Dyson Daniels misses out on top NBA award despite historic season for Atlanta Hawks

History was always against Dyson Daniels and his hopes of claiming one of the NBA’s top awards, with the Aussie star denied by a Cleveland rival.

Australian Dyson Daniels has missed out on the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year honour, with the award instead given to Cleveland’s Evan Mobley.

Mobley received a total of 285 points from his votes, which first placed votes worth five points, second place votes worth three points and third place votes worth one point.

ESPN on Kayo Sports brings you the best of the NBA Playoffs including every game of the NBA Conference Finals & NBA Finals LIVE | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

Dyson Daniels (5) misses out on NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. Picture: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

Evan Mobley (4) takes the honour. Picture: Jason Miller/Getty Images

Daniels was second in voting ahead of Golden State’s Draymond Green and finished 88 votes shy of Mobley after polling 25 first place votes, 17 second place votes and 21 third place votes.

It means Daniels was considered a top-three defensive player by 63 of 100 media members who selected the winner of the award.

While Daniels missed out on the NBA’s top gong, in a sign of how highly he is regarded among NBA coaches, he was voted by the 13 coaches polled by The Athletic as their DPOY.

A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7eH65d7erV

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 24, 2025

13 NBA coaches voted Dyson Daniels as their choice for Defensive Player of the Year

it’s pretty unlikely he wins tonight but this amount of respect from opposing coaches might be an even greater honor pic.twitter.com/RJii3CcP5N

— #InSnyderWeTrust (@dlee4three) April 24, 2025

The NBA announced Mobley as the winner on Friday morning after he was unveiled as one of three finalists along with Daniels and Green earlier in the week.

ESPN’s NBA insiders were split on the DPOY race when asked for their picks on Wednesday, with Daniels, Mobley and Green all polling three votes.

The Australian had a historic first season in Atlanta since being traded by New Orleans in the off-season, averaging 3.0 steals and 229 in total across his 2024-25 campaign.

Daniels’ 229 steals were 98 more than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (131) in second place — the largest gap between first and second in NBA history, while he also became the first player this century to register over 225 steals in a season.

He also was the first guard in NBA history to win multiple Defensive Player of the Month awards.

My 🧵 for why I think Dyson Daniels should be DPOY.

1) It is hard for us to wrap our minds around how far ahead he is of the pack in terms of both deflections and steals. Here's a scatterplot to help visualize it.

He is on another planet when it comes to disruptiveness. pic.twitter.com/zcfISZvfHW

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) April 10, 2025

The Bendigo bandit made an art form out of arm swipes, constantly finding a way to disrupt passing lanes while also more generally using his length and anticipation to make the opposing ballhandler work for every basket.

As for why Daniels didn’t take home the individual honour, as foxsports.com.au broke down earlier in the month, history was against the Australian.

Marcus Smart was the last guard to win the award in 2022, and he was the first to do it since Gary Payton in 1995-1996.

Even Daniels admitted in an interview with HoopsHype earlier in the year that DPOY is a “big man’s award”.

“If you look at the big men in the NBA today, usually the past few years, it’s been a big man in that conversation who protects the rim and gets blocks. Obviously, before Wemby went down, he was the frontrunner for the award,” Daniels said.

“I think I do a little bit of everything on the floor. I protect the rim as a guard. I get steals. I defend well one-on-one and contest shots.”

Dyson Daniels (5) reacts to an Atlanta Hawks’ loss during the NBA play-in tournament. Picture: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

It also didn’t work in Daniels’ favour that he was playing for a Hawks team that was middle-of-the-road in defence and failed to make it past the play-in tournament.

Cleveland, on the other hand, had the best record in the Eastern Conference and Mobley’s high-level defence was a big reason why.

Regardless, guard Ty Jerome missed out on Sixth Man of the Year so Mobley was the only other Cavaliers finalist for one of the NBA’s seven major individual awards and it makes sense to ensure at least one of them went to a player from the league’s second-best regular-season team.

While Daniels missed out on DPOY, the Australian is considered a strong chance of taking home the Most Improved Player award after making the most of his expanded role in Atlanta.

Daniels averaged 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists this season — all career-high numbers.

Originally published as Dyson Daniels misses out on top NBA award despite historic season for Atlanta Hawks