12 Greatest NBA Defenders Who NEVER Won Defensive Player of the Year 

Wait, Ewing and Scottie never won a DPOY? That’s absurd, shows how great the defenders were in that era

AK47. One of the coolest nicknames ever!! He should have won DPOY for sure. The guy averaged 1.5spg and 3bpg as a SF/PF. INSANE

God, imagine AK47 in todays league. A versatile wing with 7'4 wingspan, every teams wet dream

The fact that Pippen & Duncan doesn’t have one, will forever be tragic. They’re both top 10 defenders of all time.

Damn, Tim Duncan had a Defensive Player of the Year award and a quadruple double performance stolen away from him.

Shawn Marion got snubbed from this list of snubs

Throw back to Marc Gasol won DPOY but not the first team all defense

Wow Tony Allen really never won DPOTY. That's actually wild.

AK47 was insane on defense I’m shocked he never won it. He could guard 1-5 in today’s game no doubt. He had all the intangibles.Watching him against my mavs he always gave dirk trouble and that’s rare.

Man, how can you not know AK47? If you watched the league in his era, you had to know him. Even if you were not a Jazz fan..

Bowen was the reason why harden is tough to guard.

I knew Tim Duncan would be #1

Even Gary Payton said John Stockton was hard to play against, and that's coming from " The Glove" himself!

AK47 and Shawn Marion have to be on here, two of the most underrated defenders ever. Also maybe Ron Harper too because he was a pretty good defender.

You forgot about Shawn Marion

Players like Stockton and Ewing were so good in other ways that it made them tough to stand out as defensive players!

Ahead of time I already know James Harden is on this list 🤷🏽‍♂️

Damn that is so surprising that Duncan doesn't have a DPOY

Nice video. Extra information I’d like to add. *Most Times 2nd Place in DPOY Without Ever Winning* 3 times - Bruce Bowen *Most Times 3rd Place in DPOY Without Ever Winning* 2 times - Tim Duncan 2 times - DeAndre Jordan *Most Times Top 3 in DPOY Without Ever Winning* 3 times - Scottie Pippen 3 times - Bruce Bowen *Most Times Top 5 in DPOY Without Ever Winning* 6 times - Tim Duncan *Most Times Top 8 in DPOY Without Ever Winning* 10 times - Tim Duncan 8 times - Scottie Pippen 7 times - Bruce Bowen Tim Duncan and Deandre Jordan did not even have a 2nd place in DPOY. So the fact that Duncan did not even come 2nd place in DPOY while having the most total All-Defense teams makes it doubly surprising. Duncan did have to compete in a stacked era of defensive big men from the beginning of his career to the end of his prime from 1998-2008. Mutombo, Alonzo, Ben Wallace, and Garnett. I think 2007 was the year he should have won it over Camby, who likely got it in large part due to his blocks title alone. Before 2002/03, there were no 2nd/3rd place votes for DPOY. You either received a 1st place vote(s) or none at all. This partially explains why some of the top defenders like Ewing didn’t have many top finishes in DPOY voting, since less votes were available in the first place. Ewing’s 1994 Knicks still have the single-year playoff record for most games allowing under 95 and 100 points (23 and 24 games, respectively). Ewing and Stockton never even made 1st Team All-Defense, though Ewing’s teammate Oakley did in 1994. 4:00 - Chris Paul’s highest DPOY voting finish was 6th in 2009. Kidd and Paul are the only players with 9+ total All-Defense teams and no top 5 finish in DPOY, though Kidd played in a way more stacked era of prime defenders (Mutombo, Alonzo, Ben Wallace, Duncan, Garnett) and instantly turned a bottom 10 2001 Nets defense to 1st in DRTG in 2002 and 2003. Kidd is also the only PG besides Magic Johnson (1982 and 1983) to lead an NBA Finals team in rebounding for the playoffs, he did it in 2002. And it was cool to see that some of the defensive plays here came from a few of my video uploads. I appreciate that.

Great list but one player I would’ve loved to see of this list was Shawn Marion. He was so overlooked he never made an all defensive team which is insane. Love your videos though. Keep it up

Shane Battle was pretty intense too. I've watched that no other player read as many personal reports on opponents than him. It was crazy that he played together with Tony Allen in Memphis, which had 2 of 3 best wing defenders in a league (Meta World Peace the other). But probably sill not good enough for that list (just 2x second defensive team).

