Casting My NBA Awards Ballot: Who Will Win In Each Category

Stephen Curry / NBA

It’s time to cast my (nonexistent) ballot for the NBA Awards. The NBA Awards include a mix of obvious winners and heated discussions. Categories like MVP and Most Improved Player are all but over. On the other hand, the All-NBA discussion is heating up rapidly as ballots are due next week.

Below is my ballot.

MVP

  1. Nikola Jokic
  2. Joel Embiid
  3. Giannis Antetokounmpo
  4. Steph Curry
  5. Julius Randle

When the dust has settled, Nikola Jokic will win the MVP. He’s almost at the top of every offensive statistical category including in the top five for assists. The 7-footer is averaging 8.4 assists per game, which is ludicrous for a center. Plus, he’s doing this all without Jamal Murray. The Joker deserves this MVP, make no mistake about it.

Update on 5/18/21: The original top 5 was Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, Randle, and Paul. After the weekend, I slid Curry into 4, moved Randle to 5, and removed Paul from the top 5.

Defensive Player of the Year

  1. Rudy Gobert
  2. Ben Simmons
  3. Bam Adebayo

What Rudy Gobert does for the Jazz is irreplaceable. FiveThirtyEight ran a piece about how Gobert’s season is one of the best ever. The Jazz are 11.9 points per 100 possessions better when Gobert is on the floor, which is the best in the NBA. Take Gobert off the Jazz and their entire makeup changes.

Most Improved Player

  1. Julius Randle
  2. Jerami Grant
  3. Christian Wood

I’ve written and tweeted about Randle’s improvement ad nauseam. His leap from a good talent to an All-NBA player is remarkable. Randle is the heartbeat of the Knicks and one of the key reasons for their turnaround. With career highs in almost every offensive category, Randle is a runaway winner.

Rookie of the Year

  1. LaMelo Ball
  2. Anthony Edwards
  3. Tyrese Haliburton

If LaMelo Ball doesn’t fracture his wrist on March 20 and miss time, he wins this award in a landslide. Ball’s averaging 15.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, and 6.2 apg and one of the main reasons why the Hornets will make the play-in tournament. However, it’s hard to ignore Anthony Edwards’s offensive explosion throughout the second half of the season. He’s a walking bucket, highlighted by his 40 point game in early May. Do you reward the better all-around player who missed more than 30% of the year due to injury or the electric scorer who played in every game and came on strong in the second half? Because he came back from injury and he’s on a playoff team, Ball gets my vote.

Coach of the Year

  1. Tom Thibodeau
  2. Monty Williams
  3. Quin Snyder

I’m sure some of you are going to accuse me of being a homer with this pick. You’re not wrong because I’m a diehard Knicks fan. However, ask yourself this question: Before the season started, did you have the Suns or Knicks making the playoffs? If you follow the NBA, then you would have selected the Suns, not the Knicks, to make the playoffs. Monty Williams has done a masterful job, taking the Suns from a fringe playoff team to a potential one-seed.

The Suns were trending in the right direction thanks to an 8-0 record in the bubble. The Knicks didn’t even make the bubble. No one predicted Thibs would turn this team around so quickly. I love the Knicks with all my heart and I had them as the 10-seed going into the year. Tom Thibodeau changed the culture of this organization in one season. He took a bunch of forgotten players, convinced them to play defense, and molded them into one of the six best teams in the East. That is the Coach of the Year.

Sixth Man of the Year

  1. Jordan Clarkson
  2. Derrick Rose
  3. Joe Ingles

With all due respect (even though I’m about to be disrespectful), the Sixth Man category isn’t as strong as it’s been in years past. There’s no Montrez Harrell, Dennis Schröder, Lou Williams, or Jamal Crawford on the ballot. This award will either go to Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles, who both had good seasons. Clarkson is second on the Jazz in points with 18.2 in just under 27 minutes per game. Ingles aka Jingles is the glue of the Jazz. He’s a sniper from deep (45.6 3P%), a solid pick-and-roll creator, and guards the opposing team’s top wing every night. I’ll go with Clarkson, but my heart truly thinks it should be Derrick Rose, who is in the midst of a career renaissance.

All-NBA

First Team

  • G: Stephen Curry
  • G: Damian Lillard
  • F: Giannis Antetokounmpo
  • F: Luka Dončić
  • C: Nikola Jokic

Second Team

  • G: Jimmy Butler
  • G: Chris Paul
  • F: Julius Randle
  • F: Kawhi Leonard
  • C: Joel Embiid

Third Team

  • G: Kyrie Irving
  • G: Bradley Beal
  • F: LeBron James
  • F: Zion Williamson
  • C: Rudy Gobert

Determining the 15 players to make All-NBA is like picking your favorite Taylor Swift album. You change your mind every two seconds. There are over 20 guys who can make a legitimate claim for one of the 15 spots. In a typical year, 13 of the 15 available spots are solidified and only one to two selections require a debate. This year, the entire third team is up for grabs. That’s how competitive it’s been in a year where many stars missed significant time due to injury.

Position eligibility is the biggest factor in determining each team. Embiid is a true center but can be voted in as a forward. Doncic is the point guard but can be voted in as forward. It’s category fraud that mirrors the best acting races at the Oscars.

