Draymond Green said that Victor Wembanyama deserves to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Spurs' Victor Wembanyama and Warriors' Draymond Green next to the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy

Not too long ago, Draymond Green didn’t think Victor Wembanyama should be a contender for the Defensive Player of the Year award. Now, he’s changing his tune.

Green is one of the best defenders in NBA history, leading the Golden State Warriors defense and earning the DPOY award in 2016-17 on top of eight All-Defensive Team selections (four First Team, four Second Team). He knows a thing or two about defense but initially said that Wembanyama, already a spectacular defender, should not win the award because his San Antonio Spurs team is one of the worst defensive units in the league.

On his podcast, Green said that Wembanyama actually does deserve to win the DPOY award because of how individually dominant he is.

“Oh, by the way, I know I said on here a little while back Wemby shouldn’t be the Defensive Player of the Year — and I lied. Wemby should be the Defensive Player of the Year because he is that amazing defensively,” Green said. “The way he impacts the game on the defensive end, whether it’s off the ball [or] on the ball, it’s a problem.”

Draymond Green vouches for Victor Wembanyama’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy

Since Green first denounced Wembanyama as a DPOY contender, the Spurs and Warriors have played each other three times. Wemby missed the first game but was healthy for the other two, showing Green and the Dubs firsthand just how incredible he can be on defense. He recorded five steals and five blocks across both games, which San Antonio lost.

Wemby leads the NBA in blocked shots with 3.5 per game. No other player is within a full block of him. He also averages 1.3 steals per game, which ranks in the top 20. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Spurs allow 10.3 fewer points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court. The only other player who ranks better than him in that stat and has played at least 1,000 minutes this season is Kawhi Leonard.

Green makes the astute observation that players are already wary of challenging Wemby at the rim, saying that those moments where his mere presence deters opponents from shooting are “a blocked shot, in a sense, and no one will account for that.” Some of that comes naturally with him being 7-foot-4 with a wingspan eight feet long. But it’s also because he’s great at contesting shots.

As the regular season comes to a close, Rudy Gobert seems like the player most likely to win the award. He has established himself as one of the NBA’s best defenders and his Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the best defensive teams in recent memory. Players like Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Anthony Edwards are huge parts of that but Gobert is the engine of that unit that has far and away the best defensive rating in the league.

But as Wemby himself said about Gobert winning this season’s DPOY award, Gobert can enjoy that now because he’s coming for the award in the future.