You should do a how good was ak47 video

Small correction - Dumars spent his whole NBA career in the Pistons not only "most of it"

the guys like Kobe and Joe Dumars were a definition of you doesnt need a defensive stats to be a great defender. They make opposing scorer hard to score and in the other end they will kill you offensively.

Andrei kirilenko was the best for me ! block kobe 4x

It’s a crime that Tony Allen and AK47 never won a DPOY

You failed to mention BOBBY JONES... 10 All-Defensive Teams (9 First Teams), one of the greatest defenders ever recently inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Man, Toney Allen and Bruce were such nasty defenders.

So you're telling me Scotty never won

The funny thing is, Marc Gasol was just All NBA Defensive 2nd Team when he won DPOY!

Nate McMillan was someone that could have/should have won the DPOY award, especially for his 93-94 season (94-95 was a good one, too). Mac 10 was the league leader in steals, during that 93-94 season.

12 Greatest Nba teams who never won a championship 1. NBA referees

Basically most of these guys were snubbed because their defense isn't always shown on the stat sheet and because they always had some defensive big man who made much bigger impact on their teams defensively.

Definitely agree that Duncan is the the biggest snub DPOY....He has godlike defense in all NBA 2k games especially in 2k6 which he has the 99 rating...

I always thought Doug Christie was a solid defender. Not as great as some of the names on this list, but he made an impact and was definitely a key part of the Kings success from 01 - 04. At 6'6" he would guard 1 - 4. He would guard PF's during the "Run and Gun" small ball portion of the game because the Europeans Peja and Hedo (who were both bigger than him), weren't physical enough.

Bowen should be doing time not awarded.

Joe Dumars is a top five all-time perimeter defender.

Chris Paul has some of the most incredible stats. His overall efficiency is out of this world. He already has one of the best assist to turnover ratios and then add that he averages the same mount of steals as turnovers.

Well, there was also some other early DPOY snubs, where the League was weirdly obsessed with giving guards with high steal counts the award for most of the 80s, even though rim protecting bigs has absolutely insane value for the era.

Oh man, this is one of the best vids you made.

Glad my boy AK47 got mentioned! Beast!

Man Tim Duncan never winning genuinely shocked me

KD and Kobe both said Tony Allen was the toughest defender they ever faced. Lot of respect for Tony.

AK47! It's rare to see a list that has him. Criminally underrated.

The Utah Jazz team with williams and AK47 is so underrated...

2013 DPOY was Marc Gasol. He got but the league didn't put him in the First All Defensive team. But Lebron make it. I still can't believe it.

Great video idea! Great list! I agree with all thesw names. Knew Duncan would be #1. Great call on Tony Allen & AK47!!!

I love the menacing jazz music that plays at the beginning of a lot of your videos lmao... random, but yeah.

Larry Bird....his defensive IQ is off the charts

And then you remember Bruce Bowen kicked a man in the face during nationally televised basketball game.

I completely agree with this list. This video was great! Thank you sir 👍

Haven’t seen the list yet but Timmy d should be number 1. He was a 15 times all defender. Enough said.

Ewing was an underrated defender cause he always got dunked on. But that shows that he was always gonna try to contest or block a shot no matter what

Honorable Mentions: Tree Rollins, Bobby Jones (older, when award was invented, but still one of the best), Paul Pressey, Mookie Blaylock, Anthony Mason, PJ Brown, Antonio/Dale Davis, Buck Williams, Derek Harper, Thurl Bailey, Bobby Phills, Chuck Hayes, Shane Battier, James Posey, Paul George, Nate McMillan, Bo Outlaw Eddie Jones, Rasheed Wallace, and etc.

Andy Hoops: Pippen was definitely the better defender than Michael Jordan who didn't had the task to guard the best player of the other team. MJ could mainly focus on scoring because Pippen had a bigger defensive responsability. Rodman was just a role player with only rebounding as his main job and nothing else.

Just by making this historical footage along can win u the DPOY in today's league. Greatjob Andy, that was tons of impressive defenders in your list !

Honorable mentions to Shawn Marion and Andre Iguodala. These guys never got the respect they deserved from the media, but players hated being guarded by these 2

Andy Hoops: "Nobody talks about Kirilenko anymore." NBA 2k19 My Team Developers: "Hold my beer"

In like 5 years when people bring up Tim Duncan kids are gonna call him a boring offensive player who was a bad defender because he never won a DPOY.

