Saturday Slam: Why Draymond Green doesn't deserve Defensive Player of the Year

     There has been a lot of speculation and debate about the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award going to Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard despite Warriors forward Draymond Green getting more first place votes. What I will do in this article is offer an explanation for why Draymond Green did not win Defensive Player of the Year and why it makes sense for him to not make the ballot entirely.

     Before I explain my argument, it's important that you understand how the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award is given. Over one hundred sportswriters vote for this award and they each have a first place, second place, and third place vote. First place is given the most amount of points, second place the second most amount, and third place gets the least. If a player doesn't get first, second, or third on somebody's list, they get zero points in their favor.

     So, to understand how Kawhi Leonard won the award ahead of Draymond Green, Leonard simply had more points. He didn't get as many first place votes, but he made up for it in second and third place votes. In the end, Leonard got on more total ballots than Draymond Green and that is why he ended up winning the award.

     What a lot of people are complaining about is the idiocy of those who didn't include Draymond Green on their ballot. The people who have the megaphone are making it out that like Draymond Green got robbed and that he deserved to win this award. Further, they argue that there is no way possible to justify leaving him off the ballot.

     I am not one of the people with the megaphone or one who supports their position. If I had a vote for Defensive Player of the Year, Draymond Green would not have made my ballot. My list would have been Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, and DeAndre Jordan in that order. So, I guess if you'd like, you can call me one of the "idiots" who would leave Draymond Green off their ballot.

     The reason why Draymond Green wouldn't make my ballot is simple: He doesn't make the same impact on defense that those other guys do from a statistical point of view. Anthony Davis was #1 in blocks per game and #8 in rebounds per game during the regular season; Kawhi Leonard was #1 in steals per game; and DeAndre Jordan was #1 in rebounds per game and #5 in blocks per game. Draymond Green isn't top 15 in any of those categories.

      As a matter of fact, the best he does in any of those three categories is tied for 20th in steals per game.  If you want to include defensive rebounds as a category, Green ranks 12th, which isn't bad, but even in that category he is behind Anthony Davis and DeAndre Jordan. Defensive Player of the Year is given to the best individual defender in basketball and I don't see how somebody can be warranted to win that award without being at least a top five player in one of those categories.

     One reading this who still thinks Green deserves this award will argue that there is more to defense than rebounds, steals, and blocks. They will also argue that Draymond Green is a great team defender who took on the challenge of guarding bigger players in the paint. Those points are all true, but there is no way to really quantify or measure that kind of defense. Draymond Green is a great defender because he plays well in the Warriors' defensive system, but playing well in a system doesn't mean you are the best defender in the NBA.

     This award is about who the best individual defensive player in the game is. I.e. The guy you would take first if you wanted to have a great defense. If you had to pick one player to anchor your defense on, would it really be Draymond Green ahead of Anthony Davis, DeAndre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, and even Rudy Gobert? For me it wouldn't be and that is precisely why some guys left him off of their ballot.

     It isn't because Draymond Green is undervalued or overlooked. It's that the impact he makes defensively isn't as easy to quantify or measure because he is one piece on a team that collectively plays great defense thanks to other quality defenders like Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut. The bottom line is that if you vote for Defensive Player of the Year based on who individually impacts the game the most in a quantifiable way, Draymond Green won't get your vote. Your vote will go to the guy who blocks the most shots, gets the most steals, or grabs the most rebounds. Guys like Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan, and Rudy Gobert.

     It may not seem fair since there is more to defense than just rebounds, blocks, and steals, but those three things are still a big part of playing defense. If a player  doesn't rank especially high in any of those categories, it becomes a lot harder to argue a case for why he should be defensive player of the year when there are guys who rank high in at least one and sometimes two of those three categories.

(Note: Hopefully you enjoy the video I just shared. It's a tribute to Draymond Green, who without question deserves a lot of credit for the Warriors' incredible success!)

---Ben Parker: Follow me on twitter @nba_lord for NBA news