There has not been as much momentum for a backcourt player to win the NBA’s 2022 Defensive Player of the Year award as there is now, with Boston Celtics veteran point guard Marcus Smart the consensus frontrunner to win the award at the end of the 2021-22 season.
With Celtics alumnus Gary Payton Sr. the last such guard so honored in the 1990s, it is well beyond time for another guard to be granted the award, particularly with the outsized impact the Flower Mound native has on opposing offenses turning heads among fans and analysts both finally starting to get the attention it deserves with his contributions to the league’s best defense in the second half of the season.
