this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Legitimate DPOY candidate
Not on a bottom 5 defense he’s not
I don't get the obsession of basketball fans to make team performance the major deciding factor for individual awards. I understand that it can be an indicator, but you're missing a lot of context.
This is a team game, you could have the best defenders of all time, if you put 4 random s next to him, the other team can have an easy time by just avoiding him on every play. Team performance shouldn't be THE metric for individual awards imo.
It kind of makes sense... As pointed out, taking a D from last in points allowed and last in effective FG% allowed to now 3rd to last in points allowed and last in effective FG% allowed, what's the value of the player who can do that for a defense?
It shouldn't be THE metric, sure, but it should definitely play a part, and I am fine if leading arguably the worst D in the league prohibits a guy from winning defensive MVP votes vs. other guys doing similar things but leading better defenses.
Iif you can have a team where avoiding that great defensive player mitigates his impact, it makes it hard to gauge that value to his team, which is why I think the bigger guys who can rotate and contest shots from other players more tend to win DMVP more often.
So I get that being a part of the impact or value of that player for his team is 2nd or 3rd worst D and near the top in the lottery vs. a great defender pushing his team from a solid to a great defense and competitive to at the top of their conference.
Take Dwight for example. Rashard Lewis, older Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson, Redick, Williams, Ryan Anderson, Turkoglu... These guys weren't great defenders, but with Dwight they were arguably the best team defense and capable of winning 50+ consistently. I think Wemby will get to that. Not the highlights, but the communication, the knowing where to move and be a step quicker, etc will come and you'll see that team defense improve with that whether or not he has the block numbers as high or not.
But lets face it, he is in the running (not the front runner but I believe was 2nd best odds by vegas to win DMVP behind Gobert by Vegas), so it's not like most people are saying "horrible D, he's out". And Gobert is playing more, Davis is out on the court something like 17% more often where Wemby is on the bench not impacting the defense... Those things will come into play too. Tatum I like a lot in how he affects the entire team defensively... and again, 23% more time on the court where Wemby's impact is zero.