The French derby for the award of Defensive Player of the Year of the 2023-24 season was won by Rudy Gobert. The Minnesota Timberwolves center, currently competing in the Conference Semifinals against Denver, put his 4th career Defensive Player of the Year on the board, placing ahead of compatriot Victor Wembanyama.
Gobert finished the season ranked third on the team with Minnesota, maintaining 14.0 points, 12.9 rebounds, 2.1 stoppages and 0.7 steals per game. The figures for stoppages and recoveries are lower than Wemby’s, but the impact Gobert has on the defense of his entire team certainly weighed in the choice. In fact, the Timberwolves finished the regular season ranked first in Defensive Rating (109.0 average points allowed per 100 possessions). When the Frenchman was on the court, this figure dropped to 104.4 points allowed.
Rudy Gobert thus became the third player in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year four times., after Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace.
In the voting, the challenge with Wembanyama was not too evenly balanced either: the Spurs phenom, who won Rookie of the Year a few hours earlier, in fact scored 245 points against Gobert’s 433. Third was Bam Adebayo with 91, while it made several fans smile that Domantas Sabonis was also among the players who received a preference (even if only for third place). Here all the voting data.
The 2023-24 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year is… Rudy Gobert!#NBAAwards | #KiaDPOY | @Kia pic.twitter.com/0nlW2ytYYd
– NBA (@NBA) May 7, 2024
Milan, Italy. A graduate in Labor Management and Communication for Organizations from Catholic University, I founded BasketUniverso in 2011. Yes, I root for Orlando Magic and do my best not to hide it.
