My 2024-2025 NBA Awards
So, obviously I don't have an NBA awards ballot, I'm not a real member of the media. Not anymore, anyway. But that certainly doesn't stop me from thinking about it. Here's how I would approach mine.
First, winning matters. If your team isn't winning, why do I care what stats you're putting up? This is implicitly acknowledged all the time, it's why we have the phrase "good stats, bad team guy," but too often the media excuses guys they like on mediocre or worse teams, because they like that player. Second, I think the context of statistics have to be taken in perspective. The biggest part of that is the situation the players in question find themselves. For instance, is the player averaging 10+ rebounds per game because they're the best rebounder since Dennis Rodman, or is it because a) the rest of the team deliberately sprints back down the floor to leave the rebound for the player in question, b) no one else on their team is good at rebounding, so they have to do everything, and/or c) the other good players on their team were hurt.
The main thing I've come to over the past few weeks in thinking about these individual awards is that it's harder to do more with more than it is to do more with less. People talk all the time about how hard it is for players has to do less with more, meaning the rest of their team sucks. I now believe the opposite is true. I think it's harder to do more with more. Take Kyrie Irving for example. When he was in Cleveland, he chafed over not being the man, because LeBron James was, and Kyrie wanted his own team. So he orchestrated a trade, and in Boston, he thought the team would be his. The problem was that he didn't realize Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum would be so good so fast. He needed to share the ball, but he didn't want to, and patronizingly called them "young guys," before quitting on the team and trying to set up another super team in Brooklyn. That didn't work out either, because, again, he wasn't ready to make the sacrifices needed to keep everyone happy. It wasn't until he landed in Dallas that he learned he'd be better off if he sacrificed a little for the team's other star player. And then he took back off and helped lead his team to the NBA Finals.
There are plenty of other examples of how hard it is to do more with more. Look at the 2004 Lakers. Wow, we have Karl Malone and Gary Payton now? How'd that go? Look at Kevin Durant. When he went to Golden State, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson sacrificed to integrate him into the team. But Durant learned the wrong lesson (that he was the man and always needed to be catered to), and now he hasn't won a single playoff game in three of the past four seasons, and may never win one again.
Unfortunately, this context is often lost in the quest to crow about someone's shiny numbers? Could Donovan Mitchell have averaged 28.3 points per game again like he did two years ago? Absolutely. But two years ago, the Cavs were the 4 seed, and got dusted in the first round by the Knicks, because they were far too reliant on Mitchell (among other problems). He made some sacrifices last season, and progress was made, but it still wasn't enough. This season, he's stepped back even more – his 18.6 shots per game are his lowest since his rookie season. But his team won 64 games. Which is more important? And which was the harder thing to do? It would have been very easy for Mitchell to go back to taking 20 shots per game, or even 22 or 24. But by working harder to find his teammates two more times per game, he helped build their confidence, and they turned into a wrecking crew. They just don't become what they've become without Mitchell's sacrifice.
The other piece of context I feel like gets lost is how many roles a player takes on, and how they are used throughout the season. These bits of context are especially important in evaluating defense and rookies, respectively. People will always find a stat to justify their beliefs, but I want to look past the stats when possible to see that context. Of course, I am not perfect, but I do watch a lot of basketball! Anyway, let's get to it.
MVP
1 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
2 - Jayson Tatum
3 - Donovan Mitchell
4 - Nikola Jokić
5 - Giannis Antetokounmpo
Shai was the best player on the best team. I maintain that that should always be the standard whenever possible, and I'll hold to that this season. What Shai had to do was incredibly difficult, and I think that gets lost in the crush of stats. His team went out this offseason and made a concerted effort to have a monster double-big lineup. And then Isaiah Hartenstein got hurt, and then Chet Holmgren got hurt. The two players didn't suit up in the starting lineup together until the 50th game of the season. The main reason it worked, and that the Thunder were 40-9 heading into that game, was SGA.
