21 players the NBA repeatedly snubbed for Defensive Player of the Year

Snubbed Defensive Player #19: Tayshaun Prince

During his time in Detroit, Tayshaun Prince was an undervalued member of the Pistons teams that went to six straight Eastern Conference Finals. At 6’9″ with a 7-2 wingspan, Prince was able to effectively guard some of the opposing team’s best players despite having a relatively thin frame. But, unlike many of the other players on this list, Prince failed to put up big defensive stats.

In fact, he never averaged even a block or a steal per game in each of his fourteen seasons. That definitely hurt his DPOY candidacy, but it’s hard to argue with team results. Prince was the Pistons’ ironman and didn’t miss a single game over seven straight seasons starting for Detroit. During that time they ranked in the top five in defensive rating five times and he became known for making huge plays.

Later in his career, Prince was traded to the Grit and Grind Grizzlies. He helped them reach the Western Conference Finals after helping hold a normally super-efficient Kevin Durant to just 42.3% shooting from the field by matching up well against KD’s height.

As mentioned before, Prince never put up big defensive numbers and also played most of his career before other defensive metrics such as Defensive Real Plus-Minus came along. Despite that, he did make the All-Defensive Second Team four straight seasons as a member of the Pistons, proving his place on the list.