Anthony Davis is Conflicted by Victor Wembanyama’s DPOY Push: Does the French Star Actually Deserve the Award?

Now that we’re at the midway point of the NBA season, the conversation is heating up on which players deserve consideration for end-of-year awards. Defensive Player of the Year is an especially heated race, as there are several players with a strong claim to the award. Anthony Davis, who has made five All-Defensive teams in his 13-year career but has never won Defensive Player of the Year, recently sat down with ESPN’s Shams Charania to discuss a wide range of topics, including who should take home the DPOY hardware.

Davis has spoken in the past about feeling snubbed for the Defensive Player of the Year Award, and it looks like he can see it happening again, as Victor Wembanyama has taken the league by storm in his second year.

“I feel like the narrative is being pushed for Wemby to get it. Obviously he’s averaging like four blocks or something crazy like that, but then it goes back to are we just talking about blocks? ‘Cus then I should have…”

Davis stopped himself, but what he could have said is that he led the league in blocks three times and never had anything to show for it, so Wemby being the blocks leader shouldn’t automatically make him the favorite for the award.

"I feel like the narrative is being pushed for Wemby to get it."

– Anthony Davis on DPOY

(h/t @ClutchPoints )

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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 27, 2025

Wemby’s 3.9 blocks per game does lead the league by far, and it’s 1.7 more per game than AD, who’s currently third in the league. Both players are counted on as the fulcrum of their team’s defense, and interestingly, the Spurs and Lakers are currently tied in defensive rating, though both teams are in the bottom third of the league in that stat.

Who deserves to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year?

The DPOY award has been dominated by big men in recent years. In 2022, Marcus Smart became the first guard to win it since Gary Payton in 1996, but other than that, it’s mostly been rim protectors who have won the award.

Davis is an excellent defender, but voters are going to see Wemby’s stunning block totals and they’re not going to be able to find any reason to put AD above his younger French counterpart, especially when their teams have such similar defensive profiles.

If anybody is going to challenge Wemby for the award, it’s going to need to be a non-big. Dyson Daniels has 3.1 steals per game, which is the highest total since John Stockton in 1989. If Wemby is going to be recognized for his eye-popping block totals, Daniels deserves a look for his special season as well.

The Thunder are far and away the best defensive team in the league, which is the biggest reason that they also have the best record at 37-8. Everyone on the Thunder can defend, as evidenced by the fact that three of the top steals leaders in the NBA play for OKC.

One of those is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is fueling his MVP campaign not just with his league-leading 32.1 points per game, but with his outstanding on-ball defense.

If Wemby stays healthy, this award is going to be his to lose. The fact that he leads the league in blocks by such a wide margin is a huge factor, but it’s also the highlight-reel nature of those blocks. No other player can get from the paint to the three-point line to block a shot, and nobody else can make a guard look more foolish for trying to finish at the rim than Wemby can as he swallows their layup attempt.

Wemby’s presence affects everything that opposing teams do on offense, and though Davis can certainly say the same, he doesn’t still have the awe factor that the 21-year-old Wemby does. This will likely be the first of many Defensive Player of the Year awards for Wembanyama, and for AD, it could become a film he’s seen too many times before.