Rudy Gobert Won His Fourth Defensive Player Of The Year Award

Rudy Gobert is once again the top defensive player in the NBA. Ahead of Tuesday night’s slate of NBA playoff games, the Inside the NBA crew announced the winner of this season’s Defensive Player of the Year award, and for the fourth time in his career — and the first time since joining the Minnesota Timberwolves — Gobert received the honor.

Here are the full voting results.

Gobert has been the lynchpin for the NBA’s top defense in Minnesota, as the Timberwolves have finally got to see out the vision that the front office had when Gobert was acquired in a blockbuster trade from the Jazz last offseason — ironically enough, the award got handed out one day after Gobert missed one of the team’s most impressive defensive performances of the season, as Minnesota put the clamps on the Denver Nuggets to take a 2-0 series lead in their Western Conference Semifinal tile. On the year, Gobert led the league in defensive win shares and defensive rating, was second in rebounds per game, and was tied for sixth in the NBA in blocks per game.

One of Gobert’s countrymen, 2023-24 Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, was a finalist for the award, as was Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo. Previously, Wembanyama said he was ok with Gobert winning the award this year, as he said to the press, “Let him win it now, because after that it’s no longer his turn.”