The NBA announced the nominees for several important awards, including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Clutch Player of the Year.
Additionally, the NBA will unveil several honors throughout the postseason, such as the All-NBA Teams, the All-Rookie Teams, the All-Defensive Teams, and the Basketball Executive of the Year.
With that in mind, let’s run down the list of the NBA’s major awards and identify who should win as well as who will actually end up taking home the hardware.
📰 Table Of Contents
Clutch Player of the Year
- Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks
- Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
- Nikola Jokiċ, Denver Nuggets
Who should win: Nikola Jokiċ
Who will win: Jalen Brunson
Anybody who watches the Denver Nuggets, or even the NBA for that matter, knows that Nikola Jokiċ is the best basketball player in the world this season. After winning his third MVP, he followed that up by becoming the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double in a season. Unfortunately, the NBA seems like it is getting voter fatigue when it comes to Jokić. By that, I mean we have become so used to seeing Jokić play at an elite level that it no longer feels special (even though it is).
On top of that, the Knicks have been one of the best teams in the NBA, and Jalen Brunson deserves his flowers. Since the league can’t give Brunson the MVP award, they will give the best player in their biggest media market the Clutch Player of the Year award. To be fair, though, he has earned it. Brunson averages the most clutch time points amongst all three players nominated for the award (5.6).
Sixth Man of the Year
- Malik Beasley, Detroit Pistons
- Ty Jerome, Cleveland Cavaliers
- Payton Pritchard, Boston Celtics
Who should win: Malik Beasley
Who will win: Payton Pritchard
I think that Ty Jerome received a nomination as a courtesy because I see this as a two-man race between Malik Beasley and Payton Pritchard. Not much separates these two guys. Beasley averages 16.3 points while Pritchard averages 14.3. Pritchard has a better field goal percentage, but Beasley is a better three-point shooter.
When we analyze effective sixth men, I like to look at where their impact stacks up compared to members of the starting roster. Payton Pritchard is the Celtics’ fifth-best scorer while Malik Beasley is the Pistons’ third-best scorer. I also think that if they switched places, Beasley would be putting up better numbers than Pritchard.
Unfortunately for Beasley, this award isn’t predicated on just scoring. You need to do everything well, and that’s where Pritchard has the advantage. He averages more rebounds, assists, and blocks than Malik Beasley, which means he’ll probably take home the award even though Beasley played a more important role in Detroit.
Most Improved Player
- Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons
- Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks
- Ivica Zubac, LA Clippers
Who should win: Cade Cunningham
Who will win: Cade Cunningham
I am thrilled with how much Dyson Daniels has grown, but he is a defense-focused player who was the sixth-best scorer on a team that finished the regular season with a losing record. If anything, I think he has a better chance of winning Defensive Player of the Year rather than Most Improved Player.
Ivica Zubac was asked to do much more for his team, and he easily answered the call. While his average minutes only went up by 6.4, Zubac’s scoring, assists, rebounds, and steals all increased while he cut down on his average number of personal fouls from last year. To top it all off, he finished the regular season with the fourth-most rebounds in the NBA (12.6 per game).
As good as Zubac was, though, he’s not a former number-one overall pick, he wasn’t the best player on his team, and he wasn’t named to the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. Cade Cunningham did all of those things this year while leading the Detroit Pistons to their first playoff berth in six years. I think this will be an easy decision for the voters.
Defensive Player of the Year
- Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks
- Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
- Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Who should win: Dyson Daniels
Who will win: Evan Mobley
I don’t think fans realize how monumentally successful Dyson Daniels’ season was. Daniels averaged 3.01 steals per game this year, the highest mark by a player since Alvin Robertson finished the 1990-91 season with 3.04 steals per game. Since I was born in 1994, I can say that I have literally never seen a player force this many turnovers in a single season.
Chris Paul never finished a season averaging three steals per game. Nor did Kawhi Leonard. Nor did LeBron James. Michael Jordan did it once in 1988, and he won the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards that season.
