Interactive stats for Kia Defensive Player of the Year finalists

Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez was ranked at the top of NBA.com’s defensive player ladder. Will he beat Evan Mobley and Jaren Jackson Jr. for the honor?

Awards honoring the top performers of the 2022-23 regular season begin Monday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT) with the Kia Defensive Player of the Year Award. Before the announcement, we break down the numbers of the three finalists: Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley.

Box Score Stats

We’ll start with the basics and compare their traditional box scoring stats: defensive rebounds, steals and blocks per game. While these numbers don’t tell the whole story of players’ defensive impact, they are easy to compare historically.

Advanced statistics

The next step is to explore advanced metrics to get a closer look at how each player impacts the game on the defensive end. There’s an all-encompassing defensive win-share metric as well as team defensive efficiency when every player is on the field. Additionally, we compare the team defensive rebound, steal and block percentages each finalist collects on the court.

Rim protection

Last season, Boston’s Marcus Smart became the first guard in 26 years to win Kia’s Defensive Player of the Year award, as it has been dominated by big men in recent history. That’s the case again this year, with all three finalists playing center or power forward and standing 6-foot-10 or taller.

A key defensive metric for all big men is rim protection, which examines opponents’ shooting percentage when a player defends the basket. Not all players block a ton of shots, but they can still be great rim protectors by altering shots and forcing opponents into low field goals near the basket.

Defensive matches according to location

As the game becomes increasingly positionless, the need for defensive versatility has never been greater. All three finalists have shown their ability to defend outside the goal, splitting time between defensive guards and wings and big men.

Defensive FG% by distance

In addition to rim protection data, we also have a breakdown of the opponent’s field goal percentages when the player is the closest defender to the shooter from all over the court. Here, we compare how the finalists stack up on shots from inside six feet, inside 10 feet, over 15 feet and from 3-point range, which is 22 feet in the corners and just under 24 feet above the break.

Based on the numbers given, which finalist would get your vote as the Kia Defensive Player of the Year 2022-2023? Check out the results of TNT’s official vote today.