2025 NBA Awards

Celtics’ Payton Pritchard Named Sixth Man Of Year

Celtics guard Payton Pritchard has won the Sixth Man of the Year award, the NBA announced on Tuesday (Twitter link).

Pritchard beat out the other finalists, the Pistons’ Malik Beasley and the Cavaliers’ Ty Jerome, for the honor. Pritchard received 82 of a possible 100 first-place votes and recorded 454 total points. Beasley notched 13 first-place votes and 279 points, while Jerome earned two first-place votes and 91 points.

Pritchard posted career-high numbers across the board for the defending champions, averaging 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 0.9 steals in 28.4 minutes per game.

Pritchard, who played 80 regular season contests, shot 47.2% overall and 40.7% from distance. He’s in the first year of a four-year, $30MM contract that he signed in October 2023, which now looks like a major bargain.

Beasley, playing on a one-year contract, averaged 16.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.9 steals in 27.8 minutes per night and didn’t miss a game. The three-point specialist shot 43% overall and 41.6% from distance and was a major reason why Detroit more than tripled its win total.

Jerome, who barely played last season due to an ankle injury, averaged 12.2 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists in 19.9 minutes per game while making 70 appearances. He shot 51.6% overall and 43.9% from three-point land.

This is the second time in three seasons a Celtics guard has won the award. Malcolm Brogdon earned Sixth Man honors in 2023. The Timberwolves’ Naz Reid captured the award last spring.

In total, eight players showed up on at least one Sixth Man ballot this year, with five players receiving a first-place vote. The full results can be viewed here.

Sixth Man Award, Three Others To Be Announced This Week

Get ready for some major award announcements this week.

The NBA will reveal the winners of four postseason awards, one per day, starting on Tuesday, according to NBA Communications (Twitter link).

The Sixth Man of the Year award will get first billing. The Celtics’ Payton Pritchard, the Pistons’ Malik Beasley and the Cavaliers’ Ty Jerome are the finalists, as revealed on Sunday. Pritchard is considered the heavy favorite to claim the prize.

The Clutch Player of the Year award will be unveiled on Wednesday. The Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards and the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson are the finalists.

The Defensive Player of the Year award will be announced on Thursday. The Warriors’ Draymond Green, the Hawks’ Dyson Daniels and the Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley are the finalists.

The Hustle Award will be announced on Friday. No finalists have been revealed for that prize, which is determined by aggregating hustle stats the NBA tracks (such as deflections, loose balls recovered, charges drawn, screen assists, contested shots, and box-outs) rather than by media votes.

While the Sixth Man, Clutch Player, and Defensive Player awards will be announced during TNT’s evening broadcasts, the Hustle Award winner will be unveiled on social media on Friday afternoon.

Poll: Who Should Win 2024/25 NBA Awards?

The NBA announced the 2024/25 finalists for its seven major awards on Sunday, revealing the top three vote-getters for Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Clutch Player of the Year.

A few of these awards have felt like foregone conclusions for a while, but some other results could be genuine surprises.

Today though, we’re not focusing on which players will win the awards, but the ones you believe should win them. Select your winners for this year’s major NBA awards in the seven polls below, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts.

Our polls only include the three finalists in each category, but if you think someone else deserves to win one of these awards, be sure to use the comment section to “write in” that pick and explain your reasoning.


Most Valuable Player

Defensive Player of the Year

Rookie of the Year

Most Improved Player

Sixth Man of the Year

Coach of the Year

Clutch Player of the Year

NBA Announces Finalists For 2024/25 Awards

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic are the three finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player award this season, the league announced on Sunday (Twitter link).

While all three players put up monster numbers, Gilgeous-Alexander is generally considered the favorite to win the award due in large part to the Thunder’s team success this season. Oklahoma City won a league-high 68 regular season games, compared to 50 for Jokic’s Nuggets and 48 for Antetokounmpo’s Bucks.

The finalists for each award represent the top three vote-getters. The winners will be announced at a later date.

Here’s a rundown of the finalists for the major NBA awards voted on by media members:

Coach of the Year

  • Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers)
  • J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons)
  • Ime Udoka (Rockets)

Rookie of the Year

Sixth Man of the Year

Defensive Player of the Year

Most Improved Player

Clutch Player of the Year

And-Ones: Clutch Player Award, NBA Europe, Award Picks, Oweh

The official candidates for Clutch Player of the Year have been revealed, NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor tweets. Here’s the list of candidates that voters can select for the award, as chosen by the league’s 30 head coaches:

Curry won the award last year.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

  • While the NBA is trying to establish a new league in Europe, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum insists that the goal is not to replace the EuroLeague, Eurohoops relays via a Reuters interview. “Our goal is to create a commercially viable league that features high quality on -court competition and respects the rich tradition of European basketball. And we think that that will better serve fans and players on the continent,” Tatum said. He notes that there are major cities in Europe that don’t have a team where the NBA can establish roots. “There are big markets in Europe that aren’t being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren’t being serviced,” he said. London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are among the candidates that NBA Europe considers as prime targets.
  • The Athletic’s John Hollinger reveals his award picks. He has Gilgeous-Alexander atop his MVP list and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson as his Defensive Player of the Year. O’Connor, writing for Yahoo Sports, has the same duo winning those awards. They also both have Stephon Castle taking Rookie of the Year honors, Payton Pritchard atop their Sixth Man of the Year lists, and Kenny Atkinson as Coach of the Year.
  • Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh will test the draft waters, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 tweets. Oweh averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals this past season. He played his first two seasons at Oklahoma.