Great video TD21 has one of the highest defensive win shares in history crazy!!!!

Scottie not winning DPOY was tough, but Ewing never winng is absurd. He is the best defensive center in college history and one of the best of his era on defense.

You forgot Dennis Johnson. The guy was guarding Magic during the intense Celtics-Lakers rivalry and was the finals MVP of 1979 Finals. He's also a 9x All-Defensive Team. Rajon Rondo was the the MVP of the Celtics in 2010 and he lead the league in steals that season. He is also a 4x All-Defensive Team PJ Brown - Dude was an underrated defender. He never had enough recognition because he was overshadowed by his teammate, Alonzo Mourning who also happened to be an elite defender who won DPOY award. He was a 3x All-Defensive Team. He was also vital during the 2008 Celtics championship. Andre Iguodala - You could argue that he was more vital in that Warriors 2015 than Draymond Green. He won finals MVP for a reason and he was guarding Lebron for most of the series. He only won 2x All-Defensive Team spots despite being a great defender. Al Horford - The fact the he only won a single All-Defensive Team spot is beyond me. Dude was the anchor of both the Hawks and the Celtics with his defensive presence. Celtics were top 2 in the defensive ratings in 2017-18 season and you could argue that he should have won the DPOY that time. Doug Christie - another underrated defender. Arguably the best defender on the Kings team with the second best defensive rating in 2002-03 season. Would have been an NBA champion too if it wasn't for the shady 2002 series against the Lakers.

Wow so close to 250k!!! Congratulations

love your content, you inspired me to start my own youtube channel. thank you for motivation

It’s because the DPOY is generally (not always) given to guys who specialize in defense and/or are unlikely to win a championship. If you’re a truly well rounded player and your team is winning most games then they’re most likely limiting you to the discussion of MVP. And this gets political as the award can highly raise the trade value of the player who gets it.

10 years from now Marcus Smart will be on this list.

What an agreeable list... Well done

Thanks Andy for being fair yup I love tony allen defense even dumars but I'm happy that you point out that they didn't make it because of their era and that's cool I always enjoy watching ur clips bro although this is my first time to subscribe but way back I always stay tune to this , Head's up dude & God bless, just ur fan from Manila 👆

You should probably show more defense highlights rather than offense

In a lot of these situations, it's the case of just playing in an era alongside greater players. The fact though that Tony Allen never won the award is criminal.

Great video. I also would have mentioned Shawn Marion, Karl Malone and one between Mookie Blaylock and Terrell Brandon.

Could’ve sworn Duncan won one. Great video!!

Tony Allen was sum mean. Super underrated

Whoh, Tim Duncan never won dpoy wow, holy Toledoes Batman

Great video thank you

thanks for the insightful video, life sure is strange that way

You should do a "how good was AK47" video

Can you do how good was Dell Curry and Michael Thompson

great list Andy I included in that list 3 of the 80s celtics Parish, McHale or Dennis Johnson maybe because they have solid team defense like Bad Boys Piston and Duncan Spurs thats why they didnt recognize their individual defense but more on their team defense.

Great video!

love this list!! even if we consider Bruce to be dirty, he’d still start in my defensive starting line up......WE NEED AN ALL DEFENSIVE THIRD TEAM

Dwayne Wade where do you leave him ??

Good list. I love it.

Nice to see tony allen get some love!! bro was a dawg

I think Scottie should've won in 1995, when he led the bulls in both steals and blocks. He led the league in steals and steals per game.

Lindsay Hunter was the best wing defender I’ve ever seen

Great topic

This was a great list

"Ewing was a great defender" *shows offensive highlights and an injury*

If Patrick Ewing played in todays game he would’ve been DPOY no doubt about it

That’s a great list!!!!

Excelent analysis ...

Timothy should've won at least one. F' Marcus Camby.

Jimmer Fredette got snubbed

I really appreciate u putting Joe D on list he was so underrated

I was waiting to see Tony Allen. Then you hit me with Bruce Bowen and AK. Great list

Dwyane Wade? He regularly averaged at least 1.5spg and 1 block a game. He’s been snubbed from a lot of All-Defensive Teams.

Kareem also never won Dpoy and is on the top 10 list of the greatests shot blockers of all time.

Avery Bradley. An awesome defender that never got recognition until Boston was competitive after Pierce, Garnett, and Allen left.

Tony Allen's pass at 9:15 😂