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The 2023-2024 NBA season has
wrapped up and the race for the league’s annual awards has
officially ended. Here’s a look at my picks of the NBA’s award
winners.
Most Improved Player: Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia
76ers
(Runner-ups: Coby White, Jalen
Johnson)
Notes: In the end, Tyrese Maxey
takes the award with the amount of burden and responsibility in a
Philadelphia team reeling from the loss of James Harden to become a
true No. 2 option behind reigning MVP Joel Embiid. White improved a
lot this year, increasing his averages both numbers and his
shooting percentages. Johnson, like White, has also increased his
usage and averages by a lot, featuring as the third option behind
DeJounte Murray and Trae Young, or even as the second option
without one of those two. A jumbo playmaking forward, Johnson
showed improvements in his playmaking as well as his ability to
score and had increased numbers in shooting as well. Ultimately,
Maxey wins this award out because he was a guy who increased his
usage and his role while playing most of the season without
Embiid.
Sixth Man of the Year: Naz Reid, Minnesota
Timberwolves
(Runner-ups: Malik Monk, Bobby
Portis)
Notes: Naz Reid has been the
best player off the bench this season with the way he has been an
offensive spark plug for the Timberwolves this season. He’s had a
phenomenal season, and he had to start and fill in for Karl-Anthony
Towns when he went down while still being an efficient scorer as he
is. If you factor in all the stuff for these awards, you could
actually make a case for Monk, for Portis, maybe even guys like
Norman Powell for the Clippers and Bogdan Bogdanovic for the Hawks.
But with Minnesota going 56-26 and having the second most wins in
franchise history – ultimately ending up atop the three best teams
in the West, this gives a little bit of boost to Naz Reid due to
his importance to the team.
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Minnesota
Timberwolves
(Runner-ups: Victor Wembanyama,
Anthony Davis; Honorable mention: Bam Adebayo)
Notes: One of the hardest awards
to figure out. Minnesota had the best defense in the league for a
reason, and based on that Rudy Gobert would be a deserving winner
of the award. When he’s off the floor, the team does not perform
defensively the way it does when Gobert is on the floor. This was
hard because Wembanyama had a legitimate case, being the
generational defender that he was. Davis also had a strong case
with how he carried single-handedly the Lakers’ defense, while
Adebayo had the immense burden of playing all the defensive schemes
in Miami. Ultimately, it ended up with Gobert with the way he
lifted a good defensive team to the best in the league, manning
that paint and being that anchor that holds all of the pieces
together.
All-Defensive Team:
1st Team – Rudy
Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Herb
Jones
2nd Team –
Derrick White, Jalen Suggs, Jaden McDaniels, Alex Caruso,
Jonathan Isaac
Notes: Starting this year, the
NBA’s All-NBA teams and defensive teams were positionless so I had
to cheat a little bit here, putting 4 bigs in the 1st team. Gobert,
Wembanyama, Davis, and Adebayo are no-brainers considering their
defensive impact for each of their teams, while Jones takes the
last spot in the 1st team for his ability to disrupt offenses as
well as guarding each team’s best player night in and night out for
the Pelicans.
The second team features White
(most blocks for a guard), Suggs and Isaac (best defensive players
for the 4th best defense in the league, helping to lead the Magic
back to the playoffs), McDaniels (best wing defender for the best
defense in the league), and the perennial all-defense player Caruso
who brings it in defensively every game.
Rookie of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio
Spurs
(Runner-up: Chet
Holmgren)
Notes: Despite Holmgren having
far and away the better team success, there’s no denying
Wembanyama’s greatness in his rookie year. The French phenom has
transcended the game both figuratively and on the eye test – he is
simply a generational talent who is going to take over the league
soon. Holmgren got off to a hot start in the first two months of
the season but since January, Wembanyama has locked up the award
for himself with out-of-the-world numbers for a rookie. He was
dubbed as the best prospect since LeBron James and now he is well
on his way to being one of the greatest of all time if he remains
healthy after a historic rookie season.
All-Rookie Team:
1st Team – Victor
Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Miller, Jaime Jaquez Jr., GG
Jackson
2nd Team – Ausar Thompson, Amen Thompson, Keyonte George, Brandin PodziemiSki, Trayce Jackson-Davis
Notes: There were several names
to choose from here, and it felt hard to cut some of them here.