My biggest conundrum involves Embiid and Doncic. If I move Embiid to forward, Doncic takes the second guard spot, and Damian Lillard moves to the second team. If I vote for Doncic as a forward, Dame moves up to the first team, and Emiid goes to the second team. Should Embiid be demoted to the second team when he’s going to finish second in MVP voting? All-NBA is a flawed system. If I could change the ballot, I would make it two guards, two forwards, and one position that could be a guard, forward, or center. With the current rules in place, I’m putting Luka at forward, bumping Embiid to the second team, and move Dame to the first team.

Quick Hitters

  • I couldn’t leave a Nets player off the team. If Harden doesn’t get hurt, he’s on the team. Since he missed too much time, Kyrie makes it. (Kyrie has been spectacular, by the way.)
  • Zion finished top 10 in both scoring and field goal percentage.
  • LeBron missed too many games to be on the first or second team.
  • It’s hard to deny Chris Paul’s greatness, which doesn’t reflect in the stat sheet.

What does your ballot look like? Leave your selections in the comments or tweet me, @danny_giro.

All-NBA Teams: Biggest Questions Remaining Before Season’s End

Nikola Jokic NBA

In a chaotic and unpredictable season, determining the All-NBA selections for the 2020-2021 season will be anything but simple.

In a normal year, the three All-NBA teams usually reflect the ten-best players in the game along with five players who had extraordinary seasons but sit outside of the top-20 in terms of player rankings. Superstars like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and James Harden combine for over 30 All-NBA selections. However, injuries may bump some of those players off the ballot.

With less than two weeks left in the season, there are arguably more than five spots still up for grabs, which is pretty high at this point in the year. As someone who doesn’t have a ballot, I’m anxious to see how voters weigh certain factors in their decisions.

Does Durability Matter And If So, How Much?

This is my biggest question when it comes to All-NBA this season. Does durability matter and if so, how much? The first question is an easy answer. Yes, durability matters. “Survival of the healthiest” is an accurate way to describe the All-NBA first and second teams. If a player puts up All-Star numbers and missed less than 10 games, then it should strengthen their case for All-NBA. Nikola Jokic is putting up historic offensive numbers, but he’s also played every single game, which ensures the Nuggets’ center will make All-NBA first team.

Durability has to matter, but where will the line be drawn for the number of games played to make an All-NBA team? In a 72-game season, can you play 60 games and still make All-NBA? Steph Curry is a shoo-in to make the first-team despite being a few games over the 60-game threshold so yes, players who played at least 60 games can make the team.

What about 50 games? Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George, three players with great numbers across the board, will cross the 50-game threshold before the end of the season. Despite missing 15-22 games, 50-plus games played will be enough to qualify.

What if it’s below 50 games? This is where it gets interesting because the best player in basketball won’t play 50 games this season. Who is it? Scroll below.

Where Will LeBron James End Up?

A week ago, if you told me LeBron James would miss an All-NBA team, I would’ve said you’re nuts. After news broke that LeBron would need to sit out at least two games this week to rest his ankle, LeBron being excluded from the All-NBA team is more of a possibility.

Do I think LeBron will make an All-NBA team? Yes, but it should not be on the first team. LeBron could potentially miss one-third of the regular season when it’s all said and done. Note that LeBron missed 27 games in 2019 and still made All-NBA Third Team. With averages of 25/7.9/7.8, LeBron will make an All-NBA team this season. It will most likely be the second team, but there is a possibility it’s the third team.

Will One Nets Player Make It?

The Brooklyn Nets are the favorite to win the championship according to OddsShark. However, it’s possible that their three stars, Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving, will be left off the All-NBA teams. Can this happen? More importantly, should this happen?

Durant, Harden, and Irving are three of the fifteen best players in the league. However, each star has detrimental reasons to keep them off All-NBA. For Durant, it comes down to the number of games played and KD may not even eclipse 35 games. Leaving KD off the teams won’t be a problem.

Harden has played 42 games this season with averages of 25.2 PPG, 8.0 RPG, and 10.9 APG. When he’s played, Harden has looked unstoppable. But, Harden will probably sit for the remainder of the regular season because of injury. More importantly, eight of those 42 games were played as a member of the Houston Rockets. I doubt the media will reward Harden with an All-NBA selection after a tumultuous exit in Houston.

Then there’s Kyrie, who has the best case out of three. Kyrie is averaging 27.0 PPG, 4.9 RPB, and 6.3 APG with shooting splits of .500/.385/.922. Kyrie will end up playing over 50 games on a team that’s in contention for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. However, Kyrie’s off-the-court decisions have dominated the headlines including two leave of absences from the team. During one of those personal breaks, Kyrie attended an indoor birthday party maskless, which resulted in a fine. I’m not here to play moral police, but Kyrie’s off-the-court actions will certainly be held against him.

If the Nets win the championship without an All-NBA selection, it would mark the first time since the 1988-1989 Pistons where a team won a title without having a player who made All-NBA in that particular season.

As teams fight for playoff positions, keep an eye on players vying to improve their All-NBA candidacy.

What are your biggest questions regarding All-NBA? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet me, @danny_giro.