The perimeter typically isn’t where you find your Defensive Player of the Year winners, which is what made Thunder forward Paul George’s odds slim.
Of the 36 Defensive Players of the Year leading up to Monday’s NBA Awards, not many guards or primarily wing defenders have been selected as the winner. Upon the award’s inception in 1982-82, the award was cornered by guards, as six of the first seven DPOY winners were strictly perimeter defenders. The 6-foot-3 Sidney Moncrief won the first two awards with Milwaukee. Spurs guard Alvin Robertson (6-foot-5) started a three-year stretch of wing players winning the award in 1986, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers’ Michael Cooper and Chicago’s Michael Jordan.