Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images With the regular season coming to an end, it’s time to pick some award winners. One of the craziest regular seasons in recent memory has come to a close, and that means it’s time to amicably agree on our award picks. With that in mind , if I don’t select your favorite player/team, please remember that it’s because I do have an agenda against them and don’t want to see them succeed. Jokes aside, I tried to be as impartial as possible to base these selections off of data and the eye test. In that sense, the names listed below are who I believe deserve to win rather than who I think will. Let’s dive in. Most Valuable Player Winner: Nikola Jokic Runner-ups: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo I wrote about the MVP race last week and picked Jokic over Shai, but I would be lying if I said that my opinion didn’t waver slightly in the days since. I’m still sticking with Big Honey because I believe him to be more vital to his team’s success, and when it’s close, I usually go with the better player. Even so, this is truly a coin toss and Shai would be a very deserving winner, too. The race for the third spot was tight as well, and it came down to Giannis or Tatum. Similar to the Jokic vs Shai argument, Giannis is simply more vital to the Bucks’ success and is the better player, even if Boston is laps ahead in wins. I do want to give Tatum some love, though, as his playmaking has taken a huge jump this year and he now belongs in the conversation with the three finalists, which wasn’t the case in years past. Defensive Player of the Year Winner: Jaren Jackson Jr. Runner-ups: Evan Mobley, Draymond Green With Victor Wembanyama graciously letting other players fight for DPOY for the final time until he retires, the remaining pool of candidates seems a lot less formidable. They all have decent cases to win, but whoever lifts the actual trophy has a much weaker case than players of the past. I ultimately went with JJJ. He was the frontrunner for most of the year (Wemby aside) until Memphis’ recent skid, but his full body of work is still the most impressive. Compared with Mobley and Draymond, JJJ has the biggest defensive on/off (+6.9), is holding opponents to shooting the lowest percent at the rim (54%), and has played the most minutes (2197) as well. Moreover, JJJ is by far the most impactful defender on his team while Mobley has another elite running mate in Jarrett Allen, and Memphis’ defensive rating without him (117.6) is also much worse than Golden State’s without Draymond (113.5). Draymond, though, definitely has a future in politics with the campaigning he’s done recently. Most Improved Player Winner: Dyson Daniels Runner-ups: Payton Pritchard, Ivica Zubac Oh fun, the award that many question the existence of. Choosing this year’s winner is even more frustrating than usual, given that the player many would like to vote for (Ty Jerome) isn’t even eligible. Still, there are other worthy candidates, with Daniels leading the pack. In choosing candidates, I selected players whose stats and impact aren’t simply correlated with getting more opportunities. All these players fit that bill: Daniels and Pritchard have become more efficient even while attempting more shots, and Zubac has become an All-Defense level player and borderline All-Star when he was “just” a good starter in the past. Out of the three, Daniels has made the biggest leap. Everyone knew that he could be an elite defender, but it’s his offensive improvements that stands out more: Daniels has become more efficient across the board even after his FGA per game more than doubled, and his 4.4 assists per game show some impressive playmaking chops too. Rookie of the Year Winner: Stephon Castle Runner-ups: Zaccharie Risacher, Jaylen Wells Goodness, I’d rather pay tariffs than have to pick a ROTY from this season. I guess Stephon Castle is the “winner,” but I can’t ever remember a rookie class this bad. Both he and Risacher are well below average in terms of efficiency (Castle’s true shooting is 5% below the league average and Risacher’s is 2% lower), and their teams also have better net ratings when they’re off the court. Still, Castle’s raw 14.6/3.6/4.1 splits are quite impressive and he’s had a sizable role on the Spurs from day 1, whereas Risacher has only come on in the past few months. That Castle’s played 300 more minutes also gives him an advantage, although I’m not sure if either of them are positive players on a consistent basis yet. Sixth Man of the Year Winner: Malik Beasley Runner-ups: Payton Pritchard, DeAndre Hunter This ultimately came down to Beasley vs Pritchard, and while I consider the latter to be a better all-around player, Beasley’s impact on Detroit