13 Fresh Takes on NBA Awards
NBA Substack on how the league — and the media — can do awards better
We asked 13 leading NBA voices on Substack to provide:
Your fresh take on NBA awards.
Check out their answers and subscribe!
The MVP race should be closer
| I've been saying this days now and I have been heartened to hear some prominent national voices (most notably Nick Wright, Kevin O'Connor and Zach Lowe) echo my confusion on the following: Why is the MVP race so routinely painted, by various media members and Las Vegas oddsmakers, as a total non-race that discounts what Luka Dončić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are doing?
I love Nikola Jokić. He's been brilliant all season in leading Denver to the likely No. 1 seed in the West with the best two-way play of his career ... and despite Jamal Murray missing 23 games through injury. He is the likely MVP winner and would be (duh) hugely deserving.
But I think Dončić has a top-to-bottom case that's right there with The Joker's ... and SGA ain't far off, either, after leading the Thunder from 10th last season to a Denver-like record this season.
It's as if it was universally decided coming into the season that the MVP race was exclusively the domain of Jokić and Joel Embiid and then conceded to Jokić as soon as Embiid's sustained a late-January knee injury.
Dončić has assembled the first 34/9/10 season in league history and will win his first scoring title AND has led Dallas on a 16-2 heater to reach 50 wins despite five key teammates (including Kyrie Irving) missing at least 20 games this season.
Why, again, is this not a closer race?
Jokić has a point: We need more MVPs
| Probably my favourite addition to the quagmire of NBA discourse came when Matt Moore prefaced a postgame question to Nikola Jokić about being the kind of player, the kind of MVP, his teammates wanted to root for, by acknowledging Denver media had held to an unspoken rule of not asking Jokić about the MVP award, period.
Jokić lights up. "Yes! Good job!" he laughs, raising his hand in an enthusiastic fist. The room breaks out in laughter. Moore says he's about to break the rule and Jokić looks down and utters an expletive. More laughter.
The question, at its root, is a lovely one. It's (refreshingly) not about the award at all. It is nevertheless acknowledging a kind of pressure, one that Jokić says, to his mind, has grown in toxicity along with the general discourse around the award.
He says there should be more than one MVP and frankly, I agree. The level of skill, sheer talent, on display in the regular season is staggering, and even more beautiful to watch. There are guys who seem to manipulate time, others who bend physics, others who are the necessary and overlooked glue of their entire team. Some of these things qualify for award categories but those categories don't seem like enough.
There's a Finals MVP; why not make Conference MVPs? Divisional? Anyone who starts to sputter about the sanctity of small, invented trophies, is already missing the point.
More valuable awards, please
| Is it just me, or are awards just … less valuable than they used to be?
In place of championing players for All-NBA selections and all-time seasons, we often do our best Shaq imitation and cry, “RINGZ, ERNIE!”
The NBA’s 65-game rule is only making that worse, potentially adding an asterisk to some players’ awards (though not their earnings).
Instead of lording over the rings (though, as Gollum might add, they are precious), we should be celebrating the regular-season stars of the NBA — after all, championships can't be won by one player alone.
Outta Nowhere!
| | The OptionHow about an Outta Nowhere Award to give to Dante Exum?
I'm tryna find the words to describe this hypothetical award without being disrespectful, but it'd go to the player who most surprised the league by far outperforming low expectations. Exum is the perfect archetype. Fifth overall pick in 2014, falls out of the league entirely for two years, then charges back as an ace shooter for a title contender.
We'd have some Most Improved Player debates, but this is the one that Linsanity never got to have and truly deserved.
My All Fifth-Man Team
| Something I'd like to see is some sort of recognition for guys like Dante Exum, who has been out of the league for two years and returned as a much better, much more impactful, much more interesting player but who doesn't feel like he's in the mix for Most Improved.
