SUMMARY
- Fans believe Victor Wembanyama was snubbed from the DPOY title.
- Rudy Gobert won his fourth DPOY title and first with the Timberwolves.
What a run it has been for the Minnesota Timberwolves now that Rudy Gobert won the Defensive Player of the Year award. It was a tough call between him and Victor Wembanyama, who averaged incredible numbers on the defensive end as a rookie. But the media still voted for Gobert, who averaged the best numbers on the best defensive team of the regular season.
Wemby got robbed
— Ice Cold Football (@icecoldfootball) May 7, 2024
Makes no sense. Robbed. Gobert was literally voted the most overrated player in the NBA by the players.
— Don’t Care (@W0hlfy) May 8, 2024
Fans were seemingly upset as one X user said, “Wemby got robbed.” Another fan added, “Makes no sense. Robbed. Gobert was literally voted the most overrated player in the NBA by the players.” In a poll that was conducted earlier, Gobert was voted the most overrated player in the league by 13.6% of 81 participants. Most of his peers believe Gobert doesn’t have much of an impact on the Wolves’ roster and interestingly, Minnesota had one of their best defensive performances without him.
Victor Wembanyama had far better defensive stats than Rudy Gobert
Fans were certainly upset that the media voted Rudy Gobert as this year’s DPOY and not Victor Wembanyama. The San Antonio Spurs rookie would have been the first ever to win a DPOY in their debut season. There are a few stats that show Wembanyama actually had a better defensive season than Gobert. He averaged 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. Additionally, he recorded a whopping total of 204 rejections this season.
On the other hand, Gobert finished with 124 rejections while putting up 2.1 blocks and 0.7 steals per game. The Timberwolves had the best defensive rating in the league, while the Spurs ranked 21st in the standings. Gobert received 72 first-place votes while Wembanyama only had 19 of them. Many experts argue that the award rightfully belongs to Gobert since he was the best defensive player of the best defensive team.
Rudy Gobert gives props to the Timberwolves for helping him win his fourth DPOY
Before joining the Timberwolves in 2022, Rudy Gobert was already a three-time DPOY winner. He joined Hall of Famers Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo as the only players to have won the award four times. Rather than taking the credit for himself, Gobert took a moment to thank his teammates for supporting him through his journey. “It’s great teamwork. We love to get individual awards and all these things, and it’s great but you can’t do it alone,” he said.
The Timberwolves have had a great year making the second round of the playoffs for the first time in several years. They won had Naz Reid win the SMOTY title, Mike Conley being named Teammate of the Year, and Chris Finch securing third place in the Coach of the Year race. Anthony Edwards also made a run for the year’s Most Clutch Player of the Year Award and President Tim Connelly finished third in the Executive of the Year race.