NBA News and Awards: Amen Thompson ends fifth place for the NBA defensive player of the year

On April 20, the NBA announced its finalists for the prize for the defensive player of the year. Three finalists were Dyson Daniels from the Atlanta Hawks, Draymond Green from the Golden State Warriors and Evan Mabley from the Cleavland Cavaliers. Yes that is correct. Amen Thompson was not a finalist. Four days later it became known that Evan Mabley won the DPOY with 285 total points from voices. (35 first place, 30 second places and 20 votes in third place.) When it comes to the DPOY vote, the voices of first place are five points, the second-placed votes are worth three points and the voices in third place are worth a point.

It was a pretty good idea for Houston's young and versatile staring star.

What did the media think?

The John Hollinger of the Athletic emphasized Thompson's exceptional defense adaptability by emphasizing his ability to serve as a second marginal protection in addition to the defense of the Perimeter players.

In numerous outlets, Thompson's importance for the top five defense of the Rockets emphasized by praising his remarkable sportiness and his skills for defensive recovery. Although some experts had several capable defenders in the Rockets squad, it claimed that Thompson's defensive influence was obvious.

Do the numbers ensure the eye test?-

In addition to the positive reception of the media, Amen Thompson had the fourth best defensive evaluation at 108.1. This only brings him behind Jalen Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ivica Zubac. In addition, this means that Amen players like Evan Mabley and Jaret were all ahead.

With regard to defensive statistics, Amen took first place among non-Big men in defense the edge and the first in the process of defense (DFG%) among players with at least 250 attempts at defense. In addition, he hits defensive statistics such as ISO defense, defense roof percentage, RIM defense and P&R defense. Among the players who tried at least 250 defensive field goals, Thompson has the highest DFG percentage in the league. In addition, he leads non-Big men in the RIM defense, which is known as a pick-and-roll (P&R). Among the players with at least 140 P&R owners, Thompson is in third place in P&R defense. Among the players with at least 100 defensive three-point attempts, he takes sixth place in terms of D3pt%. After all, Thompson is among the players with at least 20 ISO owners in ISO defense in ninth place.

Why didn't Amen win? – –

To be honest, I think it depends on the fact that Amen only started 42 of the 82 games. This is not Amen's fault because he cannot control whether he starts or not, but if all the finalists were starter, it is a bit difficult to do the case for him. In addition, all NBA awards are very media-oriented these days, and since Amen has not only started a few members of the national media, he talked about him at the beginning of the season.

While Thompson did not win the DPOY, his strong defense performance and versatility were widely recognized. Many viewed him as a leading candidate and should have been a finalist. It will be interesting to see whether Amen becomes a member of an all-defensive team this season.