All of the things I said above about Mitchell goes doubly for Tatum, who also had to contend with the starters on his team constantly missing time. There's just a confidence to his game now that didn't quite exist even last year. He not only just makes the right play every single time, he knows he's going to make the right play, and is just waiting for the mistake that his opponent will inevitably make trying to beat him.
There's just no way I can give Nikola Jokić a top-three vote when his team was mired in dysfunction. If you're the leader, you have to speak up. Yet for the past two seasons, he's just laid back and said nothing. That's a great way to avoid blame, but it's not a great way to avoid mediocrity, and that's what the Nuggets have become. The Nuggets were 16-21 against above-.500 teams this season. One of the things the most valuable player in the league should be capable of is stepping up and leading his team to victory when the competition gets tough. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, right? I guess Jokić isn't that tough. But hey, he averaged a shiny triple double, oooooooohhh. Shiny!
The story is the same for Giannis. They were 14-20 against >.500 teams. And their big run to end the season? They beat Phoenix, Philly, Miami, New Orleans, Minnesota, New Orleans, and Detroit twice. The three wins against the two six-seeds were nice, but it's not like they were dethroning kings and queens. Anyone who puts Jokić and Giannis in their top three is blithely ignoring these things, and they do so because putting them in their top three is nice and safe, and no one will yell at them. Shrug.
All-NBA
1st team - The five players above
2nd team - Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Cade Cunningham, Karl-Anthony Towns, Stephen Curry
3rd team - Evan Mobley, Tyrese Haliburton, James Harden, Ivica Zubac, Jalen Brunson
With apologies to: Jaren Jackson Jr., Jalen Williams, Trae Young, Darius Garland, Derrick White
I really wanted to give Jackson a spot here, and had him penciled in for a long time. But this is why I wanted to wait until the end of the season. Over and over, the Grizzlies fell flat on their face, and unfortunately, the burden of that has to fall on Jackson, as he is their best player. My other last cut was Jalen Williams, but in the end I was squinting too hard to vault him over Jalen Brunson. Record wasn't as big of a factor there because the Knicks were also very good, and did enough to not need wins in the final week in order to secure the three seed.
My biggest surprise – even more so than Cade Cunningham! – is Stephen Curry. Halfway through the season, he looked like an old man who had tuckered himself out in the Olympics. But his finishing kick was so strong – and it's still so clear that even with Jimmy Butler, the Warriors still swing 100% on Curry's performance – that he had to end up here.
These teams would look a lot different without the 65-game rule. I think Luka Dončić and Jaylen Brown would certainly be here, and there would be good arguments for a host of other players as well.
Defensive Player of the Year
1 - Dyson Daniels
2 - Amen Thompson
3 - Ivica Zubac
What I value the most defensively is the ability to constantly be a deterrent without having to foul to be physical. When you're too physical, you run the risk of getting into foul trouble, and then you've left things in the refs' hands. Why you would ever want to leave things in the refs' hands is beyond me. So I just don't value guys like Lu Dort as highly.
The other thing I really prize from a defender is versatility and flexibility. Can you defend more than one position? Are you good in the half court and on the fast break? Can you cover for other players? Etc.
Dyson Daniels has just been a menace this season. I feel so great about believing in him, and that trade is going to go down in infamy for the Pelicans. It torpedoed multiple seasons for them, given how bad and then injured Dejounte Murray was. Amen Thompson was just as much a swiss army knife defender, and just as tenacious as Daniels. I would be happy to flip them, but gave the edge to Daniels because of his ball-hawking skills and instincts. Zubac is just a force, and
On Draymond Green – I would never vote for Draymond Green on anything like this because Draymond Green is a sociopath. If anyone else treated other players, coaches, and refs the way Green does, they'd be instantly thrown out of games. But his level of verbal and physical abuse has become so rote, so commonplace, that refs just let him get away with stuff that not a single other player would get away with. I find it sad and ridiculous, and honestly I think the fact that Curry and Steve Kerr have aided, abetted, and encouraged Green's antics for so long tarnishes their legacies as well. Also, he took half the season off. You don't get to just start trying hard after the All-Star break and still think you deserve an award.
