7. Brittney Griner
If she’d done nothing more than remain the player she’d started out as over her first four seasons, Brittney Griner would have been on a Hall of Fame track. But check out her leaps forward in 2017—her PER jumped to 28.7, she registered the best true shooting percentage, defensive rebounding percentage and assist percentage (which doubled from 6.5 to 13.1!) of her career. Defensively, she is like pizza for dinner to the DPOY voters: occasionally you pick someone else, but everyone knows what’s the best choice, and it’s Griner. Were it not for an ankle injury, she had a real case to challenge Sylvia Fowles for league MVP. And she won’t turn 28 until this October.