Jaren Jackson Jr Is Your 2022-23 Defensive Player Of The Year
Justin Ford. Getty Images.
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The Grizzlies have had some pretty good defenders throughout their history. Tony Allen aka First Team All Defense was a monster on the defensive end to the point where he built his entire career off of it. Mike Conley was no slouch when he was younger, they had wings like Shane Battier and James Posey. And of course, there's Marc Gasol. You know, the guy who won DPOY in 2012-13
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JJJ's season was rather ridiculous when you really look at it. I know he has a fouling problem and that certainly has to get better, but he's a guy who is absolutely deserving of this award. He played 63 games so next year technically he wouldn't be eligible, but a huge chunk of that is due to the time he missed to start the season while coming back from surgery. JJJ didn't make his season debut until 11/15, which covered the Grizzlies first 14 games.
From that point through the rest of the season, JJJ missed just 5 total games, one of which was the final game of the season which the Grizzlies did not need given their seeding was locked in. Basically, when JJJ was active, he played. It's not like he was rested all that much throughout the season.
In terms of his impact on the defensive end, from the start of the year through that debut date, the Grizzlies ranked 20th in the NBA. That's not great. From 11/15 to the end of the year? They finished 3rd (110.3). The Celts were 2nd at 110.2 and the Cavs were 1st at 110.1. Not all that different. Mind you, this is also with Steven Adams only playing 42 games and 0 total games since 1/23. If you look at some of the other candidates, Brook Lopez got to play next to Giannis and Jrue Holiday. Evan Mobley got to play next to Jarrett Allen. For the Grizzlies to be that effective defensively the second JJJ stepped on the floor and then maintain it no matter who was or wasn't in the lineup is why he's a solid choice for DPOY.
If you care about the numbers/advanced analytics side of things, the NBA provided some pretty helpful visuals
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Part of what makes JJJ unique isn't just his raw numbers, but it's also his defensive versatility. In today's NBA, you have to be able to guard multiple positions. If you want to be a DPOY, you have to be able to defend multiple positions at an elite level. When looking at this year's candidates, that wasn't always the case. Brook Lopez is an elite rim protection big. He blocks everything. But if you get that man in space, he's cooked. It's partly why the Bucks play so much drop with Lopez on the floor. He does not want to be in space. Evan Mobley is way more mobile in that regard, but JJJ is another level of defensive versatility with the type of positions he can handle by himself, with no help
If you need to throw him on a bigger center? OK no problem. If you need him to check a quicker athletic wing? JJJ can handle it. If you find him getting switched onto a guard? He has the foot speed to stay in front.
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This result shouln't have been all that surprising if you've been following along on the early awards voting tracker. Evan Mobley got out to a quick start, but it didn't take JJJ long to overtake the lead and he never looked back. Honestly, this was sort of like ROY and COY in that the results were pretty much a forgone conclusion well before the final word was given.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next season once the 65 game requirement kicks in, because an awesome defensive season like JJJ just had wouldn't be able to win. It'll probably start some toxic debate about how this guy only won because he played 65 games where this other guy was better but played 63. I think we all know that's coming.
But in the meantime, the DPOY is Jaren Jackson Jr. Well deserved.