- Marcus Smart was awarded the 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
- Smart had +22000 odds to win the award in March 2022.
BOSTON – The 2021-22 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award has been awarded to Boston Celtics shooting guard, Marcus Smart. Smart now joins Gary “The Glove” Payton as just the second shooting guard since 1996 to win the award. He is also the second Boston Celtics player to win after Kevin Garnett won it in 2008.
A special moment today celebrating the heart and soul of our team, @smart_MS3 ☘️ pic.twitter.com/OPcgYbMmxt
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 18, 2022
In the voting, Smart finished with 257 points which included 37 first-place votes. Something eye-opening about the voting is that the second-place finish, Mikal Bridges, finished well behind with 202 points at 22 first-place votes.
The Betting Angle
From a betting perspective, Smart also came out of nowhere to win the award after opening up the season on online sportsbooks with +3500 odds and finding himself at a whopping +22000 in March.
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For those that got in on his odds to win the award in March of 2022 would be up $22,000 on a $100 wager.
Making this win even more incredible is that he beat out players such as Mikal Bridges, Bam Adebayo, Rudy Gobert, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. All of which had their NBA odds sitting under +5000 in March.
The Stats
When looking at the numbers though, it makes sense that Smart was the one that came away with the award. He finished seventh in the league in steals at 1.6 per game, fifth amongst guards with a 105.2 defensive rating, tenth in deflections with 106, and leads the league with 1.1 loose balls recovered per game.
Aside from holding his own stats, Smart also helped lead Boston to the best defensive team in the league having allowed just 104.5 ppg to opponents and a defensive rating of 106.2.
Samuel decided to get into writing 6 years ago when he first started his college career at Florida State University. After declaring a major in Editing, Writing and Media, Samuel had found his passion for writing. During his free time, he could be found writing about, watching or playing sports.
