The 2024 Defensive Player of the Year race seemed like it was pretty much locked in, with Rudy Goar being the clear favorite.

But lately there has been a push for Victor web inyama to not just be a followup in that conversation but to actually walk away with the award.

And while I don’t necessarily agree with all the arguments, I do think there is a compelling case to be made here.

So I want to talk about it.

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And if you have not watched the new main Channel video, that is of course going to be linked in the description.

It’s going over the Mvp race and the history of it, what it’s going to look like this year, and so on.

I’m going to talk about this Defensive Player of the Year case.

I’m also going to talk about the Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks and the 20 plus point lead that the Celtics blew in that game, despite playing the Hawks without Trey young.

Also, we are going to get a word from Nick in there.

Uh, he has something to say about Jaylen green.

On to the defensive player of the year conversation.

As I mentioned, Rudy Goar has dominated this conversation.

The Timberwolves are the best defense in the Nba and have been for pretty much the entire year, notably that defense is a huge thing that they hang their hat on.

It’s really the reason that they have been one of the better teams in the Nba, because their offense is mid.

They’re like 16th in offensive rating, but they are number one in defense, and it’s by a decent margin.

By over two points, which is really significant.

It’s almost three.

The team’s defense has been dominant.

Meanwhile, if you look at Victor, web and Yama, while everyone can, with their own two eyes, see that the guy is just a remarkably impactful Defender, the San Antonio Spurs are 22nd in defensive rating.

However, that requires a bit of context and specifically taking a look at some onoff numbers, Victor has has overall an excellent defensive rating when he’s on the floor.

In fact, he has a better one than Rudy Goar.

And if you take a look at the last 15 games that the San Antonio Spurs have played.

First of all, they’ve been a top 10 defense, specifically number 10, which still counts as top 10 in his last 15 games, with Victor on the floor first in defensive rating, with him off of the floor 25th in defensive rating.

This is not a Victor wean Yama problem.

This is is a Spurs Defenders who aren’t Victor web andama problem.

You go down his roster.

Most of his teammates suck, not just on defense but in general, but keeping the conversation on the defensive end of things here, they are dropping the ball the moment that he’s not on the floor and he is pretty much single-handedly carrying them on that defensive end.

Now, what I find interesting about all this is that this is comparable to a case for Rudy Goar in the past, not directly, because of course, the San Antonio Spurs are a not a top 10 team in defensive rating overall.

On the year and B, they’re not very good.

In the case of Rudy Goar, he very much got the defensive player of the year because he was carrying Utah’s defense.

If you’re going to be a defensive player of the year, ideally you’re going to have a top team in defensive rating and the Jazz would be that many years in a row with Rudy Goar because of Rudy.

Then, of course, there was the playoff exploit thing that people talk about all the time, which was used to hinder and just diminish the legacy of Rudy Goar.

The reality of that was the defenders in Utah- not a strong group of Defenders, to say the least.

Very piss, poor point of attack defense, which would lead to Rudy Goar having to make up for their fuckups and then just get caught out on an island that he’s not ready for.

And then Teren Man hits seven Corner threes on you and then suddenly you’re eliminated from the playoffs, not Rudy Goar’s fault.

Same things happening to Victor Webon Yama right now, where, the moment he’s on the floor, we’re talking about one of the most dominant defenses,

The entire Sport-

And then his teammates are just utterly failing him, either when he’s on the floor

And he’s having to make up for their mistakes, or, more accurately, when he’s not and he’s not there to make up for their mistakes, and those mistakes actually end up having consequences.

Overall, if we’re taking a look at the defensive metrics, Victor wanyama seems to be having a better season if you take a look at their defensive impact on a per 100 basis.

Victor weany is in the 998th percentile, causing a difference of 11 points game, whereas Rudy is only in the 84th percentile, causing a difference of four.

