Anthony Davis sounds off on not making the DPOY Finalists list: "The league doesn't like me, I'm the best defensive player in the league"

anthony-davis

Last Sunday, the NBA announced the finalists’ names for the individual season awards. And conspicuously absent on the list is Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward Anthony Davis for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

With the snub, AD has missed out on the league’s top defensive player award in 12 consecutive seasons despite being one of the best defenders in the league. You can make a case for Davis not winning the awards in all previous years because he’s almost always unhealthy. But with The Brow playing a career-high 76 games this season, he probably should have at least made the cut for the Final 3.

“I’ll never get it,” Davis said when asked about the award. “They’re not giving it to me. The league doesn’t like me. I’m the best defensive player in the league. I can switch 1 through 5. I can guard the pick-and-roll the best in the league, from a big standpoint. I block shots. I rebound.”

Wemby, Gobert, and Bam were named DPOY Finalists

Davis’ reaction came after the NBA announced the list of finalists for this season’s MVP, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, and Coach of the Year. and DPOY. During Sunday’s announcement, San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, and Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo were named finalists to win this year’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Wembanyama led the NBA in blocks this season and is the only player to block at least 3 shots per game at 3.6 BPG. Wemby also had the highest blocks total this year at 254. Meanwhile, Gobert is the defensive anchor of a Minnesota team that led the league in Defensive Rating during the regular season. The Stifle Tower also ranked second in rebounds at 12.9 RPG while also leading the league in Defensive Win Shares at 5.8 and Defensive Rating at 104.5.

On the other hand, Adebayo doesn’t have stand-out individual stats Bam ranked 12th in rebounding at 10.6 RPG and wasn’t in the Top 20 in blocks at only 0.9 per game. He did, however, average 1.1 steals per game on a Miami defense that ranked 5th overall in Defensive Rating.

Davis had another stellar defensive season

As for Anthony Davis, he ranked 3rd in rebounding at 12.6 boards per contest and was 4th at 2.3 blocks per game this season. AD and Wemby were the only two players in the NBA to average at least 2 blocks and 1 steal this campaign. The Brow also held opponents to 0.63 points per direct play on post-ups, the best number in the league for players who defended at least 50 such plays. Still, that did not earn him a spot among the finalists.

“I don’t know what else to do. I’m over it. I’m just going to do what I got to do to help the team win and try to play for a championship. Accolades and individual awards, I’m done with those.” Davis added during his interview with Dave McMenamin.

Perhaps that is what he should focus on right now – helping the Lakers in the playoffs. L.A. is currently down 0-1 in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the defending champions Denver Nuggets. Davis had an impressive Game 1, but they still lost. Maybe he should channel his frustration into the series. The accolades will follow.