All that’s left is the complaining.
On Tuesday, a week after ballots were due, the NBA will announce the winner of the first of its seven main individual awards — Sixth Man of the Year. One hundred media members vote on the awards, with final choices due before the Play-In Tournament began last week. This year’s awards race includes one of the most compelling MVP debates in recent history, with three-time winner Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder having all-time seasons.
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Below, eight voters on The Athletic staff take you through their picks, from the easiest to the toughest. Given the disagreement between the voters, it’s a given that there will be more among NBA fans.
Jovan Buha
MVP: Nikola Jokić
Defensive Player of the Year: Draymond Green
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Most Improved Player: Ivica Zubac
Clutch Player of the Year: Nikola Jokić
Easiest choice: Coach of the Year. While there were plenty of strong candidates this season, Atkinson was the obvious choice. No one had the Cavs winning a franchise-record 64 games and entering the championship inner circle alongside Boston and Oklahoma City. They enjoyed a 16-win improvement from last season, with the primary growth coming from a revamped offense featuring more Evan Mobley and Darius Garland (and Ty Jerome). Their rise from 16th in offensive rating last season to first this season was reminiscent of the Golden State Warriors’ growth under Steve Kerr when he was hired a decade ago.
Toughest choice: Defensive Player of the Year was supposed to be the easiest award. Victor Wembanyama may have been the unanimous winner had his sophomore season not been cut short due to deep vein thrombosis. That left a talented-but-flawed candidate pool, including Green, Mobley, Amen Thompson, Dyson Daniels and Luguentz Dort, among others.
Once I spoke to people around the Lakers and the league, I whittled it down to Green, Mobley and Thompson. After poring over numbers and Synergy film, I settled on Green for a few reasons:
• The aggregate of his defensive metrics was the best among the top candidates
• He was arguably more central to his team’s defensive success than any of the three
• His positional versatility stood out
• His pre-Jimmy Butler performance was better than many are giving him credit for
• I think he’s the pick for non-Wembanyama defender you’d choose with a possession on the line.
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I don’t think he’s going to win, but I think he was the best choice. This was the award that kept me up for multiple nights.
Will Guillory
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Evan Mobley
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Malik Beasley
Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff
Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels
Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson
Easiest choice: There are a ton of great candidates but Bickerstaff and the Pistons have become such a fun story that I think people forget how bleak things were in Detroit a year ago. Last season, the Pistons became appointment television for NBA fans because they were so awful. You know how difficult it is to lose 28 games in a row? They became the Washington Generals of a league that also has the Washington Wizards. To go from that to 44 wins with an extremely likable group was remarkable.
Toughest choice: Choosing a Defensive Player of the Year was extremely difficult because there are so many phenomenal candidates. When I started researching whom I should pick, I was convinced Thompson would be my choice. I think he’s been one of the best stories in the NBA this season, and he’s my answer when people ask, “If you need a stop with the season on the line, who’s the one person you would choose?” It’s also impossible to look past what Dort has done this year on the best defense in the NBA. Players admire his physicality.
Ultimately, I chose Mobley because he has the most complete body of work, and he’s been consistently playing at a high level on that end all season. He’s great guarding the perimeter, he’s great guarding the rim and he’s capable of taking on any matchup you put in front of him. Thompson is my favorite defensive player in the league, but I think Mobley is the one who deserves the award this season.
Amen Thompson defends Brandin Podziemski during a December game in Houston. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)
Zach Harper
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Evan Mobley
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff
Most Improved Player: Ivica Zubac
Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson
Easiest choice: I don’t know if this is controversial, but Defensive Player of the Year was pretty easy for me. Green was excellent this year, but I don’t know how sure people can be that he was the choice when nobody mentioned him after 51 games, when the Warriors were 25-26. I thought Mobley was right there with Wembanyama before his season was cut short. Mobley just had a complete campaign from start to finish for me. I had no problem with Green second, though.
