Warriors' Draymond Green named 2024-25 NBA Defensive Player of the Year finalist
Warriors forward Draymond Green is one of three finalists for the 2024-25 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
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Green is vying for his second career DPOY honor.
Atlanta Hawks wing Dyson Daniels and Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley join Green as DPOY finalists.
The announcement was made on TNT's 'Inside the NBA' pregame show on Sunday, ahead of the Cavaliers' first-round playoff game against the Miami Heat.
Green averaged 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks while finishing with a 108.8 defensive rating in 68 games this season.
But Daniels averaged an NBA-leading 3.0 steals in 76 games, establishing himself as a defensive game-changer.
Mobley had his breakout season as the Cavs secured the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed. The fourth-year big man averaged 1.6 blocks and 0.9 steals in 71 games.
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Green is aching for a second DPOY Award and he recently spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area's Monte Poole and Kerith Burke about what winning it again would mean to him.
'It would mean the world to me; you know I pride myself on the defensive end,' Green told Poole and Burke in late March. 'I think to be acknowledged as the best defender in this league is no small feat. It's something that, I never pride myself on winning awards, but they never hurt the ego and they don't hurt the pockets. But most importantly, even more so than that, I think all the hard work you put in to try and stay at an elite level, and to be recognized as the Defensive Player of the Year at 35, eight years after first doing it, it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort to have that type of longevity.'
At 35, Green knows he faces an uphill battle against the NBA's younger talent, like Daniels and Mobley.
'To even be mentioned in that conversation, to me, is special,' Green told Poole and Burke. 'Obviously, I want to win it, but it's not something that's totally in my control … When I started to see my name pop up in the conversation, I was like, 'Wow, I really have a chance to do this.'
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'And I came into this season, for the last couple years I've been kind of priding myself on that. Like, 'I want to win another one. I want to win another one.' But obviously you have to have success as a team and just to find that success, put myself in the conversation. At worst, I want to make [All-Defensive First Team] and if I can put myself in the conversation to be DPOY, I think that would be crazier than winning the first one.'
In addition to his one DPOY win, Green has seven top-10 finishes, and he's hoping that number doesn't climb to eight.
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