As a WNBA media member with an awards vote, every season, the award I struggle with most is Defensive Player of the Year (and the related All-Defense team). So many players across the WNBA defend at a high level, but each plays different roles and has different strengths and weaknesses.

Some are elite team defenders but struggle on the ball. Others are great perimeter defenders, but don’t have the overall defensive impact of a rim protector. How do you compare a guard and a post player when their defensive responsibilities are so vastly different?

On top of that, I always consider team defense to be a crucial factor; no matter how impactful a defender may be individually, it’d be hard for me to give them this award if they were on a below-average defensive team. (Yes, many of you have criticized me for this in the past — and it’s something I’ve gone back and forth about quite a bit).

All that being said, I voted for Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese for Defensive Player of the Year — and I feel pretty good about it.

My initial desire to vote for Angel Reese for Defensive Player of the Year stemmed from simply watching her play. Take away the analytics, statistics, and multitude of metrics now available for WNBA award voters to leverage — it simply felt like Reese’s presence dramatically changed the Dream’s defense.

A quick look at the numbers seriously confirms that eye-test.

Reese thrives according to numerous defensive analytics. She has the best defensive rating differential in the entire WNBA (-15.1), which means that Dream opponents score 15.1 more points per 100 possessions when Reese is off the floor versus when she is on it.

Reese’s presence also directly correlates with opposing teams’ offensive struggles. She has the best opponent effective field goal differential (-7.4%), true shooting % differential (-5.6%), and opponent 2-pointer % differential (-5.9%) — in other words, no WNBA player’s on-court presence is more directly correlated with the opposition’s efficiency worsening than Reese’s. (In even more plain terms, if Angel Reese is guarding you, your team starts missing shots).

Reese also helps generate steals at a very high rate. She is third in the WNBA in steals per game (1.8), trailing only Dream teammates Rhyne Howard (2.3 per game) and Jordin Canada (1.9). But, even more motably, Reese leads the league in opponent turnover percentage differential (+3.2%), meaning that her presence significantly impacts opponents’ tendency to turn the ball over. (In other words, teams turn the ball over 3.2% more often when Reese is on the floor versus when she’s off of it). Forcing dead-ball turnovers doesn’t count toward a player’s steals per game, but it does show up in their ability to impact an opponent’s turnover percentage.

Reese also has the fourth-highest defensive VPM (+1.81), a databallr metric that estimates how much a player contributes to preventing points per 100 possessions, relative to a baseline player. (She trails only A’ja Wilson, Gabby Williams, and Aliyah Boston).

As a result, for the first time since 2022, the WNBA’s leader in defensive win shares is not A’ja Wilson. It’s Reese — with 2.88 win shares.

On top of so many advanced defensive analytics favoring Reese, her DPOY case is further solidified by the fact that she is currently the best rebounder in the WNBA; ultimately, a defensive possession ends when a defensive rebound is secured. Reese has averaged 12.4 rebounds per game this season, which is 1.3 boards more per game than the second-leading rebounder in the league, Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard, who averages 11.1 rebounds per game.

The Dream, meanwhile, have the league’s fourth-best defense with a 105 defensive rating. They trail only the Golden State Valkyries, Minnesota Lynx, and Washington Mystics.

I heavily explored the idea of naming a Golden State Valkyries player Defensive Player of the Year. But a couple of factors worked against both Gabby Williams and Kiah Stokes, who were two candidates I considered, and placed on the All-Defense team.

For one, both Williams and Stokes play less than 25 minutes a game, which feels low for such a prestigious award. And, in Williams’ case, her on-off and advanced defensive numbers are far inferior.

I also considered selecting A’ja Wilson for DPOY — as I do every year. Wilson, who has won the award three times in her career, currently leads the league in blocks with 2.3 a game, and is an elite rim protector. But the Aces have a more subpar defense (currently ranked 6th in the league), and given that Reese’s advanced defensive numbers were more compelling, it was hard to make a stronger case for Wilson this season.

This is the first in a series of articles breaking down my WNBA award votes.