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Cleveland Cavaliers' Evan Mobley has won the 2024-25 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lnlrf2l2is2m

Wooooooo deserved.

First ever Cavs player to win it.

I have ambivalent feelings about it because I don't think the effort was 100% there during the regular season as he was expending more energy on offense. It's just odd that this is the year he won. On the other hand, they tend not to call soft fouls on the DPOY so maybe the couple of ticky tak fouls Mobley is routinely afflicted with disappear.

jbk1234 wrote:I have ambivalent feelings about it because I don't think the effort was 100% there during the regular season as he was expending more energy on offense. It's just odd that this is the year he won. On the other hand, they tend not to call soft fouls on the DPOY so maybe the couple of ticky tak fouls Mobley is routinely afflicted with disappear.

82games has just updated their numbers, something they still seem to do at seasons end and defensive numbers just aren't what they used to be in this age of offense so I think we need to keep in mind this is a sliding scale.

Even Wemby has an Opp PER of +18.2 which would be unheard of for a great individual defender years ago.

JonFromVA wrote:

jbk1234 wrote:I have ambivalent feelings about it because I don't think the effort was 100% there during the regular season as he was expending more energy on offense. It's just odd that this is the year he won. On the other hand, they tend not to call soft fouls on the DPOY so maybe the couple of ticky tak fouls Mobley is routinely afflicted with disappear.

82games has just updated their numbers, something they still seem to do at seasons end and defensive numbers just aren't what they used to be in this age of offense so I think we need to keep in mind this is a sliding scale.

Even Wemby has an Opp PER of +18.2 which would be unheard of for a great individual defender years ago.

Some if it is just eye test stuff like raising your arm for a putative contest after the shot is away (the Kevin Love special) or not always fighting for the defensive rebound. It's all gone away in the playoffs which is what makes me think it was an effort issue.

If you guys haven't seen this, the nba is publishing the actual votes. I'm not sure if this is a good thing as it may suppress out of the box thinking, but it may also suppress media members not taking the voting seriously.

It's clear in a vote like this that general awareness is important as Evan had a lot of widespread support, but not enough to stop someone else from winning if the media rallied around one other guy rather than multiple.

https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2025/05/2024-25-Kia-NBA-Defensive-Player-of-the-Year-Voter-Selections.pdf

JonFromVA wrote:If you guys haven't seen this, the nba is publishing the actual votes. I'm not sure if this is a good thing as it may suppress out of the box thinking, but it may also suppress media members not taking the voting seriously.

It's clear in a vote like this that general awareness is important as Evan had a lot of widespread support, but not enough to stop someone else from winning if the media rallied around one other guy rather than multiple.

https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2025/05/2024-25-Kia-NBA-Defensive-Player-of-the-Year-Voter-Selections.pdf

Once they started tying compensation to the awards, publishing the votes became inevitable. If Wemby stays healthy moving forward, he's likely to win for the foreseeable future.