Now that can be highly contextual, and it’s also worth mentioning that this is kind of-

I’ve talked about this in the Mvp race video-

Like the notion of your teams being bad enough that you can get individual accolades, but not good enough that you can win or actually be good in those areas.

This is something like that where, because they’re so bad without Wemi, the difference also becomes bigger.

But at the end of the day the difference is ridiculous.

98th percentile defense is 98th percentile defense.

I don’t really want to hear an argument in that regard, but the problem with that is that we’re talking about Advanced stats and we’re talking about stuff that you have to be a dork to look up and onoff numbers and things like that, and historically that’s just not going to win you any kind of award race in the Nba.

Typically speaking, the shortest argument you can have is I really going to be the ideal one and the winning one?

The quicker you can make it case for somebody, the better if you’re starting off your case saying: well, if you look on the onoff numbers, it’s probably not going to work all that well.

But also I don’t think we should just be Pro, being as stupid as possible in this award race and just accepting blind reality of.

I guess we’ve decided Rudy Goar is going to win it, because that’s something I’ve had a problem with with the defensive Play Over the year of the last couple of years, is?

It just feels like we kind of pick a guy, the Marcus Smart Defensive Player of the Year being the most prominent one where it was like.

Oh so, no one knew who to pick

And we just said Marcus Smart cuz.

Why not?

I’ll tell you why not, because defensive player of the year is an important award in history and we should hopefully get it right.

Weirdly enough now Rudy Goar doesn’t have the same like carrying the def defense argument that he used to have historically in Utah, because Minnesota has a lot of strong Defenders.

Jaden Mcdaniels is the best defender that Rudy gar has ever been teammates with.

Anthony Edwards is a really strong Defender.

Nel Alexander Walker is a really strong Defender- borderline making an all defense case off of the bench.

Kyle Anderson is a strong Defender, even the guys who aren’t strong Defenders, like the Mike Conley’s of the world, aren’t making mistakes on the defensive end all that much, especially not to the extent that they did in Utah.

So this is weird.

It’s very backwards to what has historically applied to Rudy Goar.

But I think Rudy ends up winning it.

And this conversation doesn’t really evolve into much, because, first of all, there is a huge benefit to just being locked into the awards and in most people’s heads for years or years, sorry months.

The fact that people are just like Rudy Goar is definitely Defensive Player of the Year months ago, myself included, kind of just locks you into that case and people aren’t really going to change their minds that late.

So that’s one factor again.

There’s also this more convoluted argument for Victor web and Yama, which is not as easy as a simple argument of.

Rudy Goar is easily the best defender on the best defense in the entire Nba.

Weirdly enough, this, narratively, is kind of similar to the Mvp debate.

But if I can say one thing, for the history of the defensive player of the year, it almost always goes to the clear best defender on one of the at least five best defenses in the NBA- at least 10- and regardless of whose fault it is that the Spurs are the 22nd best defense in the Nba.

It’s not Victor, regardless.

That remains true.

The facts are the facts, and that’s what wins the award.

So I like Spurs fans who are arguing that he should win it.

I kind of get what you mean.

He, arguably, is the best offender in the entire Nba right now, which is nuts.

Ultimately, though, I think we can let Rudy Goar have this one, as Victor mentioned specifically himself.

He said that Rudy can have this one, and then, from here, from Here, the award is his, and honestly, that might be true.

I could honestly see wemi winning, just like four straight defensive player of the years, if he really wanted it, and I do think it’s really good that the future face of the Nba, or at least one of them at the bare minimum, is a guy who is so defensive, focused and so defense forward that being such a pivotal part of his game, even bigger than his super impressive offensive repertoire.

That could hopefully be good for a defense being a little bit more encouraged and a little bit more part of the culture of basketball.

Nick Has a Take: The Jalen Green Investigation

With that said, I’m going to hand the mic over to Nick, real quick to talk about Jaylen green, and then I’ll be here to talk about the Celtics Hawks game when he is done, saying whatever the hell he is saying.

