2023-24 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Odds, Favorites and Comparison

Highlights

• Rudy Gobert is the favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.
• The Defensive Player of the Year race is highly debated each year, highlighting the importance of celebrating defense in a league that emphasizes offense.
• Bam Adebayo, Chet Holmgren, Victor Wembanyama, and Jarrett Allen are top contenders for this season’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Individual accolades are important in every professional sports league, but they might be even more crucial to the NBA.

Basketball, at its core, is a team sport. No matter how great a single player might be, if his supporting cast isn’t up to standard, there’s little chance that his team will be able to make any real noise in the postseason regardless of how well he performs.

That’s why major awards are vital in commemorating an individual player’s achievements, irrespective of his team’s overall success.

Outside of Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year might be the most hotly debated race year in and year out. With the league leaning more and more towards offense each season, the onus to properly celebrate defense grows more important as well.

While offenses are scoring at historic levels this season, the defensive talent in the league shouldn’t be ignored. This year’s Defensive Player of the Year race should be another hot one, although there are a few front-runners who might wind up separating themselves from the rest of the contenders.

Here are the top contenders for this season’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Bam Adebayo – Miami Heat

2023-24 Defensive Rating: 109.9

Bam Adebayo has a case for being the most underrated player in the NBA since he came into the league. His box score numbers aren’t quite as gaudy as his fellow superstars’, but his impact dwarfs that of many of his peers. This includes his defensive statistics, as well.

Adebayo’s commonly named as one of the best defenders in the league, based on reputation alone, but few truly understand how special he is on that end. Not only is he one of the most feared rim protectors, he’s perhaps the most versatile defensive big man in the NBA.

He’s just as comfortable sliding along the perimeter as he is contesting a shot at the cup.

That malleability has Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra deploying him in a multitude of manners to buoy Miami’s team defense.

As a result, he’s often not in the position necessary to put up monster rebounding and block numbers like some of his more plodding colleagues. Because of that and the Heat’s penchant for underwhelming in the regular season, he probably won’t get as much love for DPOY as he deserves.

Chet Holmgren – Oklahoma City Thunder

2023–24 Defensive Rating: 109.4

Chet Holmgren has exceeded all expectations as a redshirt freshman in the NBA. Rookies typically aren’t very good on either end of the court, but the more talented ones will show flashes. Holmgren has been a highly efficient two-way player, not just by rookie standards, but overall.

Through his first 58 games in the league, Holmgren is proving that he’s a legitimate defensive anchor for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Scouts expected him to be able to alter shots at the rim with his sheer height and length, but his timing and discipline as a shot blocker have been indicative of a much more experienced player.

While he’s not quite as stretchy as Adebayo, he can hold his own against perimeter players on switches as well. On shots taken between six and 10 feet from the basket, opponents make 51.0 percent of their shots. The number decreases by more than 20 percent once opponents bring Holmgren out to 15 feet from the basket.

He likely won’t have the juice to become the first rookie in league history to take home the award, but even being a serious contender this late into the year is a feat in itself.

Victor Wembanyama – San Antonio Spurs

2023-24 Defensive Rating: 112.4

Victor Wembanyama is having one of the most memorable rookie seasons in NBA history, and his play on the defensive side of the ball is a big reason behind his early individual success.

The 20-year-old has already compiled an impressive highlight reel of blocks, showing off his unique blend of length, mobility and basketball IQ to embarrass opponents on a nightly basis.

Wembyanama leads the NBA in blocks per game (3.3), and could end the season as the first rookie to average over three blocks per game since Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning in 1992-93.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle between the Frenchman and the Defensive Player of the Year award is the Spurs’ lack of success on the court this season. San Antonio currently owns an 11-48 record — third-worst in the NBA — and allows the fifth-most points per game (120.6) in the Association.

It might not be his year, but there is little doubt Wembanyama could blossom into one of the most dominant defensive players in the league, and perhaps in the history of the sport.

Jarrett Allen – Cleveland Cavaliers

2023-24 Defensive Rating: 108.8

Jarrett Allen started the season on the outside looking in as it pertained to the DPOY race, but the Cavaliers’ recent surge has propelled the big man into contention for the award with only two months left in the campaign.

Cleveland is tied with Boston for the most wins (20) since Jan. 1, and owns the second-best defensive rating (107.9) in that span. Since the turn of the calendar, Allen has contested 270 shots, sixth-best in the league behind fellow DPOY contenders like Rudy Gobert and Chet Holmgren.

Despite Darius Garland and Evan Mobley missing significant time through injury, the Cavs have emerged as darkhorse contenders in the Eastern Conference, spearheaded by Donovan Mitchell’s offensive explosion and Allen’s defensive anchoring.

Rudy Gobert – Minnesota Timberwolves

2023-24 Defensive Rating: 106.0

It didn’t even take a full season for Rudy Gobert to change the narrative surrounding him.

Last season, with the Minnesota Timberwolves failing to live up to expectations and improve upon their surprising success from the 2021-22 season after trading for Gobert, pundits and dissenters started to claim that the deal was one of the worst moves in NBA history.

Gobert was still a very effective rim protector last season, despite the rhetoric spread about his decline. Despite battling through lingering injuries, he was still one of the better paint presences in the league, even with his limited mobility and having to adjust to a new roster and system.

Now, though, with Gobert fully healed and having more rapport with his new teammates, he’s returned to his former DPOY form and might even be better than his previous peak years.

The Timberwolves are at the top of the Western Conference behind their league-leading defense, and Gobert’s been at the center of all of it. He’s FanDuel‘s overwhelming favorite for Defensive Player of the Year. It’s his award to lose the remainder of the season.

All statistics courtesy of NBA.com. Betting odds courtesy of FanDuel.