Marcus Smart being honored as the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year made history as he became the first guard since Gary Payton to win the title. The award always tends to focus on forwards and centers as analytical measures usually tip the scales in their favor. However, the modern NBA is perimeter centric and there are many things players do on the defensive end that isn’t picked up on by the statistics.
Smart is a living example of that, being the defensive motor of the Celtics and trying to match up with the best offensive player on the opposing team. This year’s DPOY race was one of the closest ever, with a six-man race heading into the voting. Smart beat out Mikal Bridges and Rudy Gobert as the other finalists to win the award.
The decision to award Smart hasn’t gone over well with everyone, with former Dallas Mavericks Director of Quantitative Research and Development Haralabos Voulgaris has taken an issue with Smart being the winner this year.
https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/1516192897577619459
Haralabos, or Bob as everyone called him, is a sports bettor and is known as one of the greatest bettors in NBA history. After all, his understanding of analytics to know who to bet on was what prompted Mark Cuban to give him a role in the Mavs’ organization in 2018, despite Bob having no really basketball or front office experience.
The relationship between the Mavs and Bob ended last year after it was revealed that he caused more headaches among the team, having sour relationships with the coaching staff and primarily, Luka Doncic.
Considering he is a betting man, it is no surprise he didn’t want to see SMart win it. Analytics would favor Bam Adebayo or Jaren Jackson Jr., but neither even made the list of finalists. The same goes for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Dismissing Smart’s defensive value because ‘the numbers don’t reflect it’ shows why one can never judge basketball through the lens of analytics only.
