Accountability: Kendrick Perkins Claims He's Retiring From Voting Because Rudy Gobert Has Embarrassed Him, Tarnished The DPOY Award
Kendrick Perkins is right. There, I said it. It's not Rudy Gobert's fault that he won DPOY, it's everyone who voted for him. I don't know why people think Rudy changed the way he plays or anything, he is who he's always been. Damn good inside the paint, a disaster outside trying to guard guys off the dribble. There's a reason Luka Doncic wanted the DPOY switched on him with the game on the line.
None of this is new! I'm not breaking down some big secret here or anything. But come on, at some point the people voting need to understand who is the best defender in the league. It's not Gobert. I'm not saying he sucks, but he's not the best. You can get caught up in the blocked shots or what he typically does around the rim, but that doesn't make you the best defender. There's just this weird thing where the NBA rarely sees guards/wings as elite defenders. Point right here:
But Perkins is right because everyone who votes is the problem. We get these voters with MVP fatigue and refuse to vote for the best player in the league all the time, but here we are doing Rudy as DPOY. Remember, this is a league where Victor Wembanyama plays and absolutely kicks everyone's ass on the defensive side of the ball. You think people are scared of Rudy Gobert? They want to attack him, that's all you need to know. Again, not Rudy's fault he won, but we need people to start taking blame for handing him another award.