The race for the Defensive Player of the Year award is quite close this year, with A\u2019ja Wilson, Angel Reese, and Gabby Williams all battling it out.<\/p>\n
Rachel DeMita has now thrown her own ballot into the mix. Being a Caitlin Clark fan, DeMita recently chose A\u2019ja Wilson as her MVP<\/a> this year, and she has another interesting pick for the DPOY award too.<\/p>\n Rachel DeMita Snubs A\u2019ja Wilson For Angel Reese<\/p>\n On her show, DeMita named Atlanta Dream star Angel Reese as her Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Angel Reese, she\u2019s leading the league in rebounds. She gets steals, she gets blocks, and the thing with Angel is, like we have seen so many times even throughout this season, she\u2019s a great isolation defender as well. Not only on a post player, but also on a guard. Like, we have seen her get stuck on a guard and slap the floor and be ready to guard them, and she\u2019s gotten steals off of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see her on the fast break getting steals. Like, I think Angel\u2019s been great defensively, and she changes the landscape of the game when she is in the game. And so that\u2019s why I have her as my Defensive Player of the Year,\u201d DeMita added.<\/p>\n Reese won her second rebounding title and finished with 521 boards, making her the first player in WNBA history to grab 500 rebounds in a single season. She also averaged 1.8 steals per game and piled up 77 steals.<\/p>\n Her impact goes past the numbers too. Reese led the league in defensive win shares at 3.4, and opponents scored 15.8 fewer points per 100 possessions with her on the floor. Atlanta finished 30-14 and grabbed the No. 4 seed, which gave the Dream home-court advantage against the Washington Mystics in the first round.<\/p>\n DeMita did not leave Wilson out of the conversation, though. The Las Vegas Aces star landed at No. 2 on her ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd second, I have A\u2019ja Wilson, because her presence on the floor just kind of changes everything, and you just can\u2019t deny that,\u201d and then she rounded off her top three with Gabby Williams.<\/p>\n That is hard to argue with. Wilson led the league in blocks for a fifth straight season, and she already owns three Defensive Player of the Year trophies.<\/p>\n