NBA Announces Finalists For Sportsmanship, Teammate Of The Year Awards

The NBA announced the 2024/25 finalists for a pair of awards on Wednesday, naming the six players who are eligible to win the Sportsmanship Award for this season, as well as the 12 players who are in the running to be named Teammate of the Year.

The Sportsmanship Award honors the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court,” per the NBA. Each of the league’s 30 teams nominated one of its players for the award, then a panel of league executives narrows that group to six finalists (one from each division) and current players voted for the winner.

The trophy for the Sportsmanship Award is named after Joe Dumars, the Hall-of-Fame guard who won the inaugural award back in ’95/96. This season’s finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

Holiday is the only one of this year’s finalists for the Sportsmanship Award who has earned the honor in the past — he won it in 2021. Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey won the award last season.

Meanwhile, the NBA also announced its finalists for the Teammate of the Year award for 2024/25. According to the league, the player selected for the honor is “deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”

The voting process is similar to the Sportsmanship Award — a panel of league executives selects 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award, then current players vote on the winner.

Holiday is a three-time Teammate of the Year, while Timberwolves guard Mike Conley has also won the award twice, including in 2024. However, neither of those veterans is a finalist this season.

The Teammate of the Year finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

Award Candidates Who Still Need To Reach 65-Game Mark

There are just 12 days left in the 2024/25 regular season, which means time is running out for certain end-of-season award candidates to meet the 65-game minimum to qualify for consideration.

A player doesn’t need to reach that 65-game mark in order to be eligible for Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year, or All-Rookie teams, but it’s a necessary requirement for most of the marquee awards: Most Valuable Player, All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense, and Most Improved Player.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the following players who could be in the mix for one or more of those awards haven’t yet met the 65-game criteria, but still have a chance to do so:

In some cases, a player’s actual games played total doesn’t match up with the figure noted above. That’s because in order for a game to count before the 65-game minimum, the player must be on the court for at least 20 minutes. A player is also permitted to count a maximum of two games between 15 and 20 minutes toward that minimum.

Let’s use Mobley as an example. The Cavaliers big man has technically appeared in 66 games this season, but he played just 12 minutes in one of those games, 18 minutes in two of them, and 19 minutes in one. That means he only has 64 games that actually count toward the minimum — all 62 games in which he played 20-plus minutes, along with two of those games between 15-20 minutes.

Mobley will have to play at least 20 minutes once more this season in order to be eligible for awards like Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense, and All-NBA. Given that he’s healthy and the Cavs still have seven games left on their schedule, Mobley should have no problem meeting that requirement. But it’ll be a taller order for some of the other players on this list.

Durant is currently sidelined with an ankle sprain and has been ruled out for at least two more games. He would have to play 20-plus minutes in three of the Suns‘ final four games to be award-eligible. Brunson, on the shelf due to his own ankle sprain, is in a similar boat, though the Knicks guard has a chance to return before Durant does.

Lillard, who is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf, seems pretty unlikely to play in six of the Bucks‘ last seven games. Holiday is healthy but has no wiggle room to miss any of the Celtics‘ remaining seven games.

Many of this year’s other top award contenders have already met the 65-game criteria. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic did so in style on Tuesday night — his 65th game of the season was an incredible 61-point triple-double in a 140-139 double-overtime loss to Minnesota.

However, according to the latest straw poll conducted by Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Jokic is the clear runner-up to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who has played 72 games) in the MVP race. Of the 100 media members polled by Bontemps, 77 picked the Thunder guard as their Most Valuable Player, while just 23 chose Jokic. The three-time MVP may need a couple more performances like Tuesday’s in order to close that gap by the end of the season.

Besides Jokic, one other notable player who has narrowly eclipsed the 65-game minimum is Cade Cunningham. The Pistons guard has missed four games in a row with a left calf injury and is considered doubtful to return on Wednesday, but he played his 65th game on March 19, prior to his recent absence.

That’s especially important for Cunningham and the Pistons because, as Bontemps notes, the fourth-year guard is considered a virtual lock to earn a spot on one of this year’s All-NBA teams, which will ensure that his maximum-salary rookie scale extension begins at 30% of the 2025/26 salary cap instead of 25%. That would increase the overall projected value of Cunningham’s five-year deal from $224.2MM to $269.1MM.