New Orleans Pelicans: Steven Adams deserves some DPOY hype

New Orleans Pelicans big-man, Steven Adams, deserves some early consideration for Defensive Player of the Year

During last night’s game, I said something about the New Orleans Pelicans, that I thought sounded controversial, yet many fans seemed to agree with what I had to say. In case you missed it, this was the tweet:

Now, I know it seems crazy to say that Steven Adams deserves some Defensive Player of the Year recognition after the Pelicans got waxed by 16 points, but hear out this argument.

Why Steven Adams has been an early DPOY candidate for the New Orleans Pelicans

If you look at some of the Pelicans’ recent performances, and Steven Adams’ counting numbers, it hard to say he’s played like an elite defensive player this season. He’s only averaging a steal per game and doesn’t even have a block per game average, but look beyond that.

Last year, the New Orleans Pelicans ranked 27th in opponent’s points per game and 25th in opponent’s points in the paint. Simply awful, and a big reason for their underperformance.

This year, despite the teams’ losses, they ranked 11th in opponent’s points per game and 3rd in opponent’s points in the paint. Quite the improvement and the key to that improvement is Steven Adams.

Adams has been a steadying presence in the Pelicans’ frontcourt, buying into Stan Van Gundy’s defensive system. In that system, Van Gundy values good position and shot contesting more than standard blocks.

That’s something that Adams has done well, successfully contesting 10 shots per game, a number that is among the best in the league. In addition to that, stats from NBA.com indicate that Adams ranks highly in key defensive metrics such as defensive rating, plus/minus, and defensive win shares. Essentially, he’s an analytics darling.

Now, we all know that there’s still a long season to go so Adams numbers are likely to change before the season is over, but still, we can begin putting him in the Defensive Player of the Year discussion.

He might not have the counting numbers that some of the frontrunners like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert do, but he’s one of the only players in the league to singlehandedly transform a team’s entire defense in one season. Maybe it’s time the NBA starts to recognize the underrated consistency of Steven Adams.