With the NBA’s 2024-25 awards season now complete, the league has released the individual voter ballots from its media panel. Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, and Ime Udoka were popular choices.
In the 2024-25 regular season, the Houston Rockets enjoyed one of the biggest year-on-year jumps of any NBA team.
After finishing 2023-24 with a 41-41 record and a No. 11 placement among the 15 Western Conference teams, Houston improved to 52-30 and No. 2 in the West in 2024-25.
That type of growth also made the Rockets a frequent choice in the league’s annual awards, which are voted on by a 100-person media panel consisting of regional, national, and international perspectives.
Second-year forward Amen Thompson made the league’s All-Defensive First Team while also capturing votes for Defensive Player of the Year. Ime Udoka was a finalist for Coach of the Year, and Alperen Sengun narrowly missed out on All-NBA honors.
With all of the 2024-25 awards having now been handed out, the NBA has released its complete voting totals and voter ballots. The balloting was tabulated by an independent accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP.
Here is a link to each category in which the Rockets had votes. The only award that isn’t included is Executive of the Year (Rafael Stone, Houston’s general manager, finished at No. 4), since the NBA’s executive award is voted on by other executives and not the media panel.
All voting totals are out of a maximum combined total of 100.
Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year
- Amen Thompson, Rockets (fifth place): 9 first-place votes, 12 second-place votes, 12 third-place votes
Thompson’s highest votes (first place) were from Kelly Iko, The Athletic; Fred Katz, The Athletic; Andy Larsen, Sale Lake Tribune; Adam Lefkoe, WarnerMedia; Brian Lewis, New York Post; Kevin O’Connor, Yahoo! Sports; Kevin Pelton, ESPN; Gary Washburn, Boston Globe; and Matt Winer, WarnerMedia.
Kia NBA Most Improved Player
- Amen Thompson, Rockets (seventh place): 1 first-place vote, 2 second-place votes, 7 third-place votes
Thompson’s first-place vote was from Frank Isola of Sirius Radio, while his second-place votes came via Chris Broussard of Fox Sports and Flavio Tranquillo of Sky Italia.
NBA Coach of the Year
- Ime Udoka, Rockets (third place): 7 first-place votes, 13 second-place votes, 39 third-place votes
Udoka’s first-place votes came from David Aldridge, The Athletic; Brian Geltzeiler, Sirius Radio; Katie George, ESPN/ABC; Yoko Miyaji, Sports Graphic Number; Kendrick Perkins, ESPN; Ryen Russillo, The Ringer; and Dennis Scott, WarnerMedia.
Kia All-NBA Team
Sengun’s second-team votes came from Steve Aschburner, NBA.com; Zach Harper, The Athletic; Frank Isola, Sirius Radio; Duane Rankin, Arizona Republic; Stephen A. Smith, ESPN; and Flavio Tranquillo, Sky Italia.
Kia NBA All-Defensive Team
- Amen Thompson, Rockets (named to First Team): 74 first-team votes, 23 second-team votes
- Dillon Brooks, Rockets: 2 first-team votes, 3 second-team votes
The two first-team votes for Brooks came from Antoni Daimiel of Movistar+ and Stan Van Gundy of WarnerMedia.
Kia NBA All-Rookie Team
- Reed Sheppard, Rockets: 1 second-team vote
The second-team vote for Sheppard came from Dennis Scott of WarnerMedia.
Awards Unrepresented by Rockets
- Houston did not receive any votes in the following categories: Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year; Kia NBA Most Valuable Player; Kia NBA Rookie of the Year; and Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
Voting totals and awards ballots for those categories are available here.
