2021-22 NBA Awards Media Poll: Defensive Player of the Year

20 different NBA media members from around the country participated in a mock voting process conducted by SI Fastbreak for this year’s NBA awards. Here are the results of the voting for Defensive Player of the Year.

Over the last few weeks, the NBA awards have been a hot topic of discussion around the NBA world.

The three finalists for each award were announced on Sunday, but SI Fastbreak has collected data from NBA media members around the country covering both the league at-large and individual teams.

These media members were asked to vote on their Top-3 for Defensive Player of the Year this season with the voting process working as follows:

• 5 points for every first-place vote
• 3 points for every second-place vote
• 1 points for every third-place vote

While Marcus Smart was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year on Monday, here is SI Fastbreak’s official voting results for the 2021-22 NBA Sixth Man of the Year:

Official results from SI Fastbreak NBA Media Awards Polling 2021-22 - DPOY

Defensive Player of the Year: Marcus Smart - Boston Celtics

There are a handful of players that you could have made a case for in the race for Defensive Player of the Year this season, as the results above reflect this.

Six different players received at least one first-place vote in SI Fastbreak's polling and while Marcus Smart came out on top, this was a really hard award to decipher simply because of the impact all of these players have on defense.

Marcus Smart was the best defensive guard in the league this year, Mikal Bridges was the best defensive wing and Rudy Gobert was the best defensive center.

Three different positions equate to three different roles, which is why Defensive Player of the Year will always have question marks surrounding it, especially since all of the finalists make All-Defensive First Team anyways.

Looking at Smart though, he became the first guard to win the DPOY award since Gary Payton did so in 1996 and the actual voting for this award turned out to be pretty close.

The 2021-22 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year is Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart! pic.twitter.com/kfwG9NcUae

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 18, 2022

Marcus Smart collected 37 of the total 100 real votes for Defensive Player of the Year this season and compiled 257 total points, compared to MIkal Bridges with 202 possible points in second-place.

Looking at the media polling above, the Top-4 in voting points was exactly the same as the real results for the award, but fifth-place above went to Giannis Antetokounmpo, where in the actual voting it went to Jaren Jackson Jr.

The Boston Celtics were one of the top defensive teams during the regular season this year and as a result, it makes sense that their best defender in Marcus Smart would be named this year’s recipient of the Defensive Player of the Year award. 

Voting results for other NBA awards and honors:

• Most Valuable Player
• Rookie of the Year
• Most Improved Player
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth-Man of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• All-NBA Teams
• All-Rookie Teams
• All-Defensive Teams