Jordan Hawkins of the Pelicans has had a good start to the year
when the team had all those injuries paving the way for him to play
early into the season but has seen the bench since as NOLA got
healthier and players came back; Cason Wallace had such a good
shooting year off the bench for the No.1 seeded Thunder despite
shooting being labeled by scouts as his biggest weakness coming
into the NBA; Dereck Lively II being center that Luka Doncic needed
and fit well with by catching all those lobs and helping the Mavs’
defense this season big time; No.2 overall pick Scoot Henderson had
a good close to his rookie year.
All in all, these 10 rookies
have felt like the best rookies in terms of production,
opportunity, and narratives surrounding them. Of course, Wembanyama
and Holmgren are automatic locks; Miller has been the best player
in Charlotte without LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams; Jaquez is a
vital piece off the bench for Erik Spoelstra’s playoff-bound Heat
team; and GG Jackson becoming a legit NBA scorer despite being the
youngest player in the league to round out the first
team.
The Thompson twins have just
been defensive monsters ever since stepping foot in the league;
George playing point guard at Utah has turned some heads and he has
stepped up with the opportunity given to him; while Podziemski and
Jackson-Davis have arguably been rotational pieces to the Warriors
despite being rookies and has contributed a lot to them finding a
way to fit in a complex team.
Coach of the Year: Mark Daigneault, Oklahoma City
Thunder
(Runner-ups: Chris Finch, Jamahl
Mosley)
Notes: There have been so many
good coaches this season that have elevated their teams to good
records, say Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets and Tom Thibodeau
from the New York Knicks. But my Coach of the Year pick goes to
Mark Daigneault of the OKC Thunder because this award tends to
favor the expectations set for a team before the start of the
season. The Thunder weren’t supposed to be this good this season,
but Daigneault catapulted them into one of the best teams not just
in the West but the entire NBA. The evidence is written on the
wall: No.1 in the West despite being the second youngest team in
the league; having a top 5 ranking on both offense and defense and
no.2 overall net rating. Finch and Mosley take the runner-up spots
with the work they had to lift both the Timberwolves and the Magic
to being top 4 seeds in their conferences as well as having
top-rated defenses in the league.
Clutch Player of the Year: Stephen Curry, Golden State
Warriors
(Runner-ups: DeMar DeRozan, Shai
Gilgeous-Alexander)
Notes: Another tough and close
race, but ultimately it goes to Curry. Despite the Warriors’ so-so
record, Curry had the most clutch time points, shot 50% from the
field, and 46% from three in clutch time. Curry had the most threes
than anyone in crunch time – being just the incredible clutch-time
performer that he is – and always been.
All-NBA Team:
1st Team – Nikola
Jokic, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo,
Jayson Tatum
2nd Team – Jalen
Brunson, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, LeBron
James
3rd Team –
Stephen Curry, Domantas Sabonis, Kawhi Leonard, Devin
Booker, Tyrese Haliburton
Notes: With Jalen Brunson
carrying the Knicks to a second seed in the East playing without
Julius Randle since January, it was incredibly hard to leave him
off the 1st team. However, by the slightest of margins, I gave the
nod to Tatum for being the best player on the best team in the
league by a wide margin.
All the other picks were pretty
explanatory, with the top 4 in the MVP race in Jokic, Doncic, SGA,
and Giannis all expected to be first-teamers. The second team kind
of got tougher besides Brunson, with legends Durant and James
making the list because of the seasons they had leading their team
as well as playing their most regular season game in years.
Rounding out the second team were Edwards and Davis, two stars with
the biggest impacts on their teams in the tough Western
Conference.
The third team is actually a
toss-up with a lot of good cases from the league all around, but
ultimately I went with Curry, Sabonis, Leonard, Booker, and
Haliburton.
Most Valuable Player: Shai
Gilgeous-Alexander
(Runners-up: Nikola Jokic, Luka
Doncic; Honorable mention: Giannis Antetokounmpo)
Perhaps the closest race out of
all the awards, all three players here are each deserving with
their narratives and the numbers that support each of their cases.
You can never go wrong picking one over the other, so it came down
to personal opinion on who I thought had the strongest case this
season. His case?
-Leading the second youngest
team in the league to No.1 in the West
-3-1 series vs Denver
-3-1 series vs Dallas
-First player since Steph and MJ
to average 30/5/5 in a season with 2+ steals
-Second in defensive net rating
for guards
One could make the argument for
Nikola Jokic being the best player in the world having better
numbers than his two MVP seasons while Luka Doncic had one of the
best seasons statistically in all facets of the game, but there’s
no denying SGA’s strong case as well given the expectations for
this young Thunder team.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is my
MVP.
