With the NBA regular season complete and post-season play beginning this week, now is a good time to share my picks for this season’s major awards. First, it’s important to note that as part of its new collective bargaining agreement, the NBA now requires a player to appear in a minimum of 65 games to be eligible for most of the awards. This was done in the hopes of curbing load management and ensuring that stars are on the court more often. As an added incentive, many stars have significant contract incentives or bonuses tied to winning certain awards. The bottom line is that NBA tickets are expensive and, barring injury, the fans deserve to see the stars play.
It’s an understatement to say that the 65-game requirement has had a dramatic impact on the pool of players who qualify for this year’s awards. Nearly half of the top 50 scorers in the league did not meet the minimum threshold, including big name stars like Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama, Ja Morant, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid, to name a few. So, with the stage set……here are my picks.
MVP – Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
Many NBA pundits are lobbying for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder to be the MVP, based on the argument that he’s the best player on the best team. While certainly SGA has had a phenomenal season and is a worthy candidate, the Joker is the clear-cut choice. He is unquestionably the best player in the league (world) who had a career year – a pretty remarkable achievement given that he’s a 3-time MVP winner. He is just the 3rd player in NBA history to average a triple double for an entire season, joining Oscar Robertson and his current Nuggets teammate, Russell Westbook. He ranked 3rd in the league in scoring (29.6 ppg), 3rd in rebounding (12.7 rpg), 2nd in assists (10.2 apg), and 2nd in steals (1.8 spg). He shot nearly 60% from the floor and 42% behind the arc. For the current generation of fans, perhaps the most compelling case for Jokic is the fact that he generated an astonishing 64.3 fantasy points per game, 10.2 points more than SGA. Jokic had one of the greatest statistical seasons of any player in NBA history (with the possible exception of Wilt Chamberlain) – he is the MVP. Sorry SGA but even Batman is endorsing the Joker.
All-NBA
1st Team:
Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics)
Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves)
The only tough call on the first team was selecting Edwards over Donovan Mitchell of the Cavaliers. While Mitchell has enjoyed greater team success, Edwards’ statistics are superior in almost every category – he was the league’s 4th leading scorer at nearly 28 ppg, led the league in 3-pointers made while becoming just one of 5 players in NBA history to make 300 or more 3s in a season, and became the third youngest player to reach 9,000 career points, trailing only LeBron James and Kevin Durant – that’s Hall of Fame company. Edwards is also a better defensive player and as an added plus, he gets along with Rudy Gobert a lot better than Mitchell did.
2nd Team:
Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons)
Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks)
LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers)
Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors)
LeBron and Steph are two of the all-time greats (sorry no GOAT conversation today – save that for another time) and continue to amaze with their ability to play at an All-NBA level at age 40 and 37, respectively.
3rd Team:
Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Karl-Anthony Towns (New York Knicks)
Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings)
Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks)
Here is a chance to recognize the stellar play of some of the NBA’s under appreciated stars including the league leaders in rebounding (Sabonis) and assists (Young).
Rookie of the Year – Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
Philadelphia’s Jared McCain was the clear front-runner for this award before suffering a season-ending injury just 23 games into the season. He was averaging more than 15 ppg and had been named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for both October and November. In his absence, Stephon Castle seized the opportunity and enjoyed a stellar rookie season for the Spurs and should run away with this award. He averaged 14.7 ppg and is part of a new big three, along with Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox, that is poised to lead the Spurs back to championship contention.
1st Team:
Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies)
Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta Hawks)
Yves Missi (New Orleans Pelicans)
Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards)
2nd Team:
Zach Edey (Memphis Grizzlie)
Kel’el Ware (Miami Heat)
Donovan Clingan (Portland Trailblazers)
Bub Carrington (Washington Wizards)
Matas Buzelis (Chicago Bulls)
Defensive Player of the Year – Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Victor Wembanyama was a virtual lock for this award before he was shut down for the season with a blood clot in his shoulder and thus failed to meet the 65-game requirement. In his absence, I am going with Evan Mobley. He is a versatile big man who has been a defensive mainstay for one of the three 60-win teams in the NBA and ranked 2nd in the league in field goal percentage on shots defended within five feet of the hoop and tied for 5th in contested three-point shots per game. Other worthy candidates included last year’s winner, Rudy Gobert of the Timberwolves, Ivica Zubac of the Clippers, Dyson Daniels of the Hawks, and Draymond Green of the Warriors. In fact, with Wembanyama out of the equation, Green has been openly lobbying for the award. He didn’t win me over though. While he is an excellent defender, I gave Mobley the edge because he is a superior rim protector.
Now let me take you down a bit of a rabbit hole regarding this award. The Defensive Player of the Year is an award that seems to draw a disproportionate share of scrutiny and criticism. It brings the second guessers and haters out of the woodwork.
