Jackson wins Defensive Player of the Year over Lopez, Mobley

Nobodyblocked more shots per game, nor had better defensive numbers atthe rim this season, than Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr.

And votersnoticed.

The Memphisbig man was announced Monday night as the NBA’s defensive player ofthe year, becoming the second player to win the award while wearinga Grizzlies’ uniform. He joins Marc Gasol in that club, after theSpaniard did it a decade ago.

Jackson ledthe league with 3.0 blocks per game this season, after finishingfifth in the defensive player of the year voting last season. Hegot 56 first-place votes and 391 voting points to finish ahead ofrunner-up Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks, who got 31first-place votes and 309 points. Cleveland’s Evan Mobley — in justhis second NBA season — was third with eight first-place votes and101 points.

“Teamdefense really helps us. It goes a long way,” Jackson said on theTNT broadcast that announced the award.

Theshooting percentage that Jackson allowed at the rim — 46.9% — wasthe best in the league among those with at least 300 shots defendedthere, and was an obvious plus on Memphis’ path to the No. 2 seedin the Western Conference playoffs.

“Handsdown, no-brainer, JJ’s definitely defensive player of the year,”Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said earlier this month.

Jenkinscould get into all the analytics that he wants, but the simple eyetest also tells the story. Jackson wasn’t ready for the start ofthe season because his surgically repaired right foot needed morerecovery time.

And Memphiswas, well, not great on defense while waiting for Jackson to getready.

“He missedthe first (15) games of the year. We were really bad defensively,”Jenkins said. “He comes back into the lineup and things turn thecorner drastically.”

Jacksongave Jenkins and the Grizzlies’ staff much credit for his role inhelping him win the award.

“They’veinstilled the confidence in me to be aggressive offensively — butreally unleash me defensively to go out there and do whatever,”Jackson said.

Lopez, therunner-up, had never been this close to a major individual award inhis 15 NBA seasons.

Even thoughhe’s always been a shot-blocker – he’s swatted 1.8 per gamethroughout his career – this was the first time that Lopez was aserious candidate for the DPOY award. He finished 10th in theballoting in 2020, a season in which his Milwaukee teammate GiannisAntetokounmpo took home both that award and MVP.

Lopezblocked a career-best and league-high 193 shots this season, pluscontested 17.5 shots per game — by far the most of anyone in theleague.

GoldenState’s Draymond Green was fourth, followed by Miami’s Bam Adebayoin fifth, Antetokounmpo in sixth, Toronto’s O.G. Anunoby andMilwaukee’s Jrue Holiday tied for seventh, Philadelphia’s JoelEmbiid and Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton tied for ninth, Chicago’s AlexCaruso in 11th and Miami’s Jimmy Butler in 12th.

The awardwas the first major individual one to be announced by the leaguethis season.

Three moreawards are scheduled to be revealed later this week — Clutch Player(Butler, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan or Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox) iscoming Tuesday, Coach of the Year (Sacramento’s Mike Brown,Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla) will beannounced Wednesday and Sixth Man of the Year (Boston’s MalcolmBrogdon, Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. or New York’s ImmanuelQuickley) will be revealed Thursday.