Report: Joakim Noah To Be Named Defensive Player Of The Year

Despite losing at home in Game 1 against the Wizards on Sunday, Bulls center Joakim Noah might have a reason to smile today. Multiple sources claim he’ll be crowned the NBA’s 2014 Defensive Player of the Year, and the Bulls have a press conference scheduled for later this afternoon to announcement the news. Noah was voted as the top defensive player of the 2014 season by Dime’s writers last week.

CSN Chicago’s Aggrey Smith first reported the news with the Chicago Tribune‘s K.C. Johnson confirming the award.

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While Noah’s on/off numbers — the go-to number many analysts use to determine defensive efficiency — aren’t very revealing, since Luol Deng was traded to Cleveland, the Bulls have relied on him even more than usual.

As noted in our End of Season Awards, since the Deng trade, the Bulls give up 103.4 points per 100 possessions when Noah is on the bench. But when he’s on the court, that falls dramatically to 95.2. While not usually a part of the DPOY criteria, Noah is also helping the Bulls score 103.4 points when he’s on the court and just 95.7 when he’s off.

For the season, Noah is averaging 1.5 BPG and 1.2 SPG while finishing sixth in rebounds per game at 11.2 per contest. As Johnson notes in the tweet above, Noah becomes the second Bulls player in history to win the award after Michael Jordan won the DPOY award in 1988 (when he also led the league in scoring and won his first MVP).

Does Joakim Noah deserve to win 2014 DPOY?

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