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Toughest choice: Coach of the Year. I understand why so many people think it’s Atkinson, and I did for most of the season. I still think, at times, that I might have picked the wrong guy. Atkinson took a good team we thought was flawed and maximized its talent. Bickerstaff took a historically bad team, added a couple of veterans (Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley), who were not good last year, and added 30 wins. I think, ultimately, turning an atrocious team into a legitimately good team just felt like a tougher task than turning a good team into a great team, especially when dealing with youth versus mostly veterans.
Fred Katz
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Amen Thompson
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels
Clutch Player of the Year: Nikola Jokić
Easiest choice: Daniels set records for steals and deflections, ratcheting up from a vast positive with the New Orleans Pelicans to the league’s scariest on-ball threat with the Hawks. But that’s not the best part of his MIP argument. On the other side of the ball, Daniels is a different person from his Pelican past.
If this award is what it says it is — Most Improved Player, not best player who just so happened to improve (sorry, Cade Cunningham) — then Daniels is the clear choice. A year ago, he lost confidence fast. This year, he was so important to the Hawks’ offense that Atlanta staggered him and All-Star point guard Trae Young so that one was on the court at all times. They need Daniels’ playmaking. This is not the same player as the one in New Orleans. Not close.
Toughest choice: This year’s MVP race is not like the close ones of the past. With Jokić and Joel Embiid as front-runners a couple of years ago, the conversation turned toxic. In 2017, when Russell Westbrook beat out James Harden, the debate turned into a nitpicking contest. In 2025, none of that exists.
Jokić’s spectacular season would be enough to win MVP in most any other year, as would Gilgeous-Alexander’s. The advanced stats Jokić normally dominates in during his MVP years are a wash. Gilgeous-Alexander is right there with him, sometimes above him. Jokić is holding up a mediocre team with counting numbers no one has ever posted. Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the peskiest off-ball defenders in the league, possibly the best defensive superstar guard in the world.
This was impossible. But the two-way play, plus a difference in team quality (which is a tiebreaker, not a driving force for me), tilted me toward the Thunder guard.
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Eric Koreen
MVP: Nikola Jokić
Defensive Player of the Year: Evan Mobley
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels
Clutch Player of the Year: Nikola Jokić
Easiest choice: Last year, Daniels played the seventh-most minutes on the Pelicans. This season, he was an easy All-Defense First Team choice for me in a year with no shortage of candidates. He was a historic disruptor on a team that needed that badly and an underrated scorer and playmaker. I usually prefer to give this award to somebody who goes from being solid to a star (Mobley was No. 2 for me), but I didn’t think anybody was particularly close to Daniels’ come-up this year.
Toughest choice: I saw MVP arguments for both Jokić and Gilgeous-Alexander that made me feel dumb for even considering the other. The only guarantee was that I would feel dumb, which is a comfortable spot for me. Seriously, both players not only had MVP-quality seasons, but also upper-tier MVP-quality seasons.
Ultimately, I tried to imagine either being replaced with an average starter at the same position (Zach LaVine and Jakob Poeltl, if you’re wondering), and the Nuggets felt a little more impacted to me than the Thunder. I don’t feel good about it, though, and don’t anticipate that changing.
Law Murray
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Ivica Zubac
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff
Most Improved Player: Christian Braun
Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson
Easiest choice: I thought Gilgeous-Alexander had a good case to be the 2024 MVP, so he was my preseason pick for the award. I was not moved off that position all season. And what a season it was: The Thunder outscored their opponents by more points than any NBA team ever, and Gilgeous-Alexander was the leading scorer of that team while also contributing to the NBA’s best defense. He contributed to winning at the highest level in the regular season.
Toughest choice: No disrespect to any of these young players who are just starting their careers, but I was not inspired by this year’s rookie class. I landed on Castle, who was the only rookie to score 1,000 points this season while also leading all rookies in steals.
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The only time in the previous seven NBA seasons when only one rookie broke 1,000 points was in 2021, and Anthony Edwards did that in a 72-game season. The only players in the previous 20 years to lead all rookies in both points and steals were Michael Carter-Williams and Castle’s teammates Chris Paul and Wembanyama. All of them won Rookie of the Year. While Castle put up inefficient numbers on a losing team, he showed enough promise in his role to validate this award.
