Smith crowned WNBA Defensive Player of Year in 2025

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Australian Alanna Smith has been crowned the 2025 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.

In a season where the Minnesota Lynx earned the #1 seed, going 34-10 in the regular season, and yesterday completing the sweep against the Golden State Valkyries in the first round of the playoffs, Smith has been the defensive anchor for the best team all season.

Smith, 29, becomes just the second international player to ever win the award, after – you guessed it – the legendary Australian Lauren Jackson, who won in 2007. Jackson also earned WNBA MVP honours that season.

Las Vegas Aces A'ja Wilson is the co-winner of the 2025 award with judges clearly unable to spilt the two elite defenders.

For Smith, it is fitting reward for a player that has made herself into a star of the league, after struggling to make her mark in the first few years of her professional career, even finding herself out of the league in 2022 after being waived by Indiana.

Smith spoke candidly to basketball.com.au prior to the WNBA season about the struggles early in her career.

“It's one thing about the WNBA and just your professional career in general, there are moments where your confidence can be rocked, and I definitely experienced that pretty early on for probably two or three years,” she said.

“I just had to learn how to build my own self-confidence, even in moments and situations where it was really, really hard.”

It’s been an amazing journey, one of perseverance and hard work. Over the past two years, Smith has reaped the rewards from that hard work.

She was named to the WNBA All-Defensive Second Team last year as Minnesota made it all the way to the WNBA Finals, while also leading the Opals to bronze at the Paris Olympics, named to the star-studded All-Star Five line-up at the tournament.

Now in 2025, she is the Defensive Player of the Year, and she will also add a WNBA All-Defensive First Team nod to her resume in the coming days too. Undoubtedly though, she is after one thing: a WNBA Championship. That chase continues for Minnesota, who will face Phoenix or New York in the second round.

In her seventh WNBA season, Smith is the backbone of this powerful Lynx defence, which boasts the best defensive rating in the league at 97.5, one of only three teams with a defensive rating under 100.

Averaging 9.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 assists per game, Smith is a constant presence for the Lynx and much of their defensive game plan revolves around siphoning the opponent and the ball towards Smith in the paint, where she does her best work.

Smith broke the Lynx franchise record for blocks in a season, finishing the regular season with 80, surpassing Vanessa Hayden’s 68 in 2005.

In a league dominated by versatile bigs and paint players, Smith has the unenviable task of having to deal with the best players in the world on a nightly basis, and she does that without taking a backwards step. Her competitiveness and willingness to put her body on the line makes her so valuable to her team.

The one-two punch that Smith and Napheesa Collier provide on the defensive end is unmatched and they become the first teammates to win consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards after Collier’s win last year.

Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve spoke about Smith’s importance to the team, especially alongside Collier, last month after a win in New York, and kickstarted the campaign for Smith’s DPOY case.

"Every time we start a game plan, we talk about what (Alanna's) influence is going to be," Reeve said.

"We saw it and her shot blocking... Her and (Napheesa), the first day they played defence together, their synergy was terrific and every move that (Napheesa) made, (Alanna) knew where to be and play off her.

"(Alanna's) just really smart, really really smart, and would absolutely be my choice for Defensive Player of the Year."

Crowned the best defender in the WNBA, Smith’s presence on that end of the floor will have a huge say in whether the Lynx can go one step better than last year and breakthrough for the WNBA Championship in the coming weeks.

2025 ALANNA SMITH:
G: 42 I GS: 42 I MP ↑: 26.5 I FG ↑: 3.8 I FGA ↑: 7.9 I FG% ↑: .485 I 3P ↑: 1.3 I 3PA ↑: 3.8 I 3P% ↑: .329 I 2P ↑: 2.5 I 2PA ↑: 4.0 I 2P% ↑: .633 I eFG% ↑: .565 I FT ↓: 0.7 I FTA ↑: 1.5 I FT% ↓: .477 I ORB ↑: 1.5 I DRB ↑: 3.5 I TRB ↑: 5.1 I AST ↑: 2.9 I STL ↑: 1.3 I BLK ↑: 1.9 I TOV ↑: 1.5 I PF ↑: 2.8 I PTS ↑: 9.6

Career (2019–2025)
G: 183 I GS: 117 I MP: 21.1 I FG: 2.9 I FGA: 6.2 I FG%: .467 I 3P: 0.9 I 3PA: 2.9 I 3P%: .311 I 2P: 2.0 I 2PA: 3.3 I 2P%: .594 I eFG%: .536 I FT: 0.9 I FTA: 1.4 I FT%: .648 I ORB: 1.3 I DRB: 3.0 I TRB: 4.3 I AST: 1.8 I STL: 1.0 I BLK: 1.2 I TOV: 1.1 I PF: 2.1 I PTS: 7.7