Folks, I got to be honest with you.

Jacob was kind enough to give me the the breakdown of all the topics he was going to hit on today.

So that way, when it came time for me to record this funny little segment, I was able to, you know, create and formulate my own take from The Melting Pot that he had created for today’s video.

Uh, but then something came across my desk.

I had to Iso, had to clear everybody out.

Everybody, get the out of the way, give Nick the ball, because here at Enh Hat, a syndicated partner of also Rusty buckets, we cover the biggest stories and we cover them from all angles.

And a week ago I tried to tell you guys that I was like the digital Paul Riv.

Right, I was blowing the whistle on the whole Lebron podcast thing.

Well, I’m kind of back again.

I want to dive into something.

I opened my own little investigation.

Uh, because I felt like something down in Houston was a Miss.

We’ve been seeing this for decades.

Man, that as soon as the regular season rolls around, you have these like end of the regular season, Stat Hunters.

Right, you know, as soon as a lot of teams are out of the playoff race, maybe they’re kind of starting to buy into the tank, or this is when these dudes make their money.

Is in like the month of March, and then the last stretch of the month of April, we have a new suspect, and before it sounds like I’m being a hater, we’re going to get where you want me to go, but the it’s going to be bumpy.

Okay, they’re going to be some, uh, some bumps in the road while we get there.

Folks, it’s looking like Jaylen green might be a March Merchant.

What kind of tipped me off.

Here is like the last month that he’s been playing.

Who the hell is this?

Who is this?

It’s not jayen green.

Is this?

The guy that we’ve been waiting for for the last three years is?

Did he finally show up?

Is that what this is?

Let me talk to you about something really quick.

If we go back to his rookie season, 2021 to 2022, in the month of March he put up 23 and three on 48, 39 and 76 splits.

That was the best month of the Season that he played.

2022 to 2023, he had 23, 3 and three on 43, 33 and 79, and now we get to 2024.

It’s the month of March.

Are you seeing this?

Are you hearing about this?

There’s a pattern here.

Okay, Jaylen green now averaging 275 and three in the month of March on 49, it let’s round it up 50, 40, 80 splits.

Huh, to tell you the truth, you know in previous years, if you’re a Rockets fan, you’re happy about it, that he’s like finally playing well

And he’s not operating on like a 33 true shooting percentage.

True shooting percentage, like, isn’t real.

It’s a stat that I famously don’t care about.

I don’t think it’s real.

I think get made up and it’s meant to trick people.

But like his shots wouldn’t go in and like most of the time, Jaylen green would just like like 30 feet away from the basket and Rockets fans just kind of had to scratch their heads and be like what the man like.

We’re trying to go after, like jet Hrun.

We’re trying to go after, like Victor Wanyama, but the point is that he would spend, you know, the better part of the Season, like being the most chefs kissed tank commander and then, when it came, you know when it came to crunch time and was actually getting real, he was like I, I, I got to score.

But here’s the thing, and this is where it gets good, right?

Is Houston actually needs it?

Like Houston is actually at a point in their in their rebuild.

They had this Summer that people were kind of divided on, like half of the people were clowning it and they’re like, oh, like, wow, you guys are.

You guys are really going all in like.

Good for Tman Fortia.

This isn’t going to go anywhere, but you know Rockets fans did.

They stayed true to the plan and they believed.

And now they’re at a point where dude, yeah,

They’re playing meaningful games and they’re like sneaky about to get into the plane.

So I say all this to say: you know, you look at a guy who three years ago gets drafted.

I mean now we’re hearing from Shams that there was a trade that the Rockets threw out, like a couple months ago, where they’re like.

Jaylen green had multiple first- round picks for Mel Bridges and the net said, no, so you have a top three draft pick who needed to go off in a bad way in the dog days of the Season where they’re trying to hunt the Warriors, they’re trying to hunt the Lakers and you know what the best thing is about Jaylen green, like you hear, oh, in previous, in previous years, in the month of March, it’s like wow, three rebounds and three assists.