Sadly, Daniels plays for a team that was unable to make any significant progress in the postseason, while Evan Mobley was the defensive anchor of the best team in the league. It also helps that Mobley leads all nominees in defensive rebounds. This is the award that I think will be the most controversial since Daniels was a historically great defender this year.
Rookie of the Year
- Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs
- Zaccharie Risacher, Atlanta Hawks
- Jaylen Wells, Memphis Grizzlies
Who should win: Stephon Castle
Who will win: Zaccharie Risacher
Stephon Castle averaged the most points amongst the nominees, but Risacher was more efficient with a higher field goal and three-point percentage than Wells and Castle. Though Wells was an effective player, he trails both Castle and Risacher in almost all meaningful statistical categories besides free throw percentage.
It’s a little worrisome that these are the best players of the 2024 NBA Draft Class. I knew that last year’s draft class was weak, but pee-yew! This is an underwhelming Rookie of the Year race.
Castle probably deserves it, but I think Risacher ends up taking home the hardware. Though I don’t agree with this line of logic, I think that voters tend to lean towards the higher draft pick when debating Rookie of the Year candidates, and Risacher was the number-one overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Therefore, he gets the nod over Castle.
Coach of the Year
- Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland Cavaliers
- J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit Pistons
- Ime Udoka, Houston Rockets
Who should win: J.B. Bickerstaff
Who will win: Kenny Atkinson
Kenny Atkinson has been a lock to win this award for months. The Cavs started the season 17-1 and never looked back, clinching the best record in the Eastern Conference. They were also an offensive juggernaut, leading the league in points per game while finishing second in field goal percentage and three-point percentage, tied for fifth in rebounds, and ninth in assists. However, I think J.B. Bickerstaff did a much more impressive job coaching up his guys compared to Atkinson.
When Atkinson was named Cleveland’s head coach this off-season, he was already inheriting a playoff-ready team that reached the postseason last year. He elevated them and made them better, helping them finish with 16 more wins than the previous year, but that’s not close to what Bickerstaff was able to accomplish.
J.B. Bickertsaff took over a franchise that had won a total of 54 games in the three seasons before he arrived there. Last year alone, the Pistons finished with 14 wins and 68 losses. But this season, Bickerstaff added an extra 30 wins to Detroit’s résumé, earning them their first playoff berth since the 2018-19 season. That is remarkable and praiseworthy.
Kenny Atkinson turned a winning team into a better team. J.B. Bickerstaff turned the worst squad in the NBA into a playoff team. That is a more impressive accomplishment in my eyes.
Most Valuable Player
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
- Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
Who should win: Nikola Jokić
Who will win: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
As I mentioned before, voter fatigue does exist, and it rears its ugly head more in the NBA than it does in any other professional sports league, in my opinion. Look no further than Giannis Antetokounmpo. Last year, he became the first player in the history of the National Basketball Association to average at least 30 points per game while shooting at least 60% from the field. Despite this feat, which he pulled off again this year, Giannis finished fourth in MVP voting.
This year, Nikola Jokić had the best season of his career, and the numbers support that statement. Jokić set single-season career highs in points per game (29.6) and assists per game (10.2). He also had the second-best rebounding season of his career (12.7 rebounds per game). Unfortunately for Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was just a tiny bit better.
SGA won the NBA’s scoring title, averaging 32.7 points per game while playing fewer minutes than Jokić. He also somehow managed to average more blocks per game than Jokić, which is odd because SGA isn’t a center.
We also have to look at the overall performance of their teams. SGA led the Thunder to a 68-14 record, making them just the seventh team in NBA history to win at least 68 games. Plus, Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder squad was a top-five team both offensively and defensively. The same cannot be said for the Nuggets, who finished 25th in scoring defense.
Jokić is the best basketball player in the world, but voter fatigue and the scoring title are working in SGA’s favor, which means we will have a new NBA MVP in a few weeks.
