Before 2025 playoffs Start in the NBA, we will take a moment to look back in the regular season and who deserved hardware for their work in the last six months. In a good year, there could be three exciting awards for when we arrived in April in the NBA. Often there are one or two. It is a function of the 82 -game season. The favorites tend to get away from the pack at the end of the season. Think last season. The first place finalists for MVP (Nikola Jokić), the rookie of the year (Victor Wembanyama), the defensive player of the year (Rudy Gobert) and the coach of the year (Mark Daigneault) received at least 72 of the 100 votes available first. The only nearby races were for the sixth man of the year, most players of the year of most improved player and clutch.
But this year? If there are easy selections, well, they are certainly more difficult to find. Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have spent the season locked in one of the best MVP races in years, although SGA ended the season as a great favorite in most sports betting houses.
Wembanyama’s absence perhaps created the most open defensive players career we have seen. The absence of a prospect at Wembanyama level has done the same for the rookie of the year. Half of the League has a plausible case of the coach of the year.
No one is escaping with anything this year. Each award was plausibly at stake until the end of the regular season. The NBA will begin to announce the winners as the playoffs advance, but for now, the NBA staff of CBS Sports has voted in our selections for this year’s awards. However, considering how close are these races, these selections cannot be treated as a gospel. There will be some surprises in the coming weeks. Most of the NBA suspense during the next two months will come to the court, since the best teams hurt it for the championship, but it is more than enough for the individual trophies lot this year.
MVP
That is four votes for SGA and three for Jokić. Is this a sign of how the real vote will be developed? MVP’s career has not had a wrong option throughout this season. Gilgous-Alexander was the catalyst for the best league team. He averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds per game with 51.9/37.5/89.8 shooting divisions and a strong defense in a team that won 68 games. Jokić became the first center to average a triple double (29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists) and statistically had its best season in a race that has already seen it with MVP honors three times.
Defensive player of the year
Four different players get votes in an award that could go in any direction. This award was from Wembanyama until a blood clot forced him to lose the last six weeks of the season and kept him below the 65 games threshold. Green emerged as the favorite at the end of the season, while Mobley was a defensive anchor in the best team in the entire season. Green’s Warriors and Mobley’s Cavs occupied the seventh and eighth place, respectively, in the defensive qualification this season.
Rookie of the year
The rookie of the year became a career of two players for the end of the season. Castle improved as the season advanced for the Spurs, averaging more than 19 points and five assists per game in March and April. Wells averaged 10.4 points and 3.4 rebounds while playing 26 minutes per night for a Grizzlies team that was in the postseason hunting throughout the season. Wells, unfortunately, I saw his rookie season earlier last week After fracturing the wrist in a tough fall.
Sixth man of the year
Pritchard, from the current Celtics champion, scored 14.3 points and hit 40.7% of his 3S from the Bank for Boston this season. He was the favorite for most of the year. Beasley, meanwhile, was a large part of the change of the Pistons. He averaged 16.3 points per game and connected 319 triples, the second more in the league behind Anthony Edwards.
Most improved player
Another 4-3 was divided into our vote, this time between the Hawks Guard and the veteran man of the clippers. Both players appear to make defense teams this season. Daniels, the “Great Barrera Barrera”, led the league in robberies (229) while scoring 14.1 points per game (compared to 5.8 last season for the Pelicans). Meanwhile, Zubac averaged 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, both race maximums, and it was an important reason why the clippers remained stable without Kawhi Leonard during most of the season and obtained the seed number 5 of the west.
Clutch player of the year
Brunson and Jokić were the two best NBA clutch players throughout the season. Brunson led all players with 5.6 points per game in clutch situations. Jokić averaged 4.2 points per game in clutch situations and made 42.9% of his 3.
Coach of the year
Atkinson gets most of our votes for turning the CAVs into a regular seasonal power that won 64 games and reached the east seed. Udoka and Lue, who trained some surprises from the West Conference, also receive some love here. Umoka took the Rockets to seed number 2 of the West and 52 victories after Houston lost the postseason last year. Lue guided the clippers to seed No. 5 after letting Paul George walk in the low season and played most of the campaign without Kawhi Leonard.
Executive of the year
Almost a clean sweep for Presti, the architect of the transformation of the city of Oklahoma in the giant of the West Conference. He added Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso to the OKC list during the summer, and Thunder seems even more a title threat this season. Pelinka, meanwhile, was part of the most impressive trade in the history of the NBA. Even if Luka Donçić’s agreement is more about the Nico Harrison and the Mavericks exchanging his superstar at his best, Pelinka still made the agreement and changed the short and long term futures of the Lakers in the process.
