Govere opened up about the defense king controversy.
Minnesota Timberwolves' Rudy Govere recently spoke to SportsKeeda about his new season's determination and winning the Defensive Player of the Year award. 토토사이트
Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY), also known as Defensive Player of the Year for short, is an honor bestowed on the arachnid. To date, the NBA's most prolific defensive player of the year is four by DeKembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Rudy Gobert.
Govere has been named the best defender of the season four times, taking three for Utah since 2018 and one for last season after moving to Minnesota. In terms of his award-winning performance, none of the active players can surpass Govere in defense.
Standing 216 centimeters tall and displaying overwhelming physical condition of 235 centimeters, Kobe is nicknamed the Eiffel Tower, which is a tall wall for the opposing team. Combining sports capabilities that are superior to those of his height, he has greater influence in defense.
Minnesota ranked at least first in average runs and first in defensive ratings last season. Govere's presence is considered the biggest driving force for building a solid defense wall.
However, it is hard to say that Kobe is the perfect defender. Basketball trend has seen more players target mismatches. The impact of the game, in which Kobe was attacked and his team collapsed at a critical moment, was huge.
For this reason, many people called his four-time defensive player of the year an overestimation. In this off-season alone, legends such as Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard and Draymond Green criticized him. His poor performance at the Olympics was not affected.
Of course, Kobe has plenty of indicators to refute. Given his record alone, it is difficult to judge that he is vulnerable to mismatches, and as mentioned earlier, he has the strength of leading the best defense team.
According to Sports Keeda, Kobe ranked first in the isolation defense expectation loss index (based on more than 70 times) last season and had the fewest runs a defender has experienced in a switch situation with 175 or more direct isolation attacks. He also allowed the third-fewest score among screeners who blocked more than 1,000 on-ball plays in a 2-on-2 game.
Kobe said, "I think I'm at a career stage where I know who I am. My biggest competitor is myself. Everyone's journey is unique to each person and there's a saying that if you want to reach your destination, you can't throw a stone at every dog that barks at me. That's exactly where I am."
"I know what you're saying, and anyone can have an opinion. But Court doesn't lie, numbers don't lie. I will continue to focus on doing what's best for my team," he said.
Highlighting the record, Govere said, "Just look at the numbers. Look at the top five players that blocked the most in last season's Switch or Isolation. Numbers don't lie. Not many people believe in winning Defensive Player of the Year. That's a good thing. But when that happens, I want you to bring the numbers and data to prove the claim. Please let me know who should have won the award over me that season. I'm curious about that."
This season, too, Kobe is considered one of the leading Defensive Player of the Year candidates. If he were to become a DPOY player once again, would Kobe, who will rewrite history as a defensive king, be able to increase his defensive player of the year performance in the rest of his career?