Eric Nehm
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Dyson Daniels
Rookie of the Year: Jaylen Wells
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels
Clutch Player of the Year: Nikola Jokić
Easiest choice: It is my long-held belief that the hardest wins to capture for any team are the ones above 41 — and each one of those wins becomes increasingly difficult to obtain. With logical systems and talented players, many coaches (and teams) are capable enough of getting their team to a .500 record, but taking a team — previously led by Bickerstaff — that won 48 games last season and transforming it into a 64-win team is truly impressive stuff. Rather than sticking at what seemed to be their plateau as a third or fourth seed, the Cavaliers became a machine that ran away with the Eastern Conference, and that made Atkinson the runaway Coach of the Year winner for me.
Toughest choice: All of the choices were difficult for me, but Rookie of the Year was the toughest. Ultimately, I went with Wells, and that is a bit of a departure from convention.
Typically, this award (and Sixth Man of the Year) comes down to the player who compiled the most counting stats during the season. I’ve never thought that approach makes sense given how much thought goes into determining value or impact with the other awards.
Even if the Grizzlies struggled down the stretch, it is incredibly rare for a rookie to start and play for a playoff team. Wells appeared in 79 games and started 74 in the regular season, averaging 10.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in almost 26 minutes per game, while regularly being asked to defend the other team’s best players. That is a really impressive season for a rookie, and I thought it should be rewarded.
Jaylen Wells was a constant in the Grizzlies’ lineup this season. (Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)
Joe Vardon
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Evan Mobley
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
Sixth Man of the Year: Ty Jerome
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Most Improved Player: Christian Braun
Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson
Easiest choice: Instead of easiest, I want to highlight my most controversial choice, if that’s the word. Jokić was much better individually this season than in any of his first three MVP seasons, which is a pretty good starting point for his case. He averaged career highs in points, rebounds and assists.
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Except … Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in scoring for one of the best regular-season teams in NBA history. He is a two-way player, averaging 1.7 steals and making my ballot for second-team All-Defense. More to the point, he is probably a closer fit to the definition I typically use when voting for this award: Who is the best player on the best team, or, who contributes most to winning? No team won more than the Thunder, and Gilgeous-Alexander is clearly their best player, while obviously performing as one of the best players in the league, period.
Toughest choice: Atkinson and Bickerstaff built cases that are beyond compelling. In virtually any season, the coach of a team that more than tripled its win total from one season to the next and makes the playoffs for the first time since 2019 should win the award. That’s Bickerstaff’s case in Detroit.
In a strange twist, the coach who succeeded Bickerstaff in Cleveland took virtually the same team Bickerstaff coached last season and turned it into a juggernaut. Atkinson gets the credit for unlocking Mobley’s offense, for Garland’s resurgence, for the Cavs finding better ways to use Mobley and Jarrett Allen together, for the offensive diversity and defensive consistency, the latter of which was a strength under Bickerstaff. Atkinson had buy-in from Donovan Mitchell, which we can’t quite say about Bickerstaff and Mitchell (it’s a more complicated story than that, but boil it down and that’s what you have). The Pistons’ players bought into what Bickerstaff had to say. Atkinson wins because it’s harder to go from good to great, which is what Cleveland did, than from bad to decent, which is what happened in Detroit. I feel good and lousy about my choice.
Overall
MVP: Gilgeous-Alexander 6, Jokić 2
Defensive Player of the Year: Mobley 4, Green 1, Daniels 1, Thompson 1, Zubac 1
Rookie of the Year: Castle 7, Wells 1
Sixth Man of the Year: Pritchard 6, Beasley 1, Jerome 1
Coach of the Year: Atkinson 5, Bickerstaff 3
Most Improved Player: Daniels 4, Zubac 2, Braun 2
Clutch Player of the Year: Brunson 4, Jokić 4
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; top photos: Nathaniel S. Butler, Nic Antaya, Jesse D. Garrabrant, Winslow Townson ,Rocky Widner / Getty Images)
