Why Mikal Bridges was snubbed of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award

Phoenix Suns Small Forward Mikal Bridges out of Villanova is an NBA team’s dream 3&D role player. He can shoot the 3, he knows when to cut, he can create his own shot at times, and most importantly, he plays defense at an elite level against the opposing team’s best perimeter player every single night. However, somehow despite all of this, he did not win the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 2021-2022 season. It instead went to Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart. Bridges was robbed, and allow me to break down why.

Let’s start with the more basic stats that show off Bridges’ ability on the defensive end. The first stat that will probably stand out to the average fan about Bridges is 82 games played, and 82 games started. Yes, Bridges did not miss a single game this season. Or last season. He’s a basketball “iron man”. This means for 82 games he chased around guys like Stephen Curry and put them in basketball jail. Continuing to look at the numbers, we look at steals and blocks. Bridges averaged more blocks, while Smart averaged more steals. However, again, Bridges played 82 games to Smart’s 71, obviously leaving more room for error when it comes to Bridges’ averages.

Now we will move to the type of stats taking over the sports and basketball world, analytics and advanced stats. Looking at one of the crazier numbers, Bridges averaged 1.30 miles traveled on ONLY defense this season per game. This means he is constantly moving and getting stops against players with elite on-ball and off-ball movement. According to NBA.com, Bridges is also top 10 in the NBA in matchup difficulty. Meaning, again, he is not guarding guys who just sit in the corner on offense, he is guarding high-level superstars every night and doing it well.

In addition, the main case we saw for Marcus Smart as the award winner was that he was the best defender on the best defensive team in the league. Are we sure about this? His teammate, Jayson Tatum, is currently putting the clamps on Kevin Durant, who many consider to be the best player in the world right now. And even if you argue Smart is indeed the better defender, he still has that help Tatum and guys like Jaylen Brown give beside him. While Bridges may have other defensive-minded teammates like Jae Crowder & Deandre Ayton as well, those guys simply aren’t chasing Stephen Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Ja Morant, and many other stars like Tatum and Jaylen Brown can when Smart needs help. The eye test and stat sheet check show Bridges had a very good case.

Look, we most definitely have learned during the past decade that NBA awards, especially the DPOY award, often go to the wrong player. Like how Rudy Gobert, who can’t guard an average wing player on the perimeter, has won it multiple times. Or how Marc Gasol got it in 2013 over LeBron James when Gasol was not even All First Team Defense. However, these past flaws do not mean we should turn our backs on these awards. They should mean something, and they should go to the right person. And that person this year for me, was Mikal Bridges