<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">By Marc Stein ESPN.com It really doesn't matter how many guys he locks up. It probably doesn't even matter if he comports himself with composure from now all the way through the playoffs. Ron Artest will have to change the course of history to be known as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. Maybe that sounds a bit drastic, but it's true. Perimeter players don't win the DPOY trophy anymore, and just this once you can blame the media. We've almost completely stopped voting for the Ron Artests. Granted, it's also undeniably true that winning an individual award doesn't need to be Artest's focus. After his recent backslide with Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, staying focused needs to be Artest's focus. Yet it's still worth a discussion to examine why the ballhawks they always rave about on TV -- like Artest or Doug Christie or Andrei Kirilenko or Bruce Bowen -- are perennially overshadowed at season's end by Big Ben Wallace. "If you look at what we have to do, nine times out of 10 we're guarding the guy who takes the highest volume of shots," said Bowen, brought to San Antonio in the summer of 2001 after Kobe Bryant shredded the Spurs in the '01 Western Conference finals. "The injustice that you feel is that people don't realize you have to chase guys, go through three screens and then end up at the guy's disposal, so to speak. You're out there with (the offensive player) on an island and they get to go right at us. Don't get me wrong, Ben is a great help-side defender. But the big guys ... all they have to do is move from one block to the other block." Big guys, of course, also grab rebounds and block shots, and those are significant advantages in the DPOY chase. There is little statistical evidence, apart from steals, to support the DPOY campaign of, say, Bowen or Christie. You'd like to think stats wouldn't hold such sway all the time, but a brief historical review confirms that the numbers are very persuasive.</div> <font size="1"><font color="Gray">Ron Artest, left, will be an underdog in the Defensive Player of the Year race.</font></font> Full Story
I agree. Media has done a lot. It made the block more empathic than a steal. So shotblockers were given more emphasis.
I don't know, perimeter guys are important but I think that somebody like Ben Wallace can be more important. Ron Artest can shut down one player, which is excellent. However, somebody like Ben Wallace can shut down the paint. If a team is destroyed in the paint, they have almost no chance at winning a game. To win against teams with a great defensive inside presence you need to be an excellent shooting team, which is rare in today's game. Do I think Artest deserves to be looked at for DPOY? Yes. Should it just be handed to a big man every year? No. However, is a good perimeter player more important than a defensive player than can shut down the paint? No.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting franchise3:</div><div class="quote_post">Was MJ the last perimeter player to be named DPOY?</div> Nope, Gary Payton won the award in '95-'96 when he led the Sonics to the Finals where they lost to MJ and the Bulls... MJ won the award in '87-'88 All the Defensive Players of the Year
Tell me, If Ben Wallace did not have a 40" inch vert, Would he be tossing shots like that...?, NOPE of course not, He doesnt have a technique for blocking he just jumps and hopes for the best, Guys like Bill Russel for instance was 6'9 and a skinnier frame but he still shut down the paint because he had technique, Bruce Bowen, Artest etc guys like these arent super athletic but they can shut down guys or at least hastle them all game so they are not as effective, Ben Wallace is not a good one one one defender, Defense is about holding your Man to a sloppy game, Ben Wallace is great but sometimes wonder is his defense is a little TOO overated, I dont want to start an argument im just stating what i believe!
