More on NBA Awards
Michael Scotto: Tyler Herro is the first player to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award with the Miami Heat. He became the fifth player to average 20 or more points off the bench in a minimum 50 games as a reserve joining Thurl Bailey, Eddie Johnson, Ricky Pierce and Lou Williams.
Kevin Love: Everyone who knows me knows I love Tyler Herro’s game (and swag) - much respect on an incredible 6th man campaign. Best is yet to come for @Tyler Herro
Shams Charania: Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro has won the 2021-22 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.
Ian Begley: Voting for NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award, won by Miami’s Tyler Herro:
Mike Vorkunov: If Nikola Jokic wins his 2nd MVP he has an idea of how he'll celebrate: "Probably some music. Beer. Friends around. Family. Like how you're supposed to do, probably."
Draymond Green posted the audio clip and responded to Simmons. Green was not only upset at Simmons’s comments, he also wanted the NBA to take notice that someone who shares this kind of opinion shouldn’t have a vote on NBA honors like the All-Rookie teams. Honors like MVP and Defensive Player of the Year can impact contract stipulations for players, and these awards are voted on by the media. “How is it that this guy has a voice in deciding if Jalen Green will qualify for a super max deal?” Green wrote on Instagram. “He clearly says F Him, which sounds very personal btw. But he has a say in what someone earns? What work has he done in this life that qualifies him to have a say in an NBA players salary? @NBA.”
Warriors forward Draymond Green has never been shy when calling people out, and that still rings true in the middle of a playoff series. The three-time NBA champion criticized The Ringer founder Bill Simmons on his Instagram story Wednesday for what Simmons said about Rockets rookie Jalen Green. During an April 13 episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons had some harsh words for the Houston guard when comparing him to Pelicans rookie Herbert Jones. “And I put [Jones] first-team all-rookie. I put him over Jalen Green,” Simmons said. “F--- Jalen Green. I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19–60. Congratulations. I'm sorry, I like winning players."
Aiyaan: Draymond Green speaking about the Bill Simmons comments on Jalen Green. Via IG #Rockets Dray a real one
JD Shaw: Bucks guard Jrue Holiday has won the 2021-22 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, the NBA announced today.
This is the second Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award for Holiday, who also earned the honor in the 2019-20 season as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans. He is the first player to win the award more than once.
Holiday received 964 points (39 first-place votes) in balloting of NBA players. Marjanović finished in second place with 936 points (48 first-place votes). DeRozan finished in third place with 898 points (34 first-place votes). Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five points for each third-place vote, three points for each fourth-place vote and one point for each fifth-place vote.
Meghan Triplett: When Ja Morant was asked "what's next" now that he has won Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player, Ja said, "well...I'm not a finalist for you know MVP. That's definitely on my list..." Morant then added, "being a champion and potentially a Finals MVP" as well.
Drew Hill: Ja Morant on the moment he got the MIP award from the team: “You could just see the joy in everybody’s faces celebrating my success. It just shows what kind of team this is and how happy we are for each other. That’s pretty much all that matters – that my guys are proud of me.”
Jeff Zillgitt: NBA Most Improved voting results:
Will Guillory: CJ McCollum on Herb Jones: "He'll be First-Team All-Defense once they start watching Pelicans games."
Josh Lewenberg: Nurse on Scottie ROY: “That’s a big award. That one of the biggies.” On learning the news from the Vince Carter video at practice yesterday: “It was a good moment to share as a team because being down 3-0 there wasn’t a lot of great moments to think about. That was a good boost”
Keith Pompey: Scottie Barnes learns from Vince Carter that he was named Rookie of the Year. pic.twitter.com/C7GSBpaf9a
Shams Charania: Toronto Raptors‘ Scottie Barnes has won the 2021-22 NBA Rookie of the Year, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green has some strong thoughts about a system in which members of the media vote on the NBA's top awards. Green said on his podcast Wednesday that it's "absolutely disgusting" the media determines the league's individual honors. "I think when you look at voting for All-NBA, when you look at voting for Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, MVP, ultimately these things are voting on by the media, which I think is absolutely disgusting," he said at the 4:40 mark. "Because these are human beings that could have personal issues against guys because that does happen."
