Milwaukee Bucks bigs climb NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ladder 4.0

Kawhi Leonard has taken a slide down the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ladder, but it’s not so much what he’s done as it is what others have done more notably. Leonard is still the go-to defender for the LA Clippers and played in 10 of LA’s 11 games since the last time this ladder was published on Feb. 8.

He averaged 1.6 steals and 0.4 blocks per game, both a bit off his season averages of 1.8 steals and 0.6 blocks, but those numbers don’t tell the entire story.

Leonard ranks second among small forwards behind Chicago’s Kris Dunn in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus-Minus metric (first among players averaging the requisite 27 minutes per game to make this list and it’s also worth noting ESPN hasn’t gotten the “LeBron James is listed as a point guard” memo as of yet).

Among players with at least 1,200 minutes played this season, Leonard is the top-ranked small forward in the NBA according to FiveThirtyEight in its defensive RAPTOR metric at plus-3.6. (He is also second in RAPTOR wins above replacement).

As mentioned previously, Leonard is a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year winner, so his chops and credentials aren’t in question. His load-management plan — Leonard has not played both ends of a back-to-back this season and has sat out 13 games in all, most recently on Feb. 9 at Cleveland for a SEGABABA.

But he’s still got those long arms and active hands, as shown in Thursday’s win at Houston when his length short-circuited a pass from DeMarre Carroll to Austin Rivers and resulted in an and-one at the other end.

The Clippers still have three back-to-backs remaining — March 13-14 at home against the Nets and Pelicans, March 27-28 at Detroit and Charlotte and April 6-7 when they are home for the Bulls followed by a game at Utah — so that is likely at least three more games Leonard will miss.

The fewest games played by a DPOY winner over a non-lockout season is 56, with Leonard’s 64 games played in 2014-15 the second-lowest total.