Boston Celtics Guard Marcus Smart Selected as NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the league announced Monday.
This is the first DPOY award for Smart, and he is the first Chief Guardian Gary Baton In the 1995-96 season.
Smart topped the polls with 257 points (37 first place votes). Forward Michael Bridges Phoenix Suns (202 points, 22 first place votes) and center Rudy Cobert Utah Jazz (136 points, 12 first-place votes) was ranked second and third, respectively, in a panel of 100 sports writers and broadcasters.
The Celtics led the league in defensive rating (106.2) and points allowed per game (104.5) and were seventh in the NBA to steal one game (1.68). He finished fifth in all NBA guards with a defensive rating of 105.2 and was ranked first in the league with 1.1 loose balls recovered per game.
Smart, who started each of the 71 regular season games he played, finished 10th in Deflections (106) and Charges Draw (16).
Eighth-year player Kevin Cornett (2007-08) became the second Celtic player to win the DPOY.
Great men have dominated since the award was launched in 1982. Only two points, Smart and Baton, have won it. The sniper guards have beaten it five more times, but no one has won since Michael Jordan in 1988. And in 2018, 2019 and 2021 the centers and pioneers have beaten everything else, including Cobert.
Speaking last month, Smart said the guards deserve more respect in the polls.
“I don’t take anything from adults,” he told ESPN. “The main part of the game is to protect the paint. But, as guards, we do a lot before this [our man] Comes to paint. … competing in 3s, against the pull-ups and making sure he doesn’t come to his seats. “
Information from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and The Associated Press is used in this report.
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