NBA DPOY Power Rankings, No. 2: Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
Ben Simmons has been the best wing defender in the league this season, and by a wide margin.
The Australian averages is 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game and can play defend every position on the floor. Athletes with such great defensive instincts, defensive speed and position flexibility just don’t come around very often.
The stats further emphasize Simmons’ impact. Simmons is in the 84th percentile in Rim Defense, 88th percentile in Defensive Plus-Minus, and 94th percentile in Deflections. He’s also in the 100th percentile in shameless self-promotion for the Defensive Player of the Year award. There have been dozens of postgame interviews where he cries out injustice under-appreciation for his defense and takes shots at other elite defenders.
Diving further into the numbers it’s hard to argue against his statements. He’s the best pick-and-roll defender in the league, along with Danny Green, both in the 99th percentile. The 76ers are also the best fourth-quarter defensive team in the league (102.9 DRTG) – when Simmons typically plays most of the crunch time minutes.
All this being said, Simmons doesn’t pop out as much as I thought when you look at on-off stats. When Simmons is on the floor, the Sixers defend at a 108.1 Rating; however, when Simmons is off Philly still defends at a steady 108.8 rating. For someone that is such an elite defender, I would have liked to have seen bigger impact with Simmons off the floor.
The Philadelphia 76ers have the second-best defense in the League, and Ben Simmons is an important reason why. But Simmons may not even be the best defender on his own team (Joel Embiid), and the numbers suggest that the Sixers as a team are great at defense and not necessarily because of one player. However, if the Sixers can continue to play awesome without Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons may have more of an argument to hoist up the award this summer.