might get an award after all.<\/a><\/p>\nEdwards is a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year. He wasn\u2019t on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other honors, but was on the Clutch ballot because those nominees were selected by the league\u2019s coaches.<\/p>\n
The finalists<\/p>\n
\u2014 MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City; Nikola Jokic, Denver; Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Defensive Player of the Year: Wembanyama; Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City; Ausar Thompson, Detroit.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Clutch Player: Anthony Edwards, Minnesota; Gilgeous-Alexander; Jamal Murray, Denver.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta; Deni Avdija, Portland; Jalen Duren, Detroit.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sixth Man: Tim Hardaway Jr., Denver; Jaime Jaquez Jr., Miami; Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit; Mitch Johnson, San Antonio; Joe Mazzulla, Boston.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Rookie of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia; Cooper Flagg, Dallas; Kon Knueppel, Charlotte.<\/p>\n
MVP<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander is trying to go back-to-back, Jokic \u2014 who has been first or second in five straight seasons, entering this year \u2014 is seeking his fourth MVP in six years and Wembanyama is a finalist for the first time.<\/p>\n
Coach of the Year<\/p>\n
Bickerstaff won the award from the National Basketball Coaches Association, selected by his peers, and is the likely favorite for the official NBA honor. Johnson and Mazzulla both led teams that widely exceeded most preseason expectations.<\/p>\n
Rookie of the Year<\/p>\n
This will likely be a two-person race in the end, with Flagg and Knueppel \u2014 both former Duke players \u2014 the presumed frontrunners. That would suggest Edgecombe likely finishes third.<\/p>\n
Defensive Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Wembanyama was the likely frontrunner to win it last season, but wound up falling short of eligibility after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis at the All-Star break and missing the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Minnesota\u2019s Rudy Gobert\u2019s bid for a fifth DPOY award \u2014 which would break a record \u2014 will continue for at least one more year.<\/p>\n
Clutch Player<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in clutch scoring per game, with Edwards second. Denver had two legitimate candidates with Murray and Nikola Jokic; voters clearly gave Murray the edge.<\/p>\n
Clutch scoring is defined as points that come in the final five minutes of a game where the point differential between teams is five or less.<\/p>\n
Sixth Man of the Year<\/p>\n
Jaquez averaged 15.4 points in 74 appearances off the bench, Johnson averaged 13.2 points \u2014 after playing in all 82 Spurs games as a reserve \u2014 and Hardaway also averaged 13.2 points in the 74 games where he came off Denver\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n
The winner will be a first-time selection for the award.<\/p>\n
Most Improved Player<\/p>\n
Avdija averaged 24.2 points and led Portland\u2019s surge to the playoffs, while Alexander-Walker \u2014 bidding to give Atlanta its second consecutive MIP winner after Dyson Daniels last season \u2014 averaged 20.8 points, by far the most his career.<\/p>\n
Duren was a first-time All-Star selection and averaged 19.5 points, almost double what he averaged last season despite playing basically the same amount of minutes.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might be adding a couple more trophies to his collection. San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[375,1026,7,909,366,585,765,225,980,301,206,123,1648,7278,912,762,2675,936,2850,150,368,3361,1407,6,446,379,253,586,310,475,17593,373,969,474,4075,4074,209,66,534,2098,911,582,693,971],"class_list":{"0":"post-714592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-ausar-thompson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-cade-cunningham","12":"tag-chet-holmgren","13":"tag-co-state-wire","14":"tag-colorado","15":"tag-cooper-flagg","16":"tag-deni-avdija","17":"tag-denver","18":"tag-dyson-daniels","19":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","20":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","21":"tag-jaime-jaquez","22":"tag-jalen-duren","23":"tag-jamal-murray","24":"tag-joe-mazzulla","25":"tag-joel-embiid","26":"tag-keldon-johnson","27":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","28":"tag-luka-doncic","29":"tag-mitch-johnson","30":"tag-national-basketball-association","31":"tag-nba","32":"tag-nba-basketball","33":"tag-nickeil-alexander-walker","34":"tag-nikola-jokic","35":"tag-ok-state-wire","36":"tag-oklahoma","37":"tag-oklahoma-city","38":"tag-portland-pilots","39":"tag-rudy-gobert","40":"tag-san-antonio","41":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","42":"tag-sanantonio","43":"tag-sanantoniospurs","44":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","45":"tag-sports","46":"tag-spurs","47":"tag-texas","48":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr","49":"tag-tx-state-wire","50":"tag-victor-wembanyama","51":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}