HOUSTON – Draymond Green came up short in his bid to win a second Defensive Player of the Year award when results were announced on Thursday afternoon after the Warriors’ Game 2 loss to Houston.
Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, a 6-foot-10 center from Riverside County in Southern California, took home the prestigious honor. Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels took second place, and Green placed third.
The award, voted on by media members and broadcasters, is only concerned with the regular season. Mobley received 35 first-place votes and 285 points in all. Daniels had 197 points (he received 25 first-place votes) and Green received 15 first-place votes and finished with 154 points.
Mobley and Green are both playing in the first round, while Daniels’ Hawks were knocked out in the play-in tournament.
Green has played against Houston’s Amen Thompson, another defensive standout who was not a finalist for the award, in a chippy first round series that has seen Houston fans chant derogatory phrases at the Warriors’ leader.
Green previously won the award after the 2016-17 season, the same year the Warriors captured their second NBA title of their dynastic run over the last decade.
Green, who is all but a lock to make his ninth all-defense team, averaged 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game this season. Aside from those more traditional stats, he also contests 9.4 shots per game.
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The Warriors led the league in defensive rating (109.0) since February’s blockbuster trade for Jimmy Butler, but voters proved that they assigned the majority of the credit to Green for the turnaround.
Green was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Month for March after the Warriors went 11-4.
Both Green and the team were vocal in their belief that the 35-year-old center was the league’s top defender.
“Draymond is the Defensive Player of the Year,” Kerr said after a recent game. “I can’t imagine him not winning at this point. What I witness every single night, the incredible versatility of his defensive game and how powerful his brain is. He’s an amazing player and he’s had a great, great year. I think he should win it.”
