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Center of the Sun: Next man up, Suns probably must finish rest of season without CP3

Your weekly roundup of Suns news, rumors, notes and videos from the prior week plus a preview of the week to come.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Phoenix , Arizona , Oklahoma , Houston , Texas , Dallas , Los-angeles , California , Utah-jazz

Defensive Player Ladder: Rudy Gobert or Ben Simmons? Race enters final week

Rudy Gobert could be in line to win his third Defensive Player of the Year award.
They play for the first-place teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences. Both of those clubs, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Utah Jazz, have ranked near the top defensively all season (as have the Los Angeles Lakers, who just haven’t translated that end of the floor into comparable W-L success). Whatever the Sixers and the Jazz hope to achieve in the postseason, defense – and their most dedicated practitioners of it – will play indispensable roles.
Is it any wonder Ben Simmons and Rudy Gobert have been vying for the top spot on the Defensive Player Ladder since the 2020-21 season began?

Miami , Florida , United-states , Indiana , Phoenix , Arizona , San-antonio , Texas , Switzerland , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Swiss

Defensive Player Ladder: Sizing up DPOY's impact on title chances

How much does having the NBA's top defender lead to a championship?
Steve Aschburner
May 4, 2021 4:35 PM
Kevin Garnett is one of the few players to win a DPOY and NBA title in the same season.
Defense wins championships. But do defenders?
If judged by the success rate of the NBA’s Kia Defensive Player of the Year award winners at the peak of their powers, the answer is: Not so much.
This isn’t to put a jink on any of the players on this week’s Defensive Player Ladder or their teams. But the numbers are clear: Of the 38 past winners of the DPOY award, only four played on teams that subsequently won that year’s NBA title. That’s an awfully meager 10.5%.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Houston-hall , Massachusetts , Brooklyn , Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Boston , Indiana , San-antonio , Texas

Defensive Player Ladder: Q&A with NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo

Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo displays his signature finger wag.
A lot of current NBA fans probably know Dikembe Mutombo best as the towering guy in a generic basketball uniform running around swatting cereal boxes in an insurance commercial.
But for folks of a certain age or a more historical bent, Mutombo ranks as one of the league’s most dominating and entertaining defensive players ever. Even if the details of his four NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, tied with former Pistons anchor Ben Wallace for the most all-time, were fuzzy, they surely remember his trademark finger wag.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Democratic-republic-of-the-congo , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Boston , Massachusetts , Minnesota , Indiana , Toronto , Ontario

Defensive Player Ladder: With NBA offense on the rise, defense still critical

Rudy Gobert has been a steady force on defense all season for the NBA-leading Jazz.
Long live offense! It’s the cry of the land across the NBA, from the number of 20-point scorers and triple-double stat lines we get these days to most of the rules changes enacted by the Competition Committee in recent years to whatever Golden State’s remarkable Stephen Curry is up to on any given night.
But does that mean defense is dead?
Well, no. Coaches who made their bones convincing players that their time on the court trying to stop the other guys is every bit as essential as what they do with the basketball probably feel beleaguered, maybe even betrayed. But they and their teams still are going to try, even with the game’s legislation and adjudication working against them.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Boston , Massachusetts , Phoenix , Arizona , Indiana , San-antonio , Texas

Defensive Player Ladder: David Vanterpool on how to develop defensive skills

Defensive Player Ladder: David Vanterpool on how to develop defensive skills
Rudy Gobert and Ben Simmons stay on top as Minnesota's defensive coordinator explains the art of coaching defense.
Steve Aschburner
April 13, 2021 5:27 PM
Minnesota associate head coach David Vanterpool is the only coach in the NBA with the title of ‘Defensive Coordinator’.
Half of every player’s performance, on average, is spent playing defense. Whether they like it or not, realize it or not, or prepare for it or not.
That preparation part often gets overlooked, from a player’s earliest moments in a gym, said David Vanterpool, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ associate head coach.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Brooklyn , Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Washington , Italy , Minnesota , Phoenix , Arizona , Indiana

Defensive Player Ladder: Rudy Gobert holds No. 1 spot, Ben Simmons rises

Defensive Player Ladder: Rudy Gobert holds No. 1 spot, Ben Simmons rises
nba.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nba.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

Miami , Florida , United-states , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Phoenix , Arizona , Indiana , Orlando , Toronto , Ontario , Canada

Defensive Player Ladder: Ben Simmons steals No. 1 spot

An updated look at the ranking of the Top 5 defenders in the NBA.

Indiana , United-states , Dallas , Texas , Denver , Colorado , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Jamal-murray , Donovan-mitchell , Devin-booker , Utah-jazz

Defensive Player Ladder: Rudy Gobert, Ben Simmons maintain leads

Rudy Gobert continues to make his presence felt on the defensive end.
As we grapple here week to week to identify, evaluate and rank players who might wind up as top candidates for the NBA’s 2021 Kia Defensive Player of the Year award, we are reminded of how broad and frankly nebulous such competitions are.
Not all of the awards, mind you. The Kia NBA Sixth Man Award is about as straightforward as it gets: it goes to a great “instant offense” player off the bench, period. The last time it went to somebody who injected rebounding or defense in reserve was, well, never.

Indiana , United-states , Phoenix , Arizona , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Mike-conley , Utah-jazz , Lebron-james , Marc-gasol , Giannis-antetokounmpo , Kawhi-leonard