For example, Rudy Gobert has been a lightning rod for this criticism. He has won the award 4 times, including last season when he anchored the #1 defense in the league. However, everyone remembers Game 2 of last year’s Western Conference Finals when Gobert switched on to Luka Doncic and Doncic hit a step-back, game-winning three. Many NBA insiders mocked Gobert, including the aforementioned Draymond Green, implying that Gobert wasn’t deserving of the award because he got cooked by Doncic.
This criticism is unjustified on a couple of fronts – first, Doncic is an elite offensive player and has hit tough shots over many premier defenders, including Green himself, and secondly the actual criteria for the award is unclear and over time it appears to have evolved into an award that recognizes centers/forwards responsible for team defensive success and not necessarily the best individual defensive player.
In the first 6 years of the award, 5 of the winners were guards/wings – Sidney Moncreif (2), Alvin Robertson, Michael Jordan, and Michael Cooper – coincidentally all elite individual defenders. In the last 37 years only 5 perimeter players have won the award – Kawhi Leonard (2), Gary Payton, Metta World Peace and Marcus Smart – again elite individual defenders. If the award is really intended to recognize the best individual defender in the NBA, the pool of players under consideration would look markedly different – names like Lou Dort, Amen Thompson, Dillon Brooks, Jalen Williams, Toumani Camara, Derrick White, and Jaden McDaniels would be strong candidates.
Let’s look at McDaniels for example, he is one of the few (probably less than 5) players in the league that can legitimately guard 1-4. On a nightly basis he is asked to defend great offensive talents ranging from Steph Curry to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Luka Doncic to Kevin Durant to LeBron James. And he does it an elite level. According to analysis by BBALL INDEX, McDaniels is just one of two players in their index, dating back to 2013, that has an A or A+ grade in matchup difficulty, defensive positional versatility, on-ball defense, ball screen navigation, and rim defensive FG% vs. expectations.
All Defense
1st Team:
Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors)
Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers)
Jaden McDaniels (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Lou Dort (Oklahoma City Thunder)
2nd Team:
Rudy Gobert (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Amen Thompson (Houston Rockets)
Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Dyson Daniels (Atlanta Hawks)
Derrick White (Boston Celtics)
Most Improved Player – Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers)
Zubac is the choice here over two of the other prominently mentioned candidates Dyson Daniels and Cade Cunningham – while both showed significant improvement year-over-year, Daniels’ numbers were primarily the result of a significant increase in playing time and a more prominent role in Atlanta than he had in New Orleans and Cunningham’s can be attributed to staying healthy – as the first overall pick in the 2021 draft he’s always had incredible talent. Zubac has a legitimate case to be the Defensive Player of the Year and his scoring and rebounding numbers made significant jumps – scoring went from 11.7 ppg to almost 17 and his rebounding went from 9.2 per game to 12.6, ranking 4th in the league.
6th Man of the Year – Malik Beasley (Detroit Pistons)
Payton Pritchard of the Celtics has been the favorite for this award most of the year, but it is hard to pass on Beasley, he is the second leading scorer for the Pistons at 16.3 ppg and became just one of 5 players in league history to hit more than 300 threes in a season while shooting nearly 42% from behind the arc. He is one of the key reasons that the Pistons have been the surprise team of the NBA this season. In addition to Pritchard, other candidates under consideration were Deandre Hunter (Hawks/Cavs) and Ty Jerome of the Cavs. Jerome’s season is particularly noteworthy in that he was close to becoming the rare reserve to join the 40/50/90 club – falling just short by “only” making 87% of his free throw attempts.
Coach of the Year – Mark Daigneault (Oklahoma City Thunder)
This was a very difficult choice with JB Bickerstaff of Detroit, Kenny Atkinson of Cleveland, and JJ Redick of the Lakers also strong contenders but Daigneault led the Thunder to 68 wins and the best record in the league while playing much of the season without one of the NBA’s rising stars, Chet Holmgren. The Thunder have been the best team in the league from day 1 and finished the season with an amazing plus 12.9-point differential.
These are my picks for this season’s major awards. As we head into the NBA 2025 playoffs beginning April 19, I’m curious to hear your picks. Who is the MVP? Rookie of the Year? All-NBA?
About the Author
As Hoop Habits’ media contributor, Roger Johnson brings decades of basketball expertise to his articles. Having served as a marketing executive at Wells Fargo & Company and a content writer for Ultimate Hoops, Roger’s true passion has always been basketball. With experience as a collegiate player at Moorhead State University, coach, and parent of successful players, Roger offers unique insights into the game. His dedication shows through his Minnesota Timberwolves season tickets, University of Minnesota basketball support, and attendance at over 3,000 basketball games throughout his lifetime.