Defence wins championships, or so they say, which is part of what makes the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award such a high honour.
Defence wins championships, or so they say, which is part of what makes the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award such a high honour.
The latest: Jaren Jackson Jr. returned from injury with a vengeance and has been building his NBA DPOY lead ever since. The only rising contender right now is Nic Claxton, but he's a value play at best. Perhaps this won't be as tight of a race as last year, when five players earned at least 10 first-place votes apiece (out of 100 voters).
Here are the latest NBA Defensive Player of the Year odds.
Check out the latest odds to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Click linked odds to add selection to your betslip.
| Player | Odds (Jan. 26) | Odds (Jan. 16) |
| Jaren Jackson Jr. | -250 | -139 |
| Bam Adebayo | +600 | +600 |
| Brook Lopez | +800 | +500 |
| Nic Claxton | +1,600 | +2,000 |
| Draymond Green | +2,000 | +2,000 |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | +2,500 | +1,400 |
| Evan Mobley | +2,000 | +2,000 |
| OG Anunoby | +2,000 | +2,000 |
| Jarrett Allen | +2,000 | +2,000 |
| Joel Embiid | +2,500 | +2,500 |
| Rudy Gobert | +6,000 | +6,000 |
| Mikal Bridges | +8,000 | +8,000 |
Odds as of 12:45 p.m. on 01/26/2023.
The favourite: Jaren Jackson Jr. (-250)
If you jumped on Jackson's +2,000 odds when he first appeared on our leaderboard six weeks ago, well done. He's done well to make up for lost time, and the current odds reflect that.
Jackson underwent surgery this past summer for a stress fracture in his foot, which caused him to miss the start of the season. He resumed play on November 15 and has been swatting shots with reckless abandon for more than two months since.
❌ BLOCK PARTY ❌
— NBA (@NBA) December 13, 2022
Jaren Jackson Jr. sets a new career-high and ties a @memgrizz franchise record with his 8th denial of the night!
Watch NBA CrunchTime on the NBA App for all of tonight's best action 📲 https://t.co/l0hlhl4QYK pic.twitter.com/QLXCJjgVlq
Through 32 games, Jackson has averaged 3.2 blocks to go along with 1.0 steals. Last year, when he averaged an NBA-high 2.3 blocks per game, he finished fifth in DPOY with 10 first-place votes.
Jackson isn't technically the league leader in blocks because he's played fewer than 70% of his team's games, which is the threshold to qualify for that statistical category. But he's close to reaching the threshold, and the presumed inevitability of that fact has helped him build his lead.
Best value: Nic Claxton (+1,600)
Until Jackson hits the qualifying number of games played, Nic Claxton holds the NBA lead in blocks (2.7/game). From Dec. 28 through Jan. 22, he went on a 12-game run of blocking three or more shots in every game.
That put Claxton — who wasn't on our leaderboard earlier this month — on the map for this award.
Claxton has been excellent for the Nets on both ends of the floor. In fact, he leads the league in field goal percentage (73.9%). He doesn't have a ton of other defensive metrics on his side in a case against Jackson, but blocks can go a long way to give him relevance.
Player to watch: Giannis Antetokounmpo (+2,500)
On a per-game basis, Antetokounmpo doesn't have the flashiest blocks (0.9) or steals (0.8) to compete for this award. But he does lead the league in defensive win shares (0.153), per NBA.com, which gives him a unique angle.
As a five-time all-defensive team player, Antetokounmpo also has a stellar reputation for protecting his own net. He earned DPOY honours three years ago and finished inside the top five in the past two seasons.
The Greek Freak averaged almost a block and a half last year, and if he can return to that kind of volume he could give himself a chance.