Anthony Davis is the best defender on the Los Angeles Lakers, and in all of the NBA.
The NBA MVP discussion might be dominated by Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James but fellow Los Angeles Lakers superstar, Anthony Davis, is also having a fantastic season worthy of MVP discussion.
The backbone of that MVP case is Davis’ defense, which has undoubtedly made a massive impact on the Lakers. While we all know how unstoppable he is on the offensive side of the ball, Davis is also one of the best defenders in the entire league.
In fact, he has been the best defender in the entire league this season and deserves the Defensive Player of the Year award. It would be the first time he took home the honors.
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In a way, this is a response article to our FanSided sister site, Hardwood Houdini. Mark Nilon made the case that Boston Celtics’ guard Marcus Smart deserves the Defensive Player of the Year. Smart is a great defender, there is no refuting that, but it is not hard to refute him winning the highest defensive honor in the league.
First of all, Smart is not even a starter for the Boston Celtics. While that should not keep him out of the running, it is important to note that only six players have won the award with as many or fewer minutes played per game than Smart has this season (32.5).
It does not stop there. Smart is 34th in the NBA in total defensive win shares this season. While that is not an all-encompassing stat, as a big component is playing time (James Harden is ahead of him), it is important.
However, if we remove the minutes played factor of defensive win shares and go solely based on how many defensive win shares Smart is worth per minute, he ranks 54th, Davis ranks fifth.
Again, defensive win shares is not a perfect stat but it is hard to make the case for someone who is so far down on the leaderboard. He is also 17th in total steals and trails Davis in defensive box plus-minus (Davis ranks fifth, Smart 50th) and defensive rating (Davis ranks sixth, Smart 66th).
It is hard to find a defensive metric that truly can measure the best defender, but when Smart ranks so low in all of these metrics, it is hard to make the case for him as Defensive Player of the Year, let alone a better candidate than Anthony Davis.
So what about Davis? You could easily make the case for Giannis Antetokounmpo to win the award over AD. He ranks ahead of Davis in all of the categories mentioned and is first in the league in defensive win shares, Davis is second.
However, Davis is third in the league in total blocks (134) while Giannis is 23rd with 58. Davis also has 82 steals on the season, which is the 21st most in the league. Giannis has 59 steals on the season.
If the season would have continued or if it does pick back up and the teams complete an 82-game season (which at this point seems unlikely), Davis would have finished with 179 blocks and 110 steals, assuming he played all of the remaining 19 games.
That, mixed with his high ranking on the defensive metrics as well as his undeniable presence on the Los Angeles Lakers, should win him the award.
NBA voters love narratives and while Giannis is in the MVP race and is arguably the best player in the league, Davis has had a season that is right up to par with Giannis and will benefit from being on the Los Angeles Lakers and helping turn that ship around.