With the NBA season ending on Sunday, it is the time of year when everyone on social media argues with each other about who should win each award.
There are many deserving players in each category, but there can only be one winner for each.
Without further ado, here are my picks for the 2024-25 NBA awards.
Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland Cavaliers
This is the first year in a while where I have felt like there are four or five coaches you could pick for this award. You could go with Mark Daigneault, who led the Thunder to one of the best regular seasons of all time, and that was with Chet Holmgren and a good amount of his role players missing a substantial amount of time. You could go with Ime Udoka, who led the Rockets to the No. 2 seed without a top-30 player. And you could go with the Cavaliers’ old coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, who took over a 14-win Pistons team and tripled their win total.
With that being said, I will forever think it is harder to turn a good team into a great team than a bad team into a good team. The Cavs were a good team last year; they did not make any needle-mover trades or signings in the offseason. The only move they made was hiring Atkinson, and the rest was history.
Like I said, there are a ton of good options, but give me the guy who led his team to an all-time great regular season without a top-10 player on his team.
Watching Cavs coach, Kenny Atkinson, in practice is so special
“Yes it’s hard… we’re trying to make it HARDER than the game.”
The Cavs are looking like a true championship contender in part thanks to his elite coaching
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) April 13, 2025
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs
I was super high on Castle at the beginning of the year, but I was not expecting him to be this great right off the bat. He is leading all rookies in scoring and is fourth in assists. Plus, he was super impressive on defense. His biggest weakness is his jump shot. However, if this improves (which I think it will), the big three of Castle, Victor Wembanyama, and De’Aaron Fox will be a ton of fun and could win a playoff series next year.
Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks
In the preseason, I picked Cade Cunnigham to win the award given what it has turned into. However, I am not a fan of what the award is today. I feel like the award should be for a player be given to a player from whom many fans did not expect to see a major jump.
Cunnigham is a former No. 1 overall pick who has been improving nearly every year but made the All-Star jump. While I would be happy if he won it, I do not think this is the award for him to win. A guy like Daniels is the ideal MIP candidate.
If you were to ask the average NBA fan at the beginning of the year if they could give their thoughts on Daniels, a good number probably could not supply a real answer. However, Daniels played as well as anyone could have ever imagined. He leads the league with three steals per game and has been one of the only bright spots for the Hawks this year.
I am not sure what Daniels’s career looks like, but he has achieved more than I expected.
Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard, Boston Celtics
Pritchard is the overwhelming favorite to win the award, and rightfully so. Even though the Celtics have both a stacked starting five and a relatively deep bench, it is Pritchard who has consistently been running the second unit out there.
Jayson Tatum’s on/off metrics are usually not as great as some of the other superstars in the league, and that’s because Pritchard holds down the fort and plays terrific basketball when Tatum is not on the floor.
Some people might look at how stacked the Celtics’ lineup is and say, “If you take Pritchard off the Celtics, they still have a great bench lineup, so not much would change.” To this, I will use the same argument when I defend Tatum. Just because a player has great teammates does not automatically mean that they should be disqualified from all major awards.
PRITCHARD & WHITE COMBINE FOR 84 🤯🤯
Pritchard: 43 PTS | 10 REB | 5 AST | 10 3PM
White: 41 PTS | 3 STL | 9 3PMPritchard’s 43 PTS & 10 3PM represent new CAREER-BESTS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/a6hlX56cLH
— NBA (@NBA) March 6, 2025
Defensive Player of the Year: Lu Dort, Oklahoma City Thunder
Picking DPOY was easily the hardest decision. This award was Wembanyama’s to lose before he was diagnosed with a blood clot, ending his season prematurely. Once he fell, it opened the door up for at least four or five other candidates. With this being said, none of the other candidates “wowed” me. That is not to say that none of these guys are great, but it feels like none of them are “true” Defensive Players of the Year.
With this being said, I decided to give my pick to the best defender on the best defensive team.
Coaches actively scheme their offenses around getting Dort out of the play as much as possible, and it very rarely works. He has been the most important piece to an all-time great defense, which is extremely important for this award.
Most Valuable Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
In what is debatably the best two-man MVP race of all time, I think the Thunder’s superstar deserves the nod. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, and 1.7 steals per game on 63.7 percent True Shooting.
While Nikola Jokic probably put together a more efficient and better offensive season than Gilgeous-Alexander, I think that Jokic’s defense hurts Denver’s team to an extent that sinks him in this contest.
In addition, Gilgeous-Alexander’s net rating of 21.19 with his best teammate, Jalen Williams, off the floor shows how valuable he is. It will sure be interesting to see what he has in store for the playoffs.
Looking for More?
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Main Image Credit: Joe Murphy | NBAE via Getty Images
