{"id":102478,"date":"2024-10-22T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=102478"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:07:14","slug":"2024-25-nba-dpoy-odds-spurs-20-year-old-heavily-favored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/22\/2024-25-nba-dpoy-odds-spurs-20-year-old-heavily-favored\/","title":{"rendered":"2024-25 NBA DPOY Odds: Spurs 20-Year-Old Heavily Favored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a> is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/17\/2024-25-nba-mvp-odds-the-case-for-luka-doncic\/\" target=\"_self\">odds-on favorite<\/a> to win his first Defensive Player of the Year award this year. As a rookie last season, he exploded onto the NBA scene as both a DPOY candidate and a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/21\/2024-25-nba-mvp-odds-timberwolves-star-ready-to-contend\/\" target=\"_self\">future MVP candidate<\/a>. This <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/06\/2024-25-nba-betting-preview-san-antonio-spurs-win-total-odds\/\" target=\"_self\">2024-25 NBA season betting preview<\/a> will determine whether the NBA DPOY odds for Wembanyama are worth looking at for your best NBA futures bet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>2024-25 NBA DPOY Odds: Spurs 20-Year-Old Heavily Favored<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Current NBA DPOY Odds<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wemby has 7 games with 5+ blocks since the trade deadline. <\/p>\n<p>Nobody else has more than one. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Z3JqOLbdQb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Z3JqOLbdQb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; StatMuse (@statmuse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1765397676625940759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Wembanyama -155<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holmgch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chet Holmgren<\/a> +1100<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bam Adebayo<\/a> +1100<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mobleev01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Mobley<\/a> +1400<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> +1800<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> +2600<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oddsmakers are expecting this season\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year race to be a boring one. Wembanyama at -155 is such a strong favorite that the next closest odds are +1100. Interestingly enough, this is by another second-year player in Holmgren. Let\u2019s look at the history of the award and Wembanyama\u2019s rookie season to see why he is so favored to win the award in the 2024-25 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Last Season\u2019s Race<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last season, Gobert won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, tying him with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wallabe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Wallace<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mutomdi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dikembe Mutombo<\/a> for the most in NBA history. After facing criticism last season following his trade to the Timberwolves, Gobert made a strong comeback, leading the best defensive team in the league. Gobert ended with 72 first-place votes and 433 total points. Wembanyama was in second place for the award with 19 first-place votes and 245 total points. Bam Adebayo was third with 91 total points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The yearly <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthleticNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthleticNBA<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Anonymous <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NBA<\/a> Players poll results <\/p>\n<p>Best overall defender: Wembanyama<\/p>\n<p>Most overrated: Gobert<\/p>\n<p>Voted by fellow NBA peers<\/p>\n<p>Gobert anchored #1 defensive team in the NBA<\/p>\n<p>Wembanyama led the league in blocks &amp; had more steals <\/p>\n<p>Wembanyama\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/itQBaaxMqO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/itQBaaxMqO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; BOBBY (@B_O_B_B_Y) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/B_O_B_B_Y\/status\/1788067509318582353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Gobert\u2019s team success strengthened his case, Wembanyama\u2019s overall impact was undeniable, especially with his dominance in individual defensive metrics. Wembanyama\u2019s influence was also reflected in advanced statistics, such as on\/off data, where his presence significantly improved the Spurs\u2019 defense.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Was Wembanyama Robbed?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Gobert won the award pretty handily, there is an argument to be made that Wembanyama was a more impactful defender last season. Although the Spurs only ranked 23rd in defensive rating, this was far from Wembanyama\u2019s fault.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wembanyama led the league in blocks as a rookie with 3.6 per game, more than a full block per game more than the second-highest average of 2.4. Wembanyama also added 1.2 steals per game to his stat sheet. He had over 100 more combined blocks\/steals than Gobert did last season. They were almost identical in rim protection metrics. Opponents made 52% of their attempts at the basket with Gobert as the closest defender and 53% with Wembanyama nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Did you know&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Victor Wembanyama could have been the FIRST PLAYER to ever win Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season \ud83d\ude2e <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zCXPEyxYhh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/zCXPEyxYhh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/1788006052413231310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of the advanced metrics also favored Wembanyama. The Spurs recovered 68% of Wembanyama&#8217;s 213 blocks, the highest proportion for any player with at least 60 blocks. Wembanyama had 66 more recovered blocks than Gobert. The Spurs defensive rating was 11.5 points better with him on the court. This is compared to 4.2 points better for the Timberwolves when Gobert was on the court. This shows that Gobert had a much stronger defensive team behind him than Wembanyama.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Gobert leading the Timberwolves to top defense and Wembanyama not even bringing the Spurs into the top 10, it is understandable why Gobert outshone him for last year\u2019s DPOY award. That being said, the stats tell a slightly different story, and it is no wonder why Wembanyama is poised to grab the award this season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Wembanyama is the odds-on favorite to win his first Defensive Player of the Year award this year. As a rookie last season, he exploded onto the NBA scene as both a DPOY candidate and a future MVP candidate. This 2024-25 NBA season betting preview will determine whether the NBA DPOY odds for Wembanyama are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":102485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49087,1608,21,62,1248,34],"tags":[49402,4292,558,49618,49265,394,4669],"class_list":["post-102478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball-betting","category-basketball","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-nba-season-previews","category-spurs","tag-2024-2025-season","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-defensive-player-of-the-year","tag-dpoy","tag-nba-off-season-previews","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181038,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102478\/revisions\/181038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}