For the second time this season, the NBA recognized Hawks guard Dyson Daniels as the best defensive player for a month. On Tuesday, the league announced Daniels as the Defensive Player of the Month for March.
Daniels earned the first-ever Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month for October/November and became the second player to earn multiple honors, regardless of conference.
He finished last month with a league-high 46 total steals, 14 more than the next closest player Kings guard Keon Ellis (32). Daniles had 17 more than the next closest Eastern Conference player, Knicks forward OG Anunoby (29). He had more steals last month than 393 players have total for the entire season (45 steals or fewer).
A Bendigo, Australia, native who is known as ‘The Great Barrier Thief,’ Daniels led the NBA in total “stocks” (51: 46 steals, five blocks), deflections (75) and loose balls recovered (22). He had a steal-to-personal foul ratio of 1.58 last month, becoming the first player since Stephen Curry (November 2015) to have a steal-to-foul ratio of 1.5-or-better in a single month, according to Elias Sports.
Daniels, who turned 22 on March 17, recorded his 200th steal of the season in the Hawks win over the 76ers on March 23. With that steal, he became the youngest player since at least the 1973-74 season to have 200 steals in a single season. He is just the fifth player to do so before turning 23 years old, joining Magic Johnson, Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas and Dudley Bradley. He also became just the third player since 2000 to tally 200-plus thefts in a single season, joining Chris Paul (2008-09, 2007-08) and Allen Iverson (2002-03).
With 261 total stocks, Daniels is on pace to be the first guard to lead the NBA in total stocks since Michael Jordan in 1987-88. Jordan was named the Defensive Player of the Year that season.
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