Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors is this season’s winner of the NBA Hustle Award, the league announced Friday.
The award has been presented since 2017. Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace was second, Philadelphia’s Guerschon Yabusele was third, Oklahoma City’s Lugentz Dort was fourth and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels was fifth.
Green and Daniels were also both finalists for defensive player of the year, which was won by Cleveland’s Evan Mobley.
The Hustle Award, the NBA said, “honors a player who makes the effort plays that do not often appear in the traditional box score but help determine team success.” Those stats include deflections, loose balls recovered on both ends of the floor, charges drawn, screen assists, contested shots and box-outs on both ends.
It’s based around nine categories in all, and Green ranked 39th or better in all of them on a per-minute basis — including second in contested 3-point shots, sixth in charges drawn, 10th in defensive box outs, 13th in contested 2-point shots and 15th in deflections.
“I witness, every single night, the incredible versatility of his defensive game and how powerful his brain is,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said earlier this month, stating his case for why Green should have won the defensive player of the year award. “He’s an amazing player and he’s had a great, great year.”
Green joins three-time winner Marcus Smart, along with Alex Caruso, Thaddeus Young, Montrezl Harrell, Amir Johnson and Patrick Beverley, as winners of the hustle award.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
