Warriors' Draymond Green Wins 2024-25 NBA Hustle Award over Cason Wallace
Even though he missed out on winning Defensive Player of the Year, Draymond Green won't come away from the 2024-25 season without an individual honor after being named the NBA Hustle Award winner.
In the voting results released by the NBA on Friday, the Golden State Warriors forward finished ahead of Cason Wallace of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Guerschon Yabusele of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Wallace's teammate, Luguentz Dort, and Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks rounded out the top five.
The NBA says it gives out the Hustle Award to those "who make the effort plays that don’t often appear in the traditional box score but impact winning on a nightly basis."
Specific stats used to determine the winner include deflections, loose balls recovered, charges drawn, screen assists, contested shots and box-outs.
On a per-minute basis among 143 qualified players, Green ranked in the top 10 in contested three-point shots (.1225), charges drawn (0.0071) and defensive box-outs (0.0479). He was also 13th in contested two-point shots (0.1881) and 15th in deflections (0.0898).
Per Brian Martin of NBA.com, Green is the first winner of the Hustle Award who ranked in the top 40 in all nine categories the league uses to determine the recipient.
The Hustle Award has been given out annually since the 2016-17 season. Marcus Smart has been a dominant force with three wins in nine years, including back-to-back victories in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Smart is also the only player who has won the Hustle Award and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season (2021-22).
Green was among the three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year this season, along with Daniels and Evan Mobley. Mobley was revealed as the winner on Thursday, with Green finishing third.
This marks the first individual award Green has won since being named Defensive Player of the Year for the 2016-17 season. He helped the Warriors win 48 games during the regular season and make the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.