this year has been more impressive. Consider this: without Beasley, just 31.2% of the Pistons’ shots come from deep (2nd percentile) and they make just 35% of those attempts (29th). When he does play, those numbers skyrocket to 39% (54th) and 37.4% (65th), respectively, and Detroit also goes from having a -1.2 net rating with Beasley off to a +3.6 when he’s on. Is it fair to punish Pritchard for not having more impactful metrics due to him being on a better team? Probably not, but Beasley’s shooting has been so vital to the Pistons’ success that it forced me to break my “better player” rule and award him instead. Coach of the Year Winner: Kenny Atkinson Runner-ups: J.B. Bickerstaff, Tyronn Lue This year’s COTY field is one of the deepest in recent memory. Atkinson and Bickerstaff were the only “easy” picks, and selecting between Lue, Ime Udoka, and Mark Daigneault was essentially a coin toss. First, the winner. I legitimately considered Bickerstaff for the top spot, given that the Pistons have more than tripled their win total from last year. Still, that has almost as much to do with Monty “$78.5 million” Williams being a historically bad coach than Bickerstaff being great. That’s not to take anything away from the latter, but a reminder that Detroit could’ve finished with twice the amount of wins last year had Monty just done an average job coaching. Meanwhile, Atkinson leading the Cavs to 64 wins isn’t by coincidence or better health. He’s reinvented their offense by persuading Mitchell to take a lesser role and empower Mobley more. It hasn’t simply been asking the big man to shoot more threes, either: Atkinson has deliberately put the ball in his hands in advantageous positions, creating mismatches that have turned Cleveland into an elite offense. For the third spot, I decided to go with Lue due to how he’s handled the Clippers’ tumultuous last offseason and needing to implement Kawhi into the lineup halfway through the year. Many people didn’t even expect them to make the play-in (not me, of course... just don’t check my pre-season predictions), and for them to have locked up a playoff seed is incredible. With that said, you can’t go wrong with picking Udoka or Daigneault, either. All-NBA Teams 1st Team: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Evan Mobley, Nikola Jokic 2nd Team: Steph Curry, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Jaren Jackson Jr. 3rd Team: Tyrese Haliburton, Donovan Mitchell, LeBron James, Jalen Williams, Karl-Anthony Towns The popular pick for the final 1st team spot is Mitchell, but he hasn’t even been the most impactful player on his own team. To me, that distinction belongs to Mobley, who’s the favorite for DPOY and has made a leap on offense. Mitchell deserves credit for sacrificing shots this year, but that hasn’t helped his efficiency. In fact, his 57.5% true shooting is slightly below the league average and Mitchell’s worst mark since his final year in Utah. There’s an argument that even Garland’s been better than him this year, but Mitchell’s improved defense still lands him on the 3rd team. The final spot on the 3rd team was also hard to pick, with Haliburton eventually making the cut. Yes, he had a slow start to the year, but his struggles have been overblown: since Christmas, Haliburton’s averaged 19.6/3.6/9.6 on 50/42/86 shooting and just 1.4 turnovers a game. It’s not as mindblowing as the start of his 2023-24 campaign, but it does reveal Haliburton’s true talent level — that of an All-NBA player. All-Defensive Teams 1st Team: Amen Thompson, Lu Dort, Draymond Green, Jaren Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley 2nd Team: Dyson Daniels, Toumani Camara, Jalen Williams, Ivica Zubac, Rudy Gobert The defensive teams weren’t too tough to make due to the decline of a few mainstays: Giannis, Brook Lopez, and Bam Adebayo. The 1st team is comprised of the two best perimeter defenders today (Amen and Dort) along with the three DPOY candidates. Meanwhile, the 2nd team features a few newer faces. Daniels and Camara had the biggest defensive breakouts this year, while JDub is one of the few players in the league capable of adequately defending guards and bigs. The last two names are Zubac — who spearheaded the third-ranked defense with the Clippers — and Gobert, whose defensive metrics aren’t too different than his DPOY winning campaign last year. With the regular season officially over, please check out Ricky O’Donnell’s 2025 mock draft! Fans of teams that missed the playoffs still have hope through the draft, and for those whose club made it, I wish you the best of luck (outside of the Lakers, of course). Thanks for reading! All stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass and NBA Stats. ...read more read less