Obviously not deciding factors, but in case people are interested:

Steals leaders:
Lisch
Martin
Dillard
Prather
Whittington
Jackson
Harris
Ware
Woodside
Cotton

Blocks leaders:
McKay
Ogilvy
Pledger
Boone
Whittington
Jacobsen
Powell
Craig
Carter
Wesley

In the absence of Martin, maybe Lisch.

Torrey Craig has had an exceptional year on D this year. Guards multiple positions often shutting down the oppositions best scoring option regardless of traditional position. Along with his rebounding effort and ability, he is a worthy candidate.

Lisch, Craig and McKay could probably all make a case for DPOY. Damo has just missed too many games, unfortunately.

Craig for mine given the time Martin has missed.

McKay

As AKA said Craig has carried the Bullets defensive load against a wide variety of positional roles. From memory he did better than most when matched up on Randle. Add to that some of the huge blocks he has produced and I think e gets the nod just ahead of Lisch.

I would have had Lisch slightly ahead at the halfway point but Gaze has worn him out.

Maric was solid early. But maybe not played enough minutes or a big enough role. Kings had a great team defense in the first half of the season

If you go by Isaac's list, Whittington featured on both but if you watched all the Kings games, you would've noticed that he is a pathetic post defender. Too many instances where he played matador defense. Statistically looks good but coaches voting would probably notice that weakness. He is foul prone as well and that will neutralize quite a few votes.

I'd give it to Lisch this year. As wasted as he looked lately, he is still consistently playing outstanding defense. If you wanna go bigs this year, I'd go for McKay but he is also foul prone.

Chris Goulding easily

Gotta go to Craig.

Honourable mention to the White/Norton combo.

Martin has missed too many games & Lisch has gone backwards this year : (

Mitch Norton

DPOTY should have a metric which compares the difference in the Points/rebounds per minute of the offensive player that they are guarding as compared to that players average output , as well as steals/blocks.

i would think that Craig would suddenly come up in the rankings

Nathan Jawai

Yes, on his day, Martin is far and away the best defensive player in the league. But he's missed several games, and been on managed minutes since he returned.

Nathan Jawai is easily the best defensive specialist that the NBL has ever seen.

Give him a buffet line full of food and I assure you nobody else is going to get near it.

Whittington was probably the best defender in the league until what seems like a conscious effort to have him stay out of foul trouble by playing passively on the defensive end right around the time our slide started.

As the other person mentioned Sobey is worth a mention and probably would end up top 5 in defense. Puts his body on the line, gets steals, blocks (#1 in guards) and defensive rebounds (#2 in guards). He also shuts down opponents. Won't win DPOTY but a worthy candidate.

Nobody plays D like Martin.
Missed out on the gong last year, and took it out on the finalists winning MVP. That's some effort for a Defensive player.

But he's missed half the season, surely that must discount him.

Nobody gets away with the close contact that Martin is allowed on ball handlers. He's overrated as a defender because the refs don't call enough fouls on him.

Torrey Craig should win DPOTY this year over Kevin Lisch.