Dyson Daniels has been having a historical defensive season for the Atlanta Hawks, and it’s led him to be in Defensive Player of the Year conversations. Now is the time when the players themselves and others start to make a case for who they think should win the award, and Trae Young is the latest to give his vote to Daniels.
“Men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t lie,” Young said to the media after practice. “If you look at the numbers they speak for themselves. If you just want to put somebody else as Defensive Player of the Year just to give it to them, that happen too and that’s happened before, but now with someone like the numbers Dyson has. I think his numbers speak for themselves. We got a few more games to keep going, he gets to put on some more numbers, and hopefully, we can stack some more wins too, so that’ll help his case.
“Dyson is the best defender I’ve seen in person, with my own two eyes. He’s definitely one of one. When you have a guy out there that does so much on the defensive end, you forget what he does on the offensive end sometimes, and that’s a good thing.”
Daniels is making history as he leads the league in steals with 194, which is the most than any player in a season in 15 years. Not only is he leading the league in steals, but in deflections as well, and his game has changed the entire way the Hawks play defense.
Dyson Daniels continues to amaze with his defense
Young isn’t the only player on the Hawks who has recently endorsed Daniels for DPOY. Georges Niang, who played with Evan Mobley, who is the current frontrunner for the award, gave the nod to his current teammate.
“As much as I’ve seen Evan Mobley and his ability to block shots, I have never seen something that I’ve seen with Dyson Daniels,” Niang said in an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio. It’s incredible. You’re talking about someone who just steals the ball, and you don’t even know what happened, and he’s on your team.”
Daniels has a good case to win the award, but history may not be on his side with the way they choose a winner. For years, the award is usually given to a forward or center who is a shot blocker, and in one rare case they gave it to a guard, which happened to be Marcus Smart.
The thing that should set Daniels apart from the other defenders is that he’s breaking a record almost every night with the steals that he’s getting, and he’s making it hard for the best offensive player on the opposing team more times than not.
Daniels still has enough time left in the season to show the league that he deserves to take the award home, and there’s no doubt he’ll be picking up more steals and making history in the process.
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