If the season were to end today, the top two finishers in Defensive Player of the Year voting would, or at least should, be Victor Wembanyama and Dyson Daniels in that order. On Monday night, they matched each other with an eight in the stat column most closely associated with their respective defensive prowess.
Wembanyama posted eight blocks in a Spurs loss to the 76ers while Daniels had eight steals in a Hawks win over the Timberwolves.
Wembanyama, in particular, is on another defensive level right now with an incredible 29 blocks combined over his last four games. On Saturday, he became just the sixth player in history to record 30 points and 10 blocks in the same game and is now the first player since Anthony Davis to block at least eight shots in two straight games.
This is the 63rd straight game that Wembanyama has recorded at least one blocked shot, a Spurs record. He had four blocks in the first quarter and six inside the first 16 minutes on Monday. Oh by the way, Wemby also made six 3-pointers in Philadelphia. The only other player in history to block at least eight shots and make at least six 3-pointers in the same game is Brook Lopez, who did it in 2017.
Filter the blocks down to seven, and since the NBA added the 3-point line 45 years ago, Lopez is still the only one not named Wembanyama to block seven shots and make six 3s in the same game. Wemby has done it twice in fewer than 100 career games.
Meanwhile, Daniels — the Australian otherwise known as “The Great Barrier Thief” (one of the best nicknames you’ll ever hear) — ran his league-leading steals total to 89, 33 more picks than the next most successful thief, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (56). Wembanyama, meanwhile, is the league’s blocks leader by 31 (95-64 over Walker Kessler). Those are ridiculous margins.
Daniels’ 89 steals is the highest number over the first 28 games of a season since Nate McMillan in 1993, per NBA University. The eight steals on Monday is not only a career high for Daniels, but it also marks the sixth time this season that he’s had at least six steals.
Nobody has had six steals in six different games in an entire season since Chris Paul in 2008-09. Again, Daniels has done it in 28 games. Hell, there have only been four such games by every other player in the league combined this season.
Together, Daniels and Wembanyama are the only two players in the league to put up 10 stocks (steals plus blocks) in a game this season. Daniels had two blocks on Monday to go with his eight steals, making him the youngest player in history to do that.
If Daniels manages to stay healthy, he has a real shot to become just the seventh player in history, and the first in 35 years, to tally 250 steals in a single season. He’s missed just two games so far and is averaging 3.2 steals a night. He has 14 over his last two games alone.
Perhaps it’s going to be hard for some voters to properly rank Daniels on the DPOY scale given that the Hawks are a near bottom-10 defense, but that is just a delusional stance to take. This guy is not just a steal merchant; he disrupts everything. He’s also the league’s deflections leader by a mile. He takes on the toughest defensive assignments every night and makes life hell on the best scorers in the world. Minnesota star Anthony Edwards was was 7 for 20 from the field on Monday with five turnovers.
In a world where Wembanyama didn’t exist, it would be Daniels with a legit case as the best defender in the world.
