Kawhi Leonard Wins DPOY, Nerlens Noel Receives Vote

The NBA has announced that Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard is the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Leonard, whose 3.7% steal rate ranked 2nd in the league among qualifying players, won the award despite not having the most first place votes. Leonard had 37 first place votes against the 45 first place votes received by Golden State’s Draymond Green, but Leonard ended up with more overall points, edging Green 333 to 317.

Leonard won the award despite missing 18 games, suffering a torn ligament in his right hand earlier in the season.

Rounding out the top-5 were DeAndre Jordan of Los Angeles (261 total points), Anthony Davis of New Orleans (107), and Rudy Gobert of Utah (33).

For the Sixers, rookie Nerlens Noel received one third place vote. The vote did not come from a voter in the Philadelphia media market.

Noel’s vote was the only vote received by a rookie, and he is the first rookie to receive votes in the award since Iman Shumpert did so back in 2011-12.

Noel becomes the first Sixers player to receive a vote for Defensive Player of the Year since Andre Iguodala in 2012. Iguodala came in 7th in voting that season, receiving 1 1st place vote, 7 2nd place votes, and 7 3rd place votes.