This editorial article is about why Ben Simmons will be holding up the defensive player of the year trophy at the end of the year. Although I’m a die-hard 76ers fan this article will not be biased at all but will provide you with nothing but facts. With playing 52 games this year Ben Simmons is proving why he should be Defensive Player of the Year in the NBA. We are seeing a big jump from his defense this year than we saw last year. Last year Ben averaged 1.4 steals per game along with 0.6 blocks per game. So far this year Ben is averaging 2.2 steals per game and 0.6 blocks per game. Even now he is averaging fewer blocks per game the jump we are seeing from his steals is something the whole league should be watching. Ben Simmons leads the league in total steals with 114. That’s 13 more than Kris Dunn who currently sits in second place with a total of 101 steals on the season.  With Ben adding another four steals to his name Sunday night it’s looking like there is no slowing down for him. Steals isn’t the only thing the Ben Simmons is shining in. He sits in second place in the deflection category. Ben is averaging 4.0 deflection per game only behind Jrue Holiday’s 4.5 per game. Ben is able to get all of these deflections with his long arms and his smart knowledge of reading other defends next pass. Simmons has an insane wingspan of 7’0”. He is a player that when he’s out on the court he never takes a play-off. This can be supported because another stat that Ben is top two in is loose ball recovered. He averages 1.8 loose ball recovers per contest. That stat is only 0.1 behind forward from the Lakers Anthony Davis. However, he leads the league in total loose ball recovered with 92. That is only because he has played a few more games than Anthony Davis and his 83 total recovered.  Whenever that ball is on the ground you already know that Ben is going to be on his knees and on the hardwood to try and get that ball. On Monday, November 4th Ben Simmons set a career-high with seven steals in one game. His seven steals against the Phenix Suns still sits at number one with most in any game this season. For the Sixers to have a player that is capable of getting that many steals in a game it can be huge. To give a quick recap on that stats listed above Ben Simmons currently right now is first in total deflections, steals, and loose ball recovered. 

Some people may argue that Ben is a 6”10 point guard that defends way smaller guards and that’s why he is able to get all of these insane stats. However, that is very much false. Every game that he plays he is out there defending the other team’s best scorer. With his height, he is able to defend all five positions. When you look at all of the all-star caliber players that Ben has defended this year and how they performed against him it is incredible. These all-stars include players such as Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal, Pascal Siakam, Lebron James, Russell Westbrook, and James Hardin. When all of these players were defended by Ben they all shot under their normal field goal percentage. Former 76ers Jimmy Butler shot 3 for 12 when his former teammate was defending him. That’s 20% below his normal field goal percentage.  Against their rival team Celtics, Ben has held their star player Jason Tatum to 27% from the field. He has shot 3 of 11 on Ben this year. Another division rival in Bradley Beal who actually has done a lot better than anyone else on this list shot 6-14 on Ben. However that 43% is still below what he normally averages in a game. We also have seen Ben’s defense step up against the defending NBA champions. Even though they lost Kawai, Ben has had a lot of success when defining first-time all-star and started Pascal Siakak. Holding him to 5 of 19 on the field. You may be saying that Ben is only doing this against all of the weaker eastern conference players. Well, let’s take a look at how Ben played out while defending one of the greatest players of all time Lebron James. When guarded by Simmons, Lebron has shot 2 of 9. Debatable the greatest to ever do it has only shot 22% against the 23-year-old Ben Simmons. Another western conference team Ben has clamped up has been against the Houston Rockets and their two former MVP players. Against the Rockets Ben has held James Hardin to 3 of 9 and Russell Westbrook to 4 of 13. That’s a total of 7 of 22 between the both of them with having Ben Simmons on them. If we’re going to talk total let’s take everyone mentioned above. The total of everybody listed above is 26 of 87. That’s a combined percentage of 29.8. 

When you look at the recent previous winners of the defensive player of the year you see a lot of things that they had in common with each other. For example, if we look at the last eight years, all of the winners came from a team in the top five for points allowed per game. Currently, right now the Sixers are third in the league in point given up with 106.3 points per game. A player in recent years that I think Simmons is having a very similar year to is Kawai Leonard. During the 2014-2015 season, he averaged 2.3 steals with 0.8 blocks. As mentioned before Simmons right now at the moment is averaging 2.2 steals with 0.6 blocks. If Ben can keep up and maintain the amount of steals he is averaging he will be putting up almost equivalent defensive stats that Kawai had during his defensive player of the year run. With a little more than half of the year passed Ben’s continuing to show the world why he is an elite defender in this league. That is why Ben Simmons will hoist the defensive player of the year trophy at the end of the season.