San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard has been named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year 2015 after topping the voting ahead of Draymond Green.
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In a regular season in which he continued to emerge as the go-to player for the Spurs, Leonard added the Defensive Player of the Year award to his NBA Finals MVP trophy that he picked up last year, and the scariest part of it all is that he is still just 23 years old.
It was undoubtedly a tough field to beat for Leonard who was handed 333 points in total with 37 first-place votes, with Golden State Warriors star Green finishing in second place with 317 points.
The Warriors forward received more first-place votes than his Western Conference rival with 45, but it wasn’t enough to win the award despite a stellar season as part of Steve Kerr’s record breaking team which finished the year with a 67-15 record.
DeAndre Jordan finished in third spot with 261 points which will undoubtedly leave Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers disappointed as he has previously insisted that he would call for an investigation if his star center didn’t win.
Elsewhere, Anthony Davis and Rudy Gobert completed the top five, but Leonard has certainly done enough to win the award given that he not only is expected to lead the offense at times, but he will also guard the best player on the opposing team most nights too.
The wingman averaged 7.2 rebounds and an NBA-best 2.3 steals per game, and he becomes the first perimeter defender to win the award since Ron Artest did so back in 2004.
With the Spurs tying their first-round playoff series against the Clippers 1-1 on Wednesday night, Leonard will hope to use his individual success as further motivation to help the team defend their crown this year.
Kawhi Leonard of the @Spurs named 2014-15 @Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year! #KiaDPOY pic.twitter.com/YZCF8wkyTo
— NBA (@NBA) April 23, 2015
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