Evan Mobley wins 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year

Evan Mobley wins 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year

Cleveland Cavaliers big Evan Mobley has won the Defensive Player of the Year award for the 2024-25 season, the league announced Thursday.

The 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year is… Evan Mobley!#NBAAwards | #KiaDPOY | @Kia pic.twitter.com/Xmg1a9Wpk3

— NBA (@NBA) April 24, 2025

YOUR 2024-25 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, EVAN MOBLEY. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/dPpyhEtmfx

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 24, 2025

Mobley secured the award over Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and Golden State’s Draymond Green, the other two finalists for the award.

Mobley is the first Cavaliers player to ever win the award, earning 35 of the 100 first-place votes. Daniels earned 25 first-place votes; Green earned 17; Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort, who finished fourth, earned 11; Houston’s Amen Thompson earned 9; Clippers big Ivica Zubac earned four and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with one first-place tally.

A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7eH65d7erV

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 24, 2025

The former No. 2 overall pick has developed into one of the NBA’s best two-way bigs. Cleveland was a top-8 defense in the regular season and the Cavaliers’ defense was 4.1 points better per 100 possessions in non-garbage times with Mobley on the floor versus when he wasn’t, according to Cleaning The Glass.

While Golden State’s defense was the league’s best unit in the second half of the season, Green’s dominance defensively only lasted a portion of the season. Daniels set historic marks with how many deflections he generated, but the Hawks’ defense was still a below-average unit in its entirety. Thus, I think this award was well-deserved for Mobley, who swatted away 1.6 shots per game in addition to averaging a career-high 18.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this year.

The soon-to-be 24-year-old finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting in his second season (2022-23), but did qualify last year after being limited to just 50 games.

Do you think this award was justified? Let us know in the comments!

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