(Photo credit: NBA.com)

The NBA announced today that Tyson Chandler won its Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 2011-12 season, ending Dwight Howard’s three-year reign as the league’s top defender.  Howard finished third behind Chandler and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka, who posted a highest blocks per game average this season that is the highest in more than a decade.

None of the Milwaukee Bucks received votes.  In the past two years, former Buck Andrew Bogut finished 7th and 5th in the voting, while Luc Mbah a Moute got a single third-place vote back in 2009-10.

No argument here on Chandler’s selection. Heck, Tyson may have been the best defender last year, too, when he anchored the defense on a championship Dallas Mavericks team. This year, he and Iman Shumpert turned the Knicks from a bucket-yielding sieve into a stalwart defensive team.

The problem, however, is that the award itself has become center-centric. 19 of the award’s last 21 recipients have been big men.  Below is a list of the 20 winners prior to Chandler.

Season	Player	Tm
2010-11	Dwight Howard (V)	ORL
2009-10	Dwight Howard (V)	ORL
2008-09	Dwight Howard (V)	ORL
2007-08	Kevin Garnett (V)	BOS
2006-07	Marcus Camby (V)	DEN
2005-06	Ben Wallace (V)	DET
2004-05	Ben Wallace (V)	DET
2003-04	Metta World Peace (V)	IND
2002-03	Ben Wallace (V)	DET
2001-02	Ben Wallace (V)	DET
2000-01	Dikembe Mutombo (V)	TOT
1999-00	Alonzo Mourning (V)	MIA
1998-99	Alonzo Mourning (V)	MIA
1997-98	Dikembe Mutombo (V)	ATL
1996-97	Dikembe Mutombo (V)	ATL
1995-96	Gary Payton (V)	SEA
1994-95	Dikembe Mutombo (V)	DEN
1993-94	Hakeem Olajuwon (V)	HOU
1992-93	Hakeem Olajuwon (V)	HOU
1991-92	David Robinson (V)	SAS

Mutombo is one of many big men to win the award in recent years (Photo: NBA.com)

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/2/2012.

It wasn’t always this way — five of the first six awards went to wing players — and the NBA can clearly do better.  Sure, there will always be voters who look at steals and blocks while overlooking those who, you know, actually do the most to stop opposing teams from scoring.  (See above RE: Ibaka.  He blocked a ton of shots this year, but he wasn’t nearly the top defensive player.  His most notable improvement this year was to get better treatment from the refs so he didn’t have to leave with foul trouble.)

An easy improvement exists to improve, but not perfect, a flawed system.  Make a separate award for perimeter players:  the Sidney Moncrief Defensive Perimeter Player of the Year Award.  The NBA already names some of its awards after people, like the Red Auerbach Coach of the Year Award.  Since Sidney has not yet made his way into the Basketball Hall of Fame (which is not, it should be noted, an NBA Hall of Fame), the league can make this gesture to Moncrief, one of the league’s best defenders of the last 40 years.

Moncrief won the DPOY award in the first two years it was awarded (1982-83 and 1983-84).  He also remains the only guard to ever win the award twice. He is currently an assistant coach for Milwaukee.

And while the NBA is at it, they can dedicate the original award to interior players.  They should rename that one after Hakeem Olajuwon.

Why? Because it beats naming it after Kia.

Mar. 26, 2012; New York, NY, USA; Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Monta Ellis (11) passes the ball as New York Knicks point guard Baron Davis (85) defends during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

Offensive Efficiency:
New York: 103.0 (22nd)
Milwaukee: 105.8 (12th)

Defensive Efficiency:
New York: 100.4 (4th)
Milwaukee: 105.2 (16th)

Pace:
New York: 93.5 (3rd)
Milwaukee: 93.3 (4th)

Projected Lineups:

New York: Anthony Parker, Donald Sloan, Alonzo Gee, Antawn Jamison, Tristan Thompson

Milwaukee: Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis, Carlos Delfino, Ersan Ilyasova, Drew Gooden

**********

The Knicks lost 98-86 last night to a Derrick Rose-less Bulls team in Chicago last night.  Carmelo Anthony continued his tear last night, scoring 29 points, extremely close to his average of 29.8 PPG over his last eight games.  Perhaps a larger concern for the Bucks is Tyson Chandler, who controlled the paint with 15 rebounds and 3 blocks.  The Bucks cannot afford to let him control the middle in a way that none of their own players can.

With the loss, the Bucks have an extraordinary opportunity to move closer to a playoff spot.  If they win, they will pull even with the Knicks in the standings and clinch the head-to-head series with New York this season, which is the tiebreaker in case of a two-way tie.  If they lose, the Bucks will fall two games behind New York and the season series would end in a tie of two game apiece.  The Knicks would also hold a lead in the secondary tiebreaker: conference record.

For their part, the Bucks are now 4-1 in April, but they are coming off a frustrating loss against another plus-.500 opponent.  The Bucks picked up five technical fouls protesting the likes of this, this, and this (none of which were called as fouls), plus Serge Ibaka’s kung fu grip of Mike Dunleavy.  It is cliche to say, of course, but the Bucks need to channel that fire into a first-quarter burst tonight.

In the last matchup between the two teams, the Bucks fumbled away an ugly 89-80 game.  Monta Ellis made only 2 of 14 shots, while Baron Davis had an odd game of 13 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 9 turnovers. Having Ellis outperform his former 2007 Golden State teammate would go a long way toward a win, but more importantly, the Bucks need to rebound. New York crushed them 54-41 on the boards and used their edge to pull ahead in the decisive third quarter.

Need a rebound, Milwaukee?  Find Ersan.  For the Bucks not to get bullied by New York, Ersan Ilyasova will need more than the two rebounds he garnered against the Thunder.  Ilyasova had a similarly frustrating game in Madison Sqaure Garden in the last Knick game, but  he was hampered by a back injury on that night.  Speaking of Ersan…

Interesting Stat:  Since February 10 — a period of more than two months — Ersan Ilyasova is hitting exactly 50% of his three-point attempts (33-66).

Bluegrass and Blue Edwards:  Negative Dunkalectics has an intriguing preview for this Bucks-Knicks game. Does anyone recall the ’93-94 pregame into described here?