Toronto Raptors: Where the Raptors stand in the 2020-21 NBA Awards race

Defensive Player of the Year

This award appears to be Rudy Gobert’s to lose. He has been sensational on the defensive end for the league’s top team, the Utah Jazz. Ben Simmons and Myles Turner may give The Stifle Tower a run for the award, but the closest Raptor in contention is nowhere near this trio.

VanVleet has had a strong year defensively, forcing opponents to alter shots and making them uncomfortable on Toronto’s end of the court. His defensive rating per 100 possessions is 112. While this isn’t the ideal metric for tracking defensive play, it does demonstrate the wide discrepancy between FVV and Gobert.

The Raptors don’t have a ton of great defenders

Lowry’s per 100 rating is 114, the worst in his career. As much of a nuisance as he is for opponents and his high IQ for drawing charges, Lowry won’t receive any consideration for this award. Chris Boucher has been the Raptors’ best rim protector. For comparison’s sake, his defensive rating is 108 per 100 possessions.

Boucher’s most impressive defensive statistic comes from frequent swats. He has been blocking an average of 1.9 shots per game. It’s excellent but still not good enough to beat out Gobert who has an unreal 2.8 blocks per game. If there was a team award then it might go to Boucher but league-wide, he hasn’t had a stronger season than Gobert, Simmons, Turner, and many others.