Beyond that, I think there should be an All-Fifth Man Team to recognize the ancillary starters who do the best job of holding their lineups together. If Sixth Men get an award, Fifth Men should, too. So for this year, let's recognize Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jrue Holiday, Jaden McDaniels, Lu Dort, and Isaiah Hartenstein. (We're not going positionless!)
MVP: Most Valuable Partner
| We need a Most Valuable Partner award to celebrate the achievements of the models/wives/girlfriends/people on Raya dating players who are spotted in row 2 at MSG and get shown on the camera just once per game.
For the inaugural award, I’d like Ayesha Curry to win it.
From taking on Judy Greer’s role as the rom-com best friend in Irish Wish to launching her own skincare line, she deserves to add an MVP trophy next to her husband’s.
Comeback Player of the Year needs a comeback
| I know the Comeback Player of the Year award might not have many contenders most years (coming back from injury or overseas), but — like other writers here — I want to give Dante Exum his flowers because it’s not easy to find yourself out of the league and come back as a nice role player. The new Exum is still a good defender, steadier, with a much improved shot, and — we hope — healthier.
Who knows, maybe Lonzo Ball or Mario Hezonja would win it in the future.
Two awards to add
| Two awards should be added to clarify voting: Most Outstanding Player of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year.
MVP is often a narrative-based award, and that’s just fine. Having an MOP would allow for players like Luka Dončić to get his due, while also elevating those deserving more MVP consideration, like Jalen Brunson.
And with more and more players having second and third career acts, I think the CPOY should be brought back (it existed from 1981 to 1986) to celebrate accomplishments like Exum’s this season.
Aaron Bollwinkel on NBA awards: Sixth Man | Defensive Player
When Most Improved gets silly
| For the love of Kevin Duckworth, can we all agree that giving the Most Improved Player award to a player in his second or third season is silly? Players are supposed to be improving at that stage! Remember when Ja Morant won and cared so little about his Most Improved trophy that he shipped it to teammate Desmond Bane’s house?
Let's keep that in mind before we give MIP to Victor Wembanyama next season.
Improved ≠ surprising
| I recall there being a minor kerfuffle in 2020 when Luka Dončić finished third in the Most Improved Player award voting.
The argument went like this: An MVP candidate (which Dončić was) shouldn't be considered for the award. I've never understood that logic, as "Most Improved" does not mean "Most Surprising."
Dončić’s leap from Rookie of the Year to MVP candidate was a big one. The improvement, even if it was expected, was still very real.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
| The people demand a Defensive Rookie of the Year!
Okay, the people might not be demanding it, but it would be cool anyway.
Rookies have essentially no chance of winning DPOY — look at Wemby, who’s having one of the best defensive rookie seasons ever and still won’t win it.
Plus, the regular ROY typically goes to the highest-scoring rookie, so defensive-minded guys (hello, 2022-23 Walker Kessler) are oft-forgotten. DROY would be a cool way to recognize the young stoppers.
Two Defensive Players of the Year
| I’d like to see the defensive award split into the best perimeter and the best interior defender.
It might seem silly to do so at the same time that positions have been removed from All-NBA and All-Defensive teams, but this would give a lot more exposure to players such as Herb Jones, Alex Caruso, and Jalen Suggs.
The rim will always be the most important part of the court, and the big men will always get the nod ahead of other positions.
Awards make us see the game differently
| 🏀 5x5 | Royce WebbAwards are fun and all, but they also can force people to look at the game a little bit differently. If we had no All-Rookie Team, for instance, we wouldn't look at some of the rookies as much as we do now.
So, in that spirit, I'd like to propose the All-Transition-Offense Team, aiming to identify the best transition offensive players in the league. Giannis is going to head the first team, as he has for years. His ability to get the ball on the defensive side and take four dribbles to get to the rim on the other side is legendary.
LeBron has done similarly. But who else? (Josh Hart has usually been under the radar in this category.) If we want to incentivize playing fast, this kind of award can do it.
Then, maybe a couple years later, there could be an All-Transition-DEFENSE Team. Now that would shed some light on the game.