Rudy Gobert will be robbed of making history for a painfully obvious reason

Heading into the 2025-26 season, Rudy Gobert's pursuit of a record-breaking fifth Defensive Player of the Year seemed improbable. This was mainly due to Victor Wembanyama's dominance. However, Wemby has battled with injuries this season and is only able to miss three more games to be eligible for awards. As such, the DPOY race has become wide open.

Frankly, nobody has a better case to win the award than Gobert -- his importance to his team's defense is truly unmatched. After being outside of the top 10 a month ago, Gobert has shot up all the way to second in DPOY odds. Even still, the reality is that voter fatigue is a major factor for all awards, and the voters are unlikely to reward Gobert's dominance.

I get it, a new face winning the award is fun. Do you know what else is fun, though? Historical greatness and flat-out dominance -- which is what Gobert has provided over the past decade. So what if he's won the award before? If Gobert is the best candidate, he should win the award!

Let's dive into why Gobert is deserving of DPOY, even if I don't think he will get it.

Gobert's DPOY case

Earlier, I made the simple case for Gobert -- there isn't one player who is as important to his team's defensive success as Rudy. For the MVP award, someone's importance to their team is the central argument. Shouldn't it be the same for DPOY?

Per Cleaning the Glass, Minnesota's defense is 16.1 points per 100 possessions better with Gobert on the court; this number ranks in the 100th percentile.

To put this number into more perspective, though, the Wolves have a defensive rating of 107.3 with Gobert on the court and a 123.4 DRTG without him on the court. This translates to the second-best defense with Gobert on the court and the worst defense without him.

Such an on/off-court swing is unprecedented, and it deserves an unprecedented fifth DPOY.

The Wolves have the fifth-ranked defense in large part due to Gobert, and the team has had a top-10 defense in every year with Rudy. Jaden McDaniels is a fantastic defender, but outside of him, the Wolves don't have a great defense around Gobert.

James Harden famously called himself "the system," while Harden could have a title for an offensive system, Gobert is truly the best defensive system in the league. Gobert deters opposing offensive players' mindset when attacking the rim, and he erases his teammates' mistakes on the perimeter.

This skill set is the mark of an elite rim protector, but it's something Gobert does better than anyone in the league. Notably, per BBall Index, Gobert ranks in the 100th percentile for both rim protection and rim deterrence.

Within six feet of the hoop, opponents are shooting just 43.6 percent when defended by Gobert, and overall, Big Ru is holding opposing players to 39.8 percent shooting. Gobert is also more versatile than he gets credit for. He ranks in the 76th percentile for isolation defense, holding opposing players to just 40 percent shooting.

Gobert might not be a Bam Adebayo-level of versatile defender -- but he more than makes up for it with his incredible rim protection. Accounting for on/off numbers and rim protection stats, this is statistically a better season than any of Gobert's DPOY years.

The voter fatigue problem

So what if he's won it before? Greatness should be rewarded.

Unfortunately, voter fatigue is a real concept. Gobert's four DPOYs are tied with Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's six MVPs are the most in league history. Larry Brown, Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, and Don Nelson are tied for the most Coach of the Year awards with three. Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford are tied for the most Sixth Man of the Year awards with three.

Popovich is considered the best coach ever and should certainly have more than three Coach of the Year awards. Michael Jordan and LeBron James should certainly have won more than five MVPs. But voter fatigue got in the way in all of these cases.

I fully expect Chet Holmgren to win DPOY over Rudy Gobert due to voter fatigue. To quote Anthony Edwards: Greatness is boring. However, greatness shouldn't be boring; it should be celebrated, and Gobert's defensive dominance should be celebrated this season.