Mark Medina: Draymond Green on the DPOY award: "I'm extremely happy for Marcus Smart. That's a guy I respect as a defender. Well deserved."
Jay King: Marcus Smart said he thinks one day Robert Williams will be in his position as the recipient of the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Connor Letourneau: Kerr said he thinks Draymond Green didn't get more love in DPOY just because he didn't play more games. "He was on course to win the award, for sure. The injury unfortunately derailed that."
JD Shaw: Celtics guard Marcus Smart has been named the 2021-22 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the league just announced.
Gary Washburn: #Celtics Marcus Smart becomes the first G since Gary Payton to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Jeff Zillgitt: Boston's Marcus Smart (257 points) named NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Phoenix's Mikal Bridges (202) second, Utah's Rudy Gobert (136) third and Miami's Bam Adebayo (128) fourth.
Mikal Bridges: Congrats to Marcus Smart fr ! Happy they start realizing it aint easy guarding mfs on the island every night ! Very much deserved … I appreciate everybody that was rockin wit me lol we’ll be ok😭 its a blessing to even be apart of the convo
Eric Walden: Quin Snyder on DPOY results: “First off, congratulations to Marcus. He’s a terrific defender. … (Rudy Gobert) is someone who will continue to contend for that award. Maybe Rudy will win Defensive Player of the Playoffs.”
CJ Holmes: I asked Jordan Poole about not being named a finalist for Most Improved Player: “It is what it is.” Sure he would’ve liked to win the award, but that’s not his focus right now.
Mark Haynes: Steve Kerr didn't know Jordan Poole wasn't a finalist for the MIP award. “JP, that's shocking to me. I didn't know that...They all are worthy candidates, but I think Jordan should be in there.”
Eddie Sefko: Donovan Mitchell on Rudy Gobert being a finalist for DPOY: “Are you surprised? I’m not.” Added that Gobert had a huge impact on game 1 with only one shot from the field.
Barry Jackson: Spoelstra, on Bam not being a defensive player of year finalist: "I'm really stunned. I don't know what people are watching"
Keith Smith: Marcus Smart on being a Defensive Player of the Year nominee: "I think I have a chance to win, and it's an honor to even be mentioned. But, honestly, I'm playing for something bigger. My focus is on Wednesday."
Ira Winderman: Bam Adebayo NOT a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. It's Rudy Gobert, Marcus Smart, Mikal Bridges.
This award was separated by the thinnest of margins, with Marcus Smart edging Mikal Bridges by three total points, according to the ballots collected by HoopsHype. If Smart wins the award, he’d be the first guard to win this category since Gary Payton in 1996.
Cade Cunningham: I think I should be Rookie of the Year because of all the things I’ve been able to do for my team this year. I feel like I helped my team in a lot of different ways that may not have always turned out to be wins. If you watch my game, and watch the way that I play, you could appreciate all the things that I do on the floor. What makes me the Rookie of the Year is me being able to do so many things at such a high level.
Omari Sanfoka II: Cade on his RoTY resume: "I think I made a strong case for it. I had some big moments this year that will show that I feel like I’m the best rookie this year, and there’s other guys that have had big moments as well."
Marc J. Spears: Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green and Toronto Raptors guard/forward Scottie Barnes have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in March and April.
Mikal Bridges, in an exclusive interview with Yahoo Sports, wants voters to dig deeper. “I would never discredit anybody, and obviously bigs have been winning that award for a while and they do a hell of a job, but the amount of times a big has won over a guard is just crazy,” Bridges told Yahoo Sports. “I think people take it for granted how tough it is to guard the top perimeter players in this league and not be able to really touch them because they’re going to get the foul call. I feel like as a defender on the perimeter, you just get disrespected. I’m not even talking about me personally, but I don’t understand how guards in general don’t win it. These guards are shooting off ball screens, they get isos with the offense spaced out and a lot of shooters on the court. You’ve got to guard these matchups one-on-one, and I think we just get taken for granted.”
