defensive player of the year

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The NBA on Wednesday, May 16 announced the finalists for six awards that honor top performers from the 2017-18 regular season: Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, Kia NBA Sixth Man Award, Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Kia NBA Most Improved Player and NBA Coach of the Year. 

Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis is a finalist for the MVP award and the Defensive Player of the Year award. His competition for MVP: LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and James Harden of the Houston Rockets. Davis' competition for Defensive Player of the Year: Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz. Davis averaged 28.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.6 blocks and 1.5 steals a game. 

The winners of these awards will be revealed at the 2018 NBA Awards presented by Kia on Monday, June 25 at 8 p.m. CT on TNT.  The second annual NBA Awards will take place at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.

Complete voting results for each award will be posted on pr.nba.com the night of the 2018 NBA Awards presented by Kia.

The NBA Awards presented by Kia will also include the announcement of the winners for NBA Basketball Executive of the Year, Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, NBA Sportsmanship Award, the Season long NBA Cares Community Assist Award and the fan-voted Play of the Year. Pelicans All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins is a finalist for the Community Assist Award.

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Anthony Davis named finalist for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year awards

Jim Eichenhofer

For a second consecutive year, New Orleans power forward Anthony Davis finished in the top 10 of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year vote, this time winding up ninth among all players. San Antonio forward Kawhi Leonard was the award winner, capturing the honor a second straight time.

In 2013-14, Davis’ second as a pro, he just missed the top 10, ostensibly placing 12th with 62 points, including 18 first-team votes. A year ago, he moved all the way up to fourth place overall, behind only Leonard, Draymond Green and DeAndre Jordan. Davis led the NBA in blocks per game both last season (2.94) and in 2013-14 (2.82), but Miami’s Hassan Whiteside claimed the crown this season at 3.68 blocks.

Davis averaged 2.05 rejections this season, along with 1.3 steals. He received one second-place vote (from Houston TV play-by-play broadcaster Bill Worrell) and one third-place vote (from Raptors TV analyst Jack Armstrong).

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Anthony Davis finishes ninth in Defensive Player of the Year vote

Partly behind one of the league’s biggest scoring increases from last season to 2013-14, New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis vaulted his name into the running for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. He didn’t quite win it, but when the NBA announced final voting results Wednesday, the All-Star power forward finished third overall, behind only Phoenix guard Goran Dragic and Indiana guard Lance Stephenson.

Dragic won by a relatively comfortable margin, earning 65 of 126 first-place votes. Dragic netted 408 total points, doubling the overall scores of both Stephenson (158 points) and Davis (155 points).

After Dragic’s 65 first-place votes, Davis and Phoenix guard Gerald Green earned the next-most No. 1 spot votes, at 16 apiece. Earlier in the week, Davis finished in the top 10 of another NBA season-ending award race, taking eighth place in the Defensive Player of the Year balloting.

The 6-foot-10 power forward upped his scoring average by 7.3 points, going from 13.5 as a rookie to a team-leading 20.8 in 2013-14. His rebounding average went from 8.2 to 10.0, while his blocks per game zoomed from 1.8 to an NBA-leading 2.8. Davis also improved his foul shooting, from 75.1 to 79.1 percent, one of the best rates among NBA power forwards.

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Anthony Davis third in Most Improved Player balloting

Among a panel of 125 basketball media members, only one cast a ballot that listed New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis as their top choice for Defensive Player of the Year, a factor that led to Davis taking eighth place overall in the award voting, announced this week by the NBA. Chicago’s Joakim Noah was the 2013-14 winner of the prestigious award. Davis led the league in blocked shots per game by a significant margin, averaging 2.82 in his second NBA season, but his name only appeared on a total of 13 ballots (in addition to his single first-place vote, he received four second-place nods and eight third-place mentions).

Davis’ first-place vote came from Sun Sports broadcaster Tony Fiorentino, a former coach and the Miami Heat’s longtime TV analyst. Four other panelists cast a second-place vote for Davis, including Boston Globe writer Gary Washburn, OrlandoMagic.com writer John Denton, Philadelphia Inquirer writer Keith Pompey and Suns radio analyst Tim Kempton.

In the overall voting, centers took each of the top three spots. After Noah, Indiana center Roy Hibbert and Clippers center DeAndre Jordan finished 2-3. Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka was fourth, Golden State wing Andre Iguodala took fifth, Miami forward LeBron James was sixth and Indiana forward Paul George netted seventh. Davis finished in an eight-place tie with Houston center Dwight Howard.

Noah earned 100 of the 125 possible first-place votes. No other player received more than eight first-place mentions.

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Anthony Davis eighth in Defensive Player of Year vote

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