Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart has been named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the league announced Monday.
It is the first DPOY award for Smart, who has become the first primary guard to take home the honor since Gary Payton in the 1995-96 season.
Smart received 257 points (37 first place votes) to take first place in the voting. Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges (202 points, 22 first place votes) and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (136 points, 12 first place votes) finished second and third, respectively, in a 100-person vote sports journalists and broadcasters.
| player | 1st-2nd-3rd | In total |
|---|---|---|
| Markus Smart | 37-18-18 | 257 |
| Mikal Bridges | 22-25-17 | 202 |
| Rudy Gobert | 12/18/22 | 136 |
| Bam Adebayo | 13-17-12 | 128 |
| Jaren Jackson Jr. | 10-11-16 | 99 |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 5-7-12 | 58 |
| Robert Williams III | 1-1-0 | 8th |
| Jrue holiday | 0-2-0 | 6 |
| Al Horford | 0-1-0 | 3 |
| Draymond Green | 0-0-2 | 2 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 0-0-1 | 1 |
Smart finished the season seventh in the NBA in steals per game (1.68) for a Celtics team that led the league in defensive rating (106.2) and points per game allowed (104.5). He also ranked fifth among all NBA guards with a 105.2 defensive rating and ranked first in the league with 1.1 loose balls won per game.
Smart, who started every one of his 71 regular-season games, also ranked 10th in deflections (106) and pulled attacks (16) and had a career-high 3.2 defensive rebounds per game.
The eighth-year player is the second Celtic ever to win DPOY, after Kevin Garnett (2007-08).
Big men have dominated the award since its inception in 1982. Smart and Payton are just the two point guards who won it. Shooting Guards have won it five more times, but not since Michael Jordan in 1988. And centers and forwards have won everyone else, including Gobert in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Last month, Smart said the guards deserve more respect when voting.
“I don’t take anything from the big ones,” he told ESPN. “An important part of the game is color protection. But as guards, we do a lot more beforehand [our man] comes to the paint. …doing the 3, doing pull-ups, and making sure he doesn’t get in his spots.
Information from Tim Bontemps of ESPN and The Associated Press was used in this report.