Second Quarter Awards for the NBA's 2024-25 season
Time to hand out some more acronyms: (I)DPOQ, (P)DPOQ, ROQ, 6MOQ, MVP, MIP, COQ, and of course, (I)DIWTAI
We are approaching the halfway point of the season. Time flies when you’re having fun!
I had to get my quarterly awards out a few days early as I’ll be out of town for the long holiday weekend. Surely nothing insane will happen in the one or two games I miss, right?
Remember, these awards are purely for the games played in the season’s second quarter, which I’m defining as Dec 3rd through Jan 14th. They aren’t meant to predict the final end-of-year hardware (although they are a helpful reminder for me in April of how I felt throughout the year). If there’s a tie, I lean towards people I haven’t discussed recently — let’s spread the love!
You can find my first-quarter awards here. They might be a fun flip back to see how much things have (or haven’t) changed in the last six weeks.
Perimeter Defensive Player of the Quarter
Kris Dunn, Los Angeles Clippers
Man, I love Kris Dunn.
The Clippers allow an astonishing -9.4 points per 100 possessions fewer on defense when Dunn is on the floor than off, and the on-only defensive rating is in the 94th percentile for all players despite heavy minutes next to James Harden, Kevin Porter Jr., and Norm Powell.
Some of that is tied to his minutes with Ivica Zubac, but even Big Zu’s impact hasn’t been as strong as Dunn's despite a woeful backup center rotation.
Advanced numbers love Dunn even more than I do. He leads the entire league in defensive EPM — more than Wembanyama, any Thunder player, etc. Bball-Index has him as a top-decile player in ball screen navigation, chasing players off screens, and passing lane defense, and he’s juuuust outside it for perimeter isolation defense.
However, perimeter defense, more than any other part of basketball (give or take screening), is hard to quantify with publicly available data. This is about the eye test, and Dunn’s grade is at the top of his class.
Despite Dunn’s 6’3” height, he may be the best transition defender in the NBA, sprinting back on every possession like his career depends on it (which, frankly, it does — a frequent number of opposing transition chances start off a Dunn missed shot). He wasn’t credited with a block for this, but he should’ve been:
(That play happened last night and so technically falls outside my defined quarter, but it was a convenient illustrative example of his manic transition defense. I felt guilty about cheating on my own rules, so I had to confess. There. I feel better now.)
Dunn can credibly guard players bigger than him, but he’s at his best chasing the league’s jitterbug guards, punching away sloppy dribbles or racing around screens and using his mutant albatross wingspan to bother shots from behind:
Dunn is a heat-seeking missile, peerlessly blowing up actions at the point of attack. He apparates out of nowhere to terrorize passing lanes:
If the Clippers continue to overperform expectations (they’re fighting to avoid the play-in entirely right now and just got a rusty Kawhi Leonard back), Dunn’s defense will get a lot more national shine. I’ve been doing my part.
If you prefer Amen Thompson, I don’t blame you. He is incredible and a worthy pick, although I’ve talked about him plenty already. Lu Dort would be my hypothetical third place; his physicality and ability to make guys uncomfortable are unmatched. Last quarter’s winner, Dyson Daniels, is still doing his Great Barrier Thief schtick. Ausar Thompson has been fantastic in Detroit. My beloved Andrew Nembhard has been awesome, almost single-handedly turning the Pacers’ defense around with his return. Matt Moore at
has an interesting view on why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s defense is wildly undervalued; I can’t say I fully agree, but it’s well worth a read. OG Anunoby is an ever-tightening vice.There are plenty of others, but you get the idea. This is almost always the award with the broadest array of reasonable candidates. I’m sure you believe your team’s stopper deserves stronger consideration, and you’re probably right!
Interior Defensive Player of the Quarter
Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
Wembanyama is the DPOQ again for all the reasons, but I don’t really have anything novel to say about him. Here’s one fun fact for Spurs fans, though: in the second quarter, Wembanyama smacked away 69 ill-fated attempts. Second-place Myles Turner had just 39 blocks, despite playing 19 games to Wemby’s 16. Holy mother of basketballs, protect your children from the harm Wembanyama inflicts upon them.
Interior Defender I Will Talk About Instead
Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies
Nobody is paying attention to Memphis, even as their underlying stats scream, “We’re for real!”
In a season filled with injuries, the Grizz keep chugging away. They had the league’s 10th-ranked defense for the quarter, which might not sound overly impressive until you remember they’re starting two rookies.
Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey have been better than you could expect on D, but they’re just months into their careers. Ja Morant is a bad defender. Desmond Bane is decent but far from a stopper. Santi Aldama, Brandon Clarke, and Jake LaRavia are all varying shades of fine. There is not a ton of proven defensive talent on this roster right now outside of Scotty Pippen and Marcus Smart, and the latter has missed more than half the season.
And yet Grizzlies lineups with Jackson are allowing just 107.9 points per 100 possessions on the year, a very strong mark. For the quarter, Jackson allowed challengers to shoot just 54% at the rim, better than everyone who’s defended at least 100 such FGAs except Wembanyama. He was second again in combined steals and blocks, too.
Importantly, Jackson has managed to mostly corral the foul trouble that has so limited him in the past (although he did have six in one quarter two weeks ago, so it’s not totally solved!). He’s blocking fewer shots than he has previously because he’s chasing fewer shots; the discipline improvement is notable. Watch as he scares the **** out of Jrue Holiday without jumping, then perfectly times the swat on Neemias Queta’s, uh, unusual reverse attempt:
(Keeping his feet on the ground has also helped Jackson’s still-not-great rebound positioning.)
Another key to his success: Jackson’s conditioning has improved even as he’s playing the second-most minutes of his career. I’ve taken notes for years about how Jackson seems to tire as games go on, and while that can still be true, his fourth-quarter defensive production has been laudable: he averages three times as many blocks per minute in the fourth quarter as the first this season.