By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Will Edy Tavares reclaim the crown? Can Thomas Walkup return strong and soon enough to defend (pun completely intended) his title? Or will another contender rise up and win the award for the first time in their career?
As we’ve entered the final stretch of the regular season, let’s take a look at arguably the most prominent candidates to claim the EuroLeague Best Defender award for 2024-25.
Nick Weiler-Babb, FC Bayern Munich
Nick Weiler-Babb performs as the perfect defensive Swiss Army knife with an omnipresent action that makes it look as if he’s in two places at once. While Bayern Munich as a squad isn’t winning any honors for stopping the other teams from scoring (86.4 points conceded, third-worst Defensive Rating at 119.8), the 30-year-old guard has been a standout defensive warrior who’s putting a huge effort in patching things up wherever it’s needed.
So far in 2024-25, Weiler-Babb is leading the league in steals with 1.6 per game. This number isn’t just a testament to the willingness and commitment he puts on the floor when he’s defending, but also the perception he shows and ability to exceptionally read each offensive possession of the opponent.
Apart from his hard work in team defense, Weiler-Babb has been stellar in the assignments when he has to personally take care of business against the most dangerous players on the opposing team.
Edy Tavares, Real Madrid
For yet another season, Edy Tavares is the main reason why Real Madrid is one of the top defensive teams in the league as they stand at a second-best Defensive Rating of 115.1. The Cape Verdean center is – some would say naturally – the competition’s top shot-blocker with 1.4 per game while collecting 3.5 defensive rebounds during 24:38.
There are a lot of things that make Tavares such a formidable defender apart from his rim-protecting prowess but perhaps none is more prominent than the doubt he fills opponents with. The term “scarecrow” has been used time and again to describe big men of his stature and it probably doesn’t apply more accurately to anyone other than Tavares as he makes players think twice – or more – about attacking the paint while he’s on the floor. By combining his enormous size with great footwork and quickness, he’s like a walking, impregnable wall.
Tavares is already a three-time EuroLeague Best Defender (2019, 2021, 2023) and is now gunning to become the only player to reach No. 4 after legendary six-time winner Dimitris Diamantidis.
Jerian Grant, Panathinaikos Athens
“At the end of the day, they gave it to him [Thomas Walkup], but I feel that I deserved it,” Jerian Grant told Eurohoops about the Best Defender award on the eve of the 2024 EuroLeague Final Four and a few days before his Panathinaikos team won the championship title.
Grant finished fifth in the Best Defender voting but he had every right to feel that he should’ve won it. It’s very likely he carries a similar sentiment this season as he continues to be one of the most elite lockdown defenders in the EuroLeague, claiming several badges of honor when it comes to neutralizing even the most dangerous offensive players. He’s defending like it’s his life mission to make opponents suffer while being the glue that holds together the backcourt of the Greens’ rearguard.
Alpha Diallo, AS Monaco Basket
Alpha Diallo has been hailed as one of the top defensive swingmen in the EuroLeague over the last couple of years and this season he’s displaying his skills in that area of the game perhaps better than ever.
Diallo is tied for second in steals with 1.3 and gathers 2.7 defensive rebounds. Beyond numbers, he’s an energy-packed pest that exemplifies what alertness and hustle mean on the defensive end, being locked in on shutting down his individual opponent while protecting all corners of his territory.
Honorable mention: Thomas Walkup – Olympiacos Piraeus
This is mostly an “honorable” mention simply because reigning EuroLeague Best Defender Thomas Walkup is falling more and more behind in the race for this season’s award the more games he misses. Currently the best-case scenario is that he’ll be able to return to action by the end of March.
Prior to his back injury, Walkup was among the DPOY frontrunners, being the anchor of Olympiacos’s defense for another season. A stalwart defender, able to guard opponents from the “1” to “4” positions, and take care of individual missions as well as providing help all over the place.