Gary Payton Makes A Case For Marcus Smart To Win Defensive Player Of The Year
BOSTON (CBS) -- A guard has not won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award in 26 years. Marcus Smart has made a strong case and has recently emerged as the favorite to take home that hardware, and now he's got an all-time great in his corner.
Gary Payton, whose smothering defense during the '90s earned him the nickname "The Glove," was the last guard to win DPOY back in 1996. He'd like to see Smart end the draught for the position this season.
"He plays hard, plays with a lot of dog in him, and I think that, yes, he should win it," Payton said in an interview on SirusXM NBA Radio. "Why not? He has changed a lot of things in a lot of games."
Payton said that Smart does a lot of the things that he used to do when he was shutting down opposing offenses. Smart is fantastic at pressuring ball-handers all the way up the floor -- or turning a guard three or four times, as Payton explained -- which slows down an opposing team's overall offense. With Smart hounding opposing point guards, they usually have to pass up the ball to someone else who isn't used to running the offense.
"He makes other people handle the basketball who ain't supposed to handle the basketball and get into their offense. He's done that, and he's done that all year. He has taken the point guard every time he plays whoever," said Payton, saying teams have to change their offense because of Smart. "He takes them out and makes someone else run the offense who is not supposed to."
That's some serious love from The Glove.
Smart is not just an incredible one-on-one defender, but he pesters anyone and everyone he's asked to. He'll even match up with opposing big men from time to time, and throws them off their rhythm as well.
He's the best defender on the best defensive team in the league, and has a great chance to bring home his first Defensive Player of the Year award after the season. It would look real nice next to his two All-Defensive First Team honors, which he won in 2018-19 and 2019-20. He'll likely bring home another one of those this year as well.