Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes finished fifth in the voting for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.
The NBA officially announced on Monday that San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama won the 2025-2026 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. He was a unanimous winner, with all 100 first-place votes coming his way, the first time in NBA history that a player was a unanimous DPOY winner.
While Wembanyama was a mortal lock to win the award, there was uncertainty about how the voters would fill out the rest of their ballots. When casting their votes, the media are asked to vote for their top-three DPOY candidates. Along with revealing that Wembanyama won the award, the NBA also announced the rest of the votes for DPOY.
According to the official voting tallies, rounding out the top five behind Wembanyama for DPOY were Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren, Detroit Pistons wing Ausar Thompson, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, and Raptors star Barnes, in that order. Barnes received three second-place votes and 12 third-place votes, for 21 points overall.
Scottie Barnes Could be Named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team
Since Barnes finished fifth in DPOY voting, there is a good chance that he could be named to the NBA All-Defensive first team when it is announced at a later date. The writers will select their top-five defensive players for the team, and since Barnes was ranked fifth in DPOY voting, it makes sense that he will also be ranked top-five for the All-Defensive team, putting him on the first squad. At the very least, he will certainly be named to the NBA All-Defensive second team. Regardless of whether or not he gets a first- or second-team honor, it will be the first time in Barnes’ NBA career that he is officially recognized as one of the NBA’s elite defenders.
Raptors Are in a Tough Fight Against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Playoffs
Barnes and the Raptors are currently in the fight for their lives against the Cavaliers in the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. The No. 5-seed Raptors dropped Game 1 on the road when they lost 126-113 to the Cavs in Cleveland. Game 2 takes place on Monday night, and the Raptors will have to put on a much better performance in this game if they are going to have a chance of pulling off what would be a major upset in the series. If the Raptors are going to do that, then they need Barnes to be at his best, both defensively and offensively, while also getting valuable contributions on both sides of the floor from fellow stars Brandon Ingram and RJ Barrett.
Barnes was recently praised by NBA legend Kevin Garnett, who compared Barnes to a mini version of Denver Nuggets MVP superstar Nikola Jokic. For the Raptors to pull off a series upset against the Cavaliers, they are going to need Barnes to do his best Jokic impersonation, as the Cavaliers are the more talented team on paper, plus they have more playoff experience. That being said, the Raptors are still a very strong up-and-coming team in their own right, and if Barnes can be his best two-way self in the series, the Raptors will have a chance to pull off the upset.
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