NBA Announces Finalists for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Other End-of-Season Awards

With the NBA regular season over and done with, it’s time for end-of-season awards to be announced. Sunday brought the first step in that process.

While voting occurs at season’s end the league has shifted the dates around in recent years for awards such as MVP and Rookie of the Year. In the past everything was unveiled very soon after the final regular-season game. Over the last few seasons, though, the NBA has taken to revealing the winners during the playoffs with all the attention the postseason brings. Based on past timelines, the winners of this year’s awards will be announced sometime in May.

But the first step in the process (no matter when it might finish) is the revealing of the finalists. The league gives a shortlist of finalists for all the major individual awards players and coaches can win for their stellar showings during the regular season.

Sunday brought those shortlists. During the second day of NBA playoff action the league unveiled the finalists for all the prestigious end-of-season awards that will be given out in the next month or so.

They did so in segments. During pregame ahead of Game 1 for the Pistons-Magic series, the NBA announced the finalists for Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year. At halftime of the same contest they announced the finalists for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.

Below you’ll find a list of all the finalists the NBA revealed on Sunday.

MVP finalists

Nikola Jokić is vying for his fourth MVP award. | Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

PLAYER	TEAM	WON BEFORE?
Nikola Jokić	Denver Nuggets	Yes (3x)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	Oklahoma City Thunder	Yes (1x)
Victor Wembanyama	San Antonio Spurs	No

Overview: This year’s MVP race is tremendously close. All three candidates are deserving and boast very strong cases. It might be the best we’ve seen in a long time. The field is so loaded Luka Dončić wasn’t included despite his successful appeal and ludicrous statistical campaign.

Before the playoffs began Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix laid out why he was voting for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and laid out who else will finish top-three in his ballot. Previously we here at SI tracked the course of the race from the All-Star break through the end of March.

It’s sure to be a very close race between Jokić, SGA and Wembanyama.

Defensive Player of the Year finalists

PLAYER	TEAM	WON BEFORE?
Victor Wembanyama	San Antonio Spurs	No
Chet Holmgren	Oklahoma City Thunder	No
Ausar Thompson	Detroit Pistons	No

Overview: This award is Wembanyama’s to lose. The generational Spurs talent led the NBA in blocks by a wide margin with 3.1 per game. Moreover the impact of his defense is obvious every moment he is on the court. Wemby scares professional basketball players too much to shoot anywhere near him most of the time. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen in the modern NBA. He is all but guaranteed to win this.

Holmgren and Thompson had good years, though, that deserved to be recognized with an appearance on the shortlist of finalists.

Rookie of the Year finalists

Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg are both battling for this year’s MVP award. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

PLAYER	TEAM	DRAFTED
Cooper Flagg	Dallas Mavericks	No. 1
Kon Knueppel	Charlotte Hornets	No. 4
VJ Edgecombe	Philadephia 76ers	No. 3

Overview: This year’s Rookie of the Year picture has been a two-horse race for a long time.

Cooper Flagg lived up to just about every ounce of his enormous potential, showing off his obvious star potential for the Mavericks throughout his first NBA season. The Duke product finished the year averaging 21 points per game with three 40-point performances and one astounding 51-point showing. He is a ridiculous talent.

But his former Blue Devils teammate has a very strong case to beat him out for the ROY award. Hornets sharpshooter Kon Knueppel is, literally, the most polished three-point shooter to enter the NBA in history. He became the first rookie to hit 200 three-point makes in his debut season and the first rookie to lead the NBA in shots made from beyond the arc, finishing the year with 273 threes. Kneuppel faded down the stretch as he hit the rookie wall but still finished the season in Charlotte averaging 18.5 points per game while shooting 42.5% from beyond the arc.

Edgecombe is no slouch, though. The Philly guard proved an immediate, explosive addition to an already-talented 76ers backcourt. Nobody should be shocked he got the third finalist spot here, even if a win is pretty unlikely.

Coach of the Year finalists

COACH	TEAM	WON BEFORE?
J.B. Bickerstaff	Detroit Pistons	No
Joe Mazzulla	Boston Celtics	No
Mitch Johnson	San Antonio Spurs	No

Overview: Zero surprises here. Johnson and Bickerstaff led two young teams without much experience to 60-win regular seasons and top seeds in their respective conferences. They’d be deserving winners. As would Mazzulla, whose Celtics didn’t win 60 games but their 56–26 record is miles better than what was expected out of Boston this season.

As contention as the MVP race is, this might wind up a closer vote. No wrong, or easy, answers among these coaches.

Sixth Man of the Year finalists

Keldon Johnso — Johnson has been excellent for the Spurs off the bench this season. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

PLAYER	TEAM	WON BEFORE?
Keldon Johnson	San Antonio Spurs	No
Jaime Jacquez Jr.	Miami Heat	No
Tim Hardaway Jr.	Denver Nuggets	No

Overview: Johnson is the rightful leader in the clubhouse for the reward given to the best reserve in the NBA. The seventh-year forward is averaging 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game. He has been invaluable for a 60-win Spurs team as the first guy off the bench who is laser-focused on giving San Antonio whatever the moment calls for—whether that be hard-nosed defense, hustle or aggressively finding his shot.

Jacquez Jr. and Hardaway Jr. are no slouches, though. In Miami, Jacquez Jr. averaged 15.4 points per night in the more traditional mold of 6MOY candidates, an instant-offense sub who was a big part of the Heat’s offensive success this season. Hardaway Jr. is similar for Denver; the veteran’s scoring instincts led to a successful season in which he averaged 13.5 ppg while appearing in all 82 contests.

Most Improved Player finalists

PLAYER	TEAM
Nickeil Walker-Alexander	Atlanta Hawks
Deni Avdija	Portland Trail Blazers
Jalen Duren	Detroit Pistons

Overview: The MIP race is very competitive this season with a lot of players who’d make for shoo-in favorites in other years. But with the dust of the regular season settled, we have our finalists.

Avdija and Duren both took leaps from good, useful players to genuine All-NBA contenders; as a result both made their first All-Star teams this year. The fact that both of their teams made the playoffs (and in Duren’s case won 60 games) lends further credence to the idea their leaps were impactful in ways that helped their team rather than stuffed the stat sheet.

Wlaker-Alexander is the biggest surprise of the season to many. The former Wolves reserve was not expected to take on a much bigger role when he signed in Atlanta over the offseason as a free agent. But he made the rather difficult leap from a dependable bench player to a legitimate starter capable of scoring 20 points per night. All three would be very deserving winners of this year’s MIP award.

Clutch Player of the Year finalists

PLAYER	TEAM	WON BEFORE?
Anthony Edwards	Minnesota Timberwolves	No
Jamal Murray	Denver Nuggets	No
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	Oklahoma City Thunder	No

Overview: Clutch Player of the Year is a fun award the NBA introduced in ‘23. As you probably figured out it’s given to the player who best performed in “clutch” minutes, defined by the NBA as games where the score was within five points with five minutes remaining. Everybody’s personal definition varies slightly but the concept stays consistent—this award belongs to the player opponents hate to see with the ball with the game on the line.

There’s no doubt all three of this year's finalist fall into that category. Murray’s jumper is silky-smooth and he can get it off against anybody with Nikola Jokić screening for him. Edwards can wield his athleticism to slice through defenses like a knife through butter at any moment and he clearly enjoys doing so with the game on the line. SGA needs no introduction as the reigning MVP who was forced to close more games than last year while leading a banged-up Thunder squad.

A big-time list of names.

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