All-Defense Teams
1st team - Dyson Daniels, Amen Thompson, Ivica Zubac, Evan Mobley, Derrick White
2nd team - Lu Dort, Rudy Gobert, Jayson Tatum, Jalen Williams, Jaren Jackson Jr.,
Hypothetical Third Team - Toumani Camara, OG Anunoby, Bam Adebayo, Cason Wallace, Jarrett Allen
Would Have Made Second Team If They Qualified - Kris Dunn, Ausar Thompson
Mobley is super versatile, but I left him out of my top three because I think he's only able to take advantage of that versatility because he has Jarrett Allen behind him. If his role was more that of a traditional center, he wouldn't have the same impact. No one defends without fouling better than D White. His range of blocks and steals have taken on a legendary quality at this point, and his ability to stay centered and get deflections, blocks, and steals in transitions is just incredibly impressive.
On the second team – I may not like Dort's style, but there's no question he gets results. Gobert quietly had a great season once everyone in Minnesota settled into their new roles. Tatum and Williams are just super versatile, guarding point guards, guarding centers. I mentioned the biggest reason the Thunder dominated was SGA. The second-biggest reason was Williams playing center while Holmgren and Hartenstein were out. Williams is 6'6". Jackson I almost moved out on this list as well for Camara, but as great as Camara's on-ball defender stats were, they came for a team no one really cared about. I need to see him do it again if/when other teams start taking the Blazers seriously.
Side note - Some day soon, the All-Defense teams may include both Thompson twins. How cool would that be???
Coach of the Year
1 J.B. Bickerstaff
2 Kenny Atkinson
3 Ime Udoka
With apologies to: Ty Lue, Joe Mazzulla, JJ Redick, Mark Daigneault, Erik Spoelstra
It just can't be overstated how incredible of a job Bickerstaff did with the Pistons. He was exiled from Cleveland, and could have hung his head. Instead, for the first time in more than a decade, he helped the Pistons form an identity and tripled their win total. Bickerstaff's legacy may be a high floor, not-high-enough ceiling guy, similar to Buck Showalter or Marty Schottenheimer. But that's exactly what the Pistons needed, and he delivered, just when things there looked their most bleak.
Unlike in Detroit, where expectations were low, they were sky high in Cleveland, and Kenny Atkinson could have been walking into the same kind of one and done situation that Mike Budenholzer walked into in Phoenix. Instead, he helped unlock the Cavs' offense, and they had a runaway great season.
Ime Udoka helped take the crucial next step in Houston. I was not initially a believer, but he has done exactly what he did in Boston – he's turned a team with a young core and a few key veterans into a two seed that is still being underestimated even after waltzing to said two seed.
That leaves out Ty Lue, who should be commended for his work with the Clippers. Everyone wrote them off, and yet they landed back in their usual spot. Still, it seems odd to give him one of the three votes given that last season they won 51 games and were the four seed, and this year they won 50 games and were the five seed. I realize it's not that simple, but also, it sort of is.
Many other coaches deserve mention as well. It's amazing how fast Joe Mazzulla has gone from unproven oddity to established commodity. I think many people thought JJ Redick wasn't ready and would fall flat on his face. He didn't, even when needing to change a lot of their schemes on the fly after the big trade. Massachusetts native Daigneault's team was better than ever, and the last two years he finished second and first for this award, respectively. Finally, after being held hostage all season by one of his players, and then his team collapsing into a 10-game losing streak, Spoelstra did what he always does, which is mold his new team in his image, and salvage a chance to get into the playoffs. The Heat are short on talent, but they play hard and have all the hallmarks of a classic Spoelstra team.