Golden State Warriors defensive star Draymond Green said Bridges would be his choice for DPOY. “That was so dope to hear that from Draymond,” Bridges said of Green. “Obviously with everything he does on the court, he understands how tough it is to guard a dude on ball. I just wish the voters would actually watch the games. But I can only control what I can control.”
It’s been 26 years since a guard was awarded the hardware. Hall of Famer Gary Payton was the last guard to receive it in 1996. “I’m telling you, again, I’ll never discredit none of the bigs, but they don’t have the matchups we have to face,” Bridges told Yahoo Sports. “There are not as many talented bigs in the league as there are talented wing players and guards. Guarding one through four is tough. If you want to do the math, look up how many skilled players are one through four, and then how many skilled players are at the five. Obviously, you have a lot of talented fives, but out of all 30 teams, not every big on the team is very skilled. That’s just how I look at it.
Cody Taylor: Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić and Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 24 of the 2021-22 season (March 28 - April 3).
Chris Kirschner: Some All-NBA ballot stuff: DeMar DeRozan eligible at forward and guard Luka Doncic eligible at forward and guard Jayson Tatum eligible at forward and guard LeBron eligible at forward and guard Jokic/Embiid eligible at forward and center
Marc J. Spears: Here are the finalists for the NBA Sportsmanship Award pic.twitter.com/KHxS5RGtwg
Cody Taylor: Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 23 of the 2021-22 season (March 21-27).
Finch currently has the Wolves sitting at 42-31 and in seventh place in the Western Conference, a half-game behind the Denver Nuggets and the coveted sixth spot in the standings, which means avoiding the play-in tournament and having several extra days to rest before starting the postseason. They are 1.5-point home underdogs against the West-leading Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night, according to MaximBet.
The 2021-2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year race is a mess. The “short” list of candidates includes at least six players (listed alphabetically): Bam Adebayo, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, Jaren Jackson Jr., Marcus Smart, Robert Williams. Several others (Mikal Bridges, Joel Embiid, Draymond Green, Evan Mobley and Matisse Thybulle among others) should be considered as well. Why is the field so vast?
Individual defense is always hard to measure, whether via metrics or qualitative evaluation. Aside from rim-protection stats, numbers measuring individual defensive contributions can be a little rough. Additionally, with the complexity of modern defenses and length of the schedule, it is too much to ask of anyone to have watched enough of the candidates in sufficient detail to have more than a general idea of a player’s consistency of execution or his level of responsibility for his team’s level of defensive success. On top of these “every year” problems, this season has thrown up a few more wrinkles.
Some of Gobert’s defensive metrics are still quite robust. He’s sixth in defensive Estimated Plus Minus (dEPM) among players with at least 20 MPG. However, a closer look reveals that these metrics might be getting propped up via box-score inputs. Gobert is still blocking shots at a high clip and is leading the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage, stats which tend to cause some advanced plus/minus models to attribute the bulk of any success Utah has had defensively to Gobert.
However, a look at non-box score informed metrics like RAPM, suggests the possibility of some diminution in his impact. Gobert has finished in the top 20 in Luck Adjusted DRAPM (which attempts to rectify shooting variance by smoothing out variations in opposing free throw and 3-point shooting upon which teams, let alone individuals, generally don’t have much impact) in each of the seven seasons prior to this one, including five seasons in the top six. He sits 36th today. The result could plausibly be the result of variance or statistical noise, but it just as likely suggests he hasn’t been quite as good.
