Draymond Green headlines the Defensive Player of the Year award for the Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors have garnered numerous accolades, both individual and collective, throughout the franchise’s history. Some of the best players in the NBA have donned their uniform, including some elite defensive stoppers. Players who excel on the defensive end are always necessary to win titles.
Here, we take a look at the one player who was once named the Defensive Player of the Year in the entire league. It was none other than Draymond Green, who won the award in the 2016-17 season.
Draymond Green – 1 time (2017)
Green might not be your prototypical top defender, as he’s considered a bit undersized to play at center. Still, he possesses several elite traits that make him a game changer on the defensive end. He was at his best in the 2016-17 season, when a panel of experts around the league recognized him as the Defensive Player of the Year. He won the voting by accruing 73 of a possible 100 first-place votes ahead of Rudy Gobert and Kawhi Leonard, who finished in second and third place, respectively.
Overall, Green notched 434 points out of a possible 500. For the sake of context, Gobert had 269 and Leonard had 182. No other player finished with more than four points won. Green won this award by a landslide in a season in which he averaged 7.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. He also averaged 10.2 points and 7.0 assists per contest, showing an elite ability to do it all from the center position despite sharing the court with All-Stars such as Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.
Green also led all defensive candidates in Defensive Rating (DRtg) (99) and Defensive Box Plus/Minus (3.9). He also contributed 5.4 Defensive Win Shares in the 2016-17 season, ranking second in the league behind only Gobert. For Green, this award was also the pinnacle of his status as a defensive star in the NBA. He had finished in second place in the Defensive Player of the Year voting in the previous two seasons.
Overall, Green has notched nine All-NBA Defensive Team nods throughout his career and has finished in the Top 10 in the Defensive Player of the Year voting eight times.
