Lakers News: Where Anthony Davis Finished in Defensive Player of the Year Voting

The Los Angeles All-Star impressed NBA voters this year.

Apr 29, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) battles for a rebound against Los Angeles Lakers center Anthony Davis (3). / Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Los Angeles Lakers All-Star center Anthony Davis, when healthy, has long been one of the league's elite defensive big men.

The 6-foot-10 superstar enjoyed one of his better two-way seasons in years. Even though his jumper has more or less abandoned him at this point, Davis has more than made up for it by relocating his game into the post and adding some supplemental bulk to handle fives as a full-time center.

Again, he was no slouch as a scorer this year, he just got his offense in the painted area far more frequently than he had in his Pelicans and early Lakers day. The adjusted shot diet still yielded results. While playing a career-most 76 regular season games at age 31, The Brow averaged 24.7 points on 55.6% shooting from the floor and 81.6% shooting from the charity stripe, 12.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.2 steals a night.

But his efforts defensively, despite L.A.'s middling overall work on that end (the team's 115.3 defensive rating ranked just 16th among all 30 teams, due mostly to the club's porous perimeter coverage), deserve — and have received — special kudos. He's a monster in the middle, still athletic enough to protect the rim and seal off pretty much anybody.

According to Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today, Davis finished with the second-most combined steals and blocks ("stocks," as Bill Simmons likes to say — a good baseline metric of two of the NBA's top defensive stats) this year, 269, behind only San Antonio Spurs rookie phenom Wembanyama's 342. Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert had "just" the seventh-most stocks this year, 214.

Davis earned solid recognition by the league as one of its best defenders... just its fourth-best, to be precise. Gobert won his record-tying fourth Defensive Player of the Year title, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPN. He can't necessarily be trusted to defend Nikola Jokic late in games even though they play the same position, but somehow he's the best defender in the game. But we digress.

Wembanyama finished second, despite his team finishing with a miserable 22-60 record on the year. The Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo received the third-most votes. Davis earned four first-place votes, 10 second-place votes, and 33 third-place votes.

Like L.A.'s first round playoff exit, Davis' fourth-place finish is a disappointing result. Perhaps both these defeats can be fuel for a deeper playoff run and a higher Defensive Player of the Year finish in 2025.

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