Rookie of the Year
1 Stephon Castle
2 Zaccharie Risacher
3 Jaylen Wells
Again, stats aren't super important here. What's important is how these guys were used. Castle consistently closed games as the point guard, when the Spurs could have just rolled with Chris Paul. The Hawks liked what they saw from Risacher enough that they traded away De'Andre Hunter. And Jaylen Wells usurped several players on the Grizzlies, including Marcus Smart, to become a starter on what was a top four team in the West for most of the season.
All-Rookie Teams
First team - Castle, Risacher, Wells, Alex Sarr, Matas Buzelis
Second team - Yves Missi, Ron Holland, Zach Edey, Kel'el Ware, Bub Carrington
I do really think Sarr has some Kevin Garnett vibes, and while the shooting isn't crisp just yet, his Usage % increased from 20.7% before the All-Star break to 28.3% after the break, and his shooting stats didn't suffer under what is a big bump in usage. And while it seemed like Buzelis didn't play a lot early on, it evened out – he was just one of 11 rookies to play 1,500+ minutes this season.
I don't have a ton to say about the second team other than that I'm looking forward to Ron Holland starting a fight with Josh Hart in the first round. Also, I really wanted to squint and find a place for Baylor Scheierman, but he played just 384 minutes, and Carrington played 2,458, which was the most among rookies and actually ranked 28th in the entire league. I love that for him.
Most Improved Player
1 - Ty Jerome
2 - Josh Hart
3 - Ivica Zubac
4 - Josh Giddey
I put four players here because I believe Ty Jerome is actually ineligible to win. He's certainly deserving though. Last season, he injured his ankle two games into the season and didn't play again. To come back and set several career highs – points per game, steals per game, FG%, 3P%, and eFG% – is pretty remarkable.
If he's not eligible, Hart is a great choice, though I haven't seen anyone else mention him. Last year, Hart's role grew on the Knicks, but he was still more additive than crucial to their team's performance. Then they traded away a lot of their depth, and instead of starting 42 games like he did last year, he suddenly became integral to what they do – he started all 77 games he played. Mikal Bridges has been up and down. OG Anunoby kind of just stands in the corner. Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride, Precious Achiuwa, and especially Mitchell Robinson all missed significant time. Brunson and Karl Anthony-Towns are the team's stars, but Hart is its backbone. Never backing down, always giving everything. The millisecond you let your guard down, he has you. Cutting to the hoop, getting out in transition, crashing the boards. Last season, he had six triple doubles, and my common refrain, (agreed to by even Knicks fans) was "sure, he was great, but he'll never be better than this." And yet, he was. This season he posted nine triple doubles. He nearly averaged a double-double, and while that is down to all of the minutes he played, a) he played them, and he played hard in every one, and b) his FG% improved by nearly 100 points, back to where it was in 2022-2023 before he started playing 7,000 minutes per game. To play all of those minutes and still shoot well? Yeah, that's a big improvement. I am consistently very happy in the rare instances when he checks out of a game.
Sixth Man of the Year
1 - Payton Pritchard
2 -Malik Beasley
3 - De'Andre Hunter
Pritch please. Malik Beasley does a lot of things well, but most of them are related to shooting. Pritchard shoots at nearly the same level, if not better, and he also gets assists and rebounds. He isn't just a gunner, he fits seamlessly into Boston's patient offensive approach. Pritchard's TS% was .633, and Beasley's was .590. I'll allow that I think Beasley has the ability to better get his shot off in late-game situations given that he is three inches taller, but overall, Pritchard had the better season.
In fact, Pritchard's season was borderline historic. He became just the 11th player since 1981 who played 2,000+ minutes with fewer than 20 games started who posted at least 1,000 points, 250 rebounds, and 250 assists. If that isn't a classic sixth-man campaign, I don't know what is!
Hunter would also be a great choice, but it gave me a little pause that Cleveland doesn't always have him on the court in crunch time.