Steals Specialist Kawhi Leonard Robs Draymond Green Of Defensive Player Of The Year Award
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - Despite earning the most first place votes, Warriors forward Draymond Green had his pocket picked in the race for the National Basketball League Defensive Player of the Year honors Thursday.
Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard earned the trophy after racking up 333 total votes, as calculated from weighted ranked voting. Leonard earned 37 first place votes, eight fewer than Green, but had 16 more second place votes and eight more third place votes, leaving him with 16 more total points in the final tally.
Leonard earned the award despite appearing in only 64 games for the defending champs this year. During that time he totaled 148 steals, 25 more than Green totaled in 79 games.
Warriors center Andrew Bogut earned 31 total points to finish sixth in the voting. As a team, the Warriors boasted the lowest field goals against average in the NBA this season. Check out the total vote count here.