NBA News: Kawhi Leonard Wins Defensive Player Of The Year Award
Becomes only third Spurs player to win the award.
San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard has been voted the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year. He beat Draymond Green and DeAndre Jordan for the award.
Leonard missed the start of the season with injury and played only 64 games this season, but showed enough of his tremendous defense to convince voters. He was also named the NBA Finals MVP last season, and now becomes only the third NBA player in history, after Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon to win both awards in their career.
The Spurs forward received only 37 first places votes but gathered 333 overall points while Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors finished in second place with 45 first place votes but only 317 points. DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers finished in third with 32 first position votes and 261 points.
Leonard also became only the sixth forward in the history of the NBA to lead the league in steals, average 2.3 steals. He is also the first player from the San Antonio Spurs to win the award since David Robinson won it in 1991-92. Only one other Spurs player, Alvin Robertson, has won the award.
He helped the Spurs average just 97.0 points per game for the season, which is the 20th consecutive season the team has posted a defensive rating number below 100. His scoring average of 16.5 points per game was a career high, as were his 7.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
Leonard was drafted 15th in the 2011 draft by the Indiana Pacers who then traded him in exchange for George Hill. He was named in the All-Rookie first team at the end of the 2011-12 season. "I'm still young, I feel I can get a lot better," he said. "I don't know, I'm just going to keep striving and trying to help my team win the game, hopefully I'll keep getting better," Leonard said to ESPN.
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