Like that’s cute, like, but dog, that’s just never been his game.

If I’m putting Jaylen green on the floor, I’m not.

He’s not going to play defense, he’s not going to rebound the ball, he’s not going to pass the ball.

Sneaky like, actually not a bad playmaker like he could throw some, like he can really like put a pass in a shoe box, but like that’s not his deal.

Like that’s not, it’s not.

I don’t even think that’s what he wants to do.

I think Jaylen green has to be like.

The quintessential embodiment of why the G-league ignite failed is because-

And that’s not like- a detriment to him.

But it’s because the way that he plays is like the way that the team was promoted to play.

But guess what, Who’s laughing now?

Because Houston is banging on the door of a playoff birth, rather a playin birth, and we’re going to have to reconcile with the fact that it’s at the hands of Jaylen green.

Good for him.

Boston blew a 30-point lead to Atlanta

So the Boston Celtics just blew a 30-point lead to the Atlanta Hawks, who were without Trey young.

Uh, and the reason I wanted to talk about this game is.

This is a very Boston Celtics thing to do, even with this new team.

It’s something that we kind of always harp on, and I do understand there being a little bit of fatigue for that from Celtics fans, just because you have to hear about all the time, but you have to hear about it all the time, because it’s always true and applicable, and when you’re one of the best teams in the Nba, ironically, I think your weaknesses will get focused on more, because the expectations are that much higher and, as everyone’s looking at the clear best team in the Nba this season and one of the better regular season teams of all time, we’re also trying to pick apart what could ultimately be their downfall when the postseason comes around.

For them, it really seems like it can be the same thing that it always has been.

Which is they?

They can just have these moments of just being remarkably stagnant and everything falls apart around them and they do not know how to deal with it, even when they’re playing against a team that has no right to be even remotely hanging with them.

Playing down to their competition is something that Boston does a lot, and this was a pretty egregious example.

Without young, the Hawks went to some Bogdanovich and Deandre Hunter options for offense.

Deandre had a really strong game in this one.

Bogdanovich was leading the way offensively in general, dictating most of the scoring for the team.

De Jon Murray tried to do more of it, but he ended up going 8 for 22 with more Miss, more shots than points.

And also this guy whose name I’m not even going to try to pronounce, Vit Cree, really sounded out.

Nick can go ahead and put a photo of him on screen.

Maybe his name?

I didn’t know much about him.

I know I’ve seen him a couple of times when I’ve watched the Hawks.

I haven’t really deep dived into the Hawks in quite some time, but he was really strong in this game.

He hit four three-pointers.

A bunch of them were- I think two of them were in the run- the 30-point run to make the comeback.

To close the game, Deandre Hunter hit a huge three.

I think it was off of a Miss free throw.

Am I mistaken?

Something like that or a Miss shot offensive rebound kicked out to?

Deandre should have taken it because they were up.

One should have just let the foul happen, but he took the three and it buried.

Boston put him up four.

I don’t really have a ton to say about this game.

I am just concerned for Boston in this regard and kind of always will be.

This wasn’t even really a bad game for them.

I mean Porzingis kind of got punked by Clint capella a couple of times early in this one and that was certainly something.

But other than that, I feel like everybody was doing their job.

But then they just fell apart, as they always do, and late game, when the pressure was on, they naturally fell to the best play in basketball, which is a Jaylen Brown isolation, that type of that way that they just default to Iso ball and T tough situations.

It’s just not a good look and it’s the type of small issue that they can display in the regular season that ends up looking like smoke before fire in the postseason.

That said, I still think the Celtics are making the finals.

If there was any reason for a collapse to happen, it would be something like this: that is it.

Shout out to Nick for editing this video and making an appearance.

Uh, check out the Pod when it comes out tomorrow, but that is it goodbye.