to start the season. If he keeps pace with what he's doing, there is a possibility of him having his best defensive year ever. Also what's really impressive is that his defensive numbers are this good in an offense-driven league where the past few years' defensive stats have been skewed because of how great the offense is now.
He leads the league in multiple defense stats, his team is good, and he also anchors the best defense in the NBA. Every single indicator has pointed at Rudy Gobert for being the best defensive player in basketball and why he ranks number 1 in this ranking.