Boston has the NBA’s best defense, though which player should get sufficient credit to be recognized as the best defender in the league this year? Six of the Celtics’ top seven (Smart, Williams, White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford) players rate in the 84th percentile or higher in dEPM. Smart’s candidacy is hurt by the fact that it’s been so long since a guard won the award that I’m not sure we would recognize what DPOY-level guard play even looked like. As Smart himself put it, those are the rules…
Brad Townsend: Jokes Kidd when asked if he should be a Coach of Year candidate: “That award is dangerous because that award leads to getting fired the next year.” He’s basically right. A lot of COYs don’t stay much longer.
Cody Taylor: Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 22 of the 2021-22 season (March 14 - 20).
Gerald Bourguet: “He should be the Defensive Player of the Year, number one.” - Monty Williams on Mikal Bridges, saying he’s guarding the toughest matchups in the league from the outside in while playing heavy minutes
As of right now, you'll be hard-pressed to find a consensus in the MVP conversation that doesn't favor Jokic winning for the second season in a row. Warriors coach Steve Kerr appears to have made up his mind. "We played against the reigning MVP, who probably should win it again," Kerr told reporters after the game. "I don't have a vote, but Jokic is just an unbelievable player and was spectacular tonight. He makes all of his teammates better. He makes defense so difficult because no matter what you do, he's got a counter for it. He's playing the game at such an easy pace and things look so smooth for him out there. With our defense already coming into this game struggling, he's a tough guy to face when you're not well-connected at that end of the floor."
Eric Walden: Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert has won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award for the third time in four seasons. He joins Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Dwight Howard as the only players to win the award at least three times.
Gobert received 84 first-place votes and earned 464 points from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons finished in second place with 287 points (15 first-place votes). Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, the 2016-17 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, finished in third place with 76 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.
Tim Reynolds: Jokic wins, Embiid 2nd, Curry 3rd. Derrick Rose got an MVP first-place vote. League source tells AP it was not from media; it was the consensus fan vote. And LeBron James' streak continues: 18 years with at least one MVP vote.
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić is the recipient of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2020-21 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, the NBA announced today. With the first Kia NBA MVP Award of his career, Jokić becomes the first player to earn the honor as a member of the Nuggets. He is also the first player from Serbia to be selected as the NBA MVP and joins Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) as MVP winners from Europe.
Jokić received 91 first-place votes and earned 971 total points from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters as well as the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award fan vote, making for 101 ballots. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (586 points) finished in second place, followed by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (453 points) in third place, Milwaukee Bucks forward Antetokounmpo (348 points) in fourth place and Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul (139 points) in fifth place.
Marc Stein: Denver's Nikola Jokic will be formally announced as the league's MVP on TNT tonight at 7:30 PM ET, sources say.
Nikola Jokic was named league MVP, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post, becoming the lowest draft pick to ever win the award and the first Nuggets player ever to do so. The former record-holders were Giannis Antetokounmpo and Steve Nash, both chosen No. 15 overall. The Nuggets selected Jokic with the No. 41 pick of the 2014 draft.
Shams Charania: Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has won the 2020-21 NBA MVP award, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson has won the 2020-21 Kia NBA Sixth Man Award for his contributions in a reserve role, the NBA announced today. This is the first Sixth Man honor for Clarkson, who becomes the first player to win the annual award with the Jazz.
Clarkson received 65 first-place votes and earned 407 total points from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Utah forward Joe Ingles finished in second place with 272 points (34 first-place votes), making this the first time that teammates hold the top two spots in voting for the Kia NBA Sixth Man Award. New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose finished in third place with 77 points (one first-place vote).
StatMuse: Most All-NBA selections in NBA history: 16 — LeBron James 15 — Kobe Bryant 15 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 15 — Tim Duncan pic.twitter.com/f3mYcLShwT
Shams Charania: 2019-20 All-NBA teams: First: LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, James Harden Second: Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic, Chris Paul, Pascal Siakam Third: Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gobert, Russell Westbrook
Jordan Clarkson: MAN @LeBron James IS THE MVP!!!
