The 2024-25 regular season wrapped up last Sunday. On Friday, April 18, the final two games of the 2024-25 play-in tournament will take place. Then, all eight seeds in the East and West will be locked up for the postseason.
With the regular season finished, recognized members of the media voted for awards. One of them is Defensive Player of the Year. On April 4, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins posted on X and said Draymond Green has his vote for DPOY. However, the one-time NBA champion voted for Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort. He explained the situation on the Road Trippin podcast.
Why did Kenrick Perkins change his DPOY vote from Draymond Green to Lu Dort?
Kendrick Perkins is not real 😭 pic.twitter.com/2hTQYPw9NF
— Mark Jackson’s Burner (@casualtakeking) April 16, 2025
Votes are still being tallied for end-of-season awards for 2024-25. The league waits a few weeks and then announces the winners. Last season, the league announced end-of-season awards from April 23 – May 8. Defensive Player of the Year was the second-to-last award announced on May 7. Don’t expect to know who won DPOY just yet. It could take another two weeks. However, someone shared a document where media members had already cast their vote.
Kendrick Perkins was one of the media members whose DPOY vote was made public. At the beginning of April, Perkins went on X and said he was going to vote for Draymond Green. However, his ballot showed that he voted for Lu Dort of the Thunder. Recently, Perkins went on the Road Trippin podcast and explained why he voted for Dort and not Draymond Green.
Perkins gave an example of the Warriors playing the Clippers on the final day of the regular season. Draymond Green was guarding Ivica Zubac and called for a double team. He explained that a DPOY candidate shouldn’t need help on defense. The former NBA champ explained how Lu Dort always takes on the opposing team’s best offensive player. Dort makes a massive impact on the defensive end for Oklahoma City. Perkins said OKC having the #1 defensive rating in the league played a factor in his voting for Lu Dort and not Draymond Green. He voted Draymond second place for DPOY. We’ll have to wait and see who takes home the award season.
