Head to Head: NBA Regular Season Awards
May 19, 2021
Within the blink of an eye, the NBA has gone from a shotgun start on December 22, 2020, just 72 days after the Lakers won their 17th championship in the Orlando bubble, to the controversial play-in tournaments, which began on Tuesday night.
A truncated 72 games in a 145-day schedule has many NBA teams looking like M.A.S.H. units with the playoffs scheduled to start on Saturday, May 22. Injuries played their usual role this season, but “health and safety protocols” also caused their fair share of missed games throughout the season, throwing awards season into chaos. Since nobody seems to be able to agree on many of the individual NBA awards, us The Daily Utah Chronicle sports desk members Cole Bagley, Ethan Pearce and Brian Preece offer up our selections and the reasoning behind them.
Most Valuable Player
Brian
1. Nikola Jokić
2. Steph Curry
Two-time defending MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has seen his numbers improve nearly across the board this season, but voter fatigue is real. Steph Curry has been sublime this year, leading the league in scoring at 32 ppg and dragging a depleted Warriors team to the doorstep of the playoffs. All of that is great, but Nikola Jokić is on a tier of his own this season. Across 72 games played, Joker averaged 26 points, 8 assists and nearly 11 boards, leading the Nuggets to No. 3 in the west.
Ethan
1. Steph Curry
2. Nikola Jokić
Giannis Antetokounmpo
As the resident Warriors fan, I’m obligated to choose Curry here. Jokić will likely run away with the award when everything is said and done, and he is a worthy candidate. However, Curry’s job carrying this depleted Warriors roster while debatably performing better than he did during his unanimous MVP season a few years back deserves serious recognition. He’s broken multiple of his own three-point records this season and brought Golden State into the play-in tournament on his back. If not for a tailbone injury that caused him to miss a few weeks, this team may have been a top five seed (they were 2-7 without him), which would knock out the argument of his team not being good enough for him to win the award.
Antetokounmpo’s numbers aren’t as good as his past two MVP seasons and it’s been an unspoken agreement all season that he won’t win it, but he still deserves consideration. Jokić played in every game and gave Denver the third seed in the Western Conference, which will win over many voters. Chris Paul, Joel Embiid, Julius Randle, Kawhi Leonard, Luka Dončić and Damian Lillard all have compelling cases as well, but to me, this is a two-horse race. When faced with Jokić and Curry as my finalists, I’ll be a biased fan and pick Curry.
Cole
1. Nikola Jokić
2. Steph Curry
3. Chris Paul
When it comes to MVP, in my mind that award should be given to the player who has not only been a critical part of the team’s overall success, but without them, it would be a completely different storyline. Jokić, Curry and Paul all had that level of impact as the three of them have not only had impressive individual seasons, but their teams would be nowhere without them.
For the year, Jokić averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game. Additionally, the Nuggets finished third in the West and had to finish the final quarter of the season without Jamal Murray, easily the second most important and skilled player on the team.
Curry, on the other hand, was God-like this season, winning the scoring title at 32 points per game and at times hitting more threes than entire opposing teams all while being triple-teamed. Notably, the Warriors finished eighth in West without the contributions of Klay Thompson, who was out with an injury all year.
Finally, Paul’s seasonal numbers don’t jump off the page, averaging just 16.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game, but his presence to the team seemed to unlock the secrets of the Phoenix Suns and took them from finishing tenth with a 34-39 record in 2020 to 51-21 and second in the West for 2021. Value doesn’t always show up on a stat sheet, and Paul is the best example of that.
Defensive Player of the Year
Brian
1. Rudy Gobert
3. Ben Simmons
An in-shape Draymond Green will always be one of the best defenders in the NBA and it showed all season in the Golden State. Ben Simmons brings unparalleled defensive versatility with the ability to match up with nearly anybody in the league. But the answer is Rudy Gobert, by a mile. What Gobert does to protect the basket on a team with zero perimeter defense outside of Royce O’Neale is transcendent. Nearly every metric reflects this, and even Vegas favors Gobert to such a degree that some books need $10,000 to win $100.
Ethan
1. Ben Simmons
2. Rudy Gobert
3. Draymond Green
I would really love to have a co-Defensive Player of the Year award to hand out to all three of these guys, but I have to split hairs and separate them somehow. Green is incredibly versatile with a high motor and the best defensive IQ in the league. He may not be at the same level as he was a few years ago, but he has been absolutely key to Golden State’s top five defense.
Gobert is the best rim protector in the league who influences the opponent’s willingness to even touch the paint just by existing. However, Simmons wins me over by being the most malleable defensive player on this list. He guards all five positions with effectiveness and quickness. He switches effortlessly, has great size, and is incredibly tough to game-plan for. Simmons fits in any system, against any system.
Cole
1. Rudy Gobert and nobody else
Yes, I am a die-hard Jazz fan, but the gap between Gobert and everyone else is so massive that it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to put anyone else’s name on the list. He is doing things that have rarely ever been done before as the Jazz are 11.9 points per 100 possessions better defensively when Gobert is on the court compared to when he’s not. That is the best differential in the last 15 years and has only been accomplished by one other player during that time: Draymond Green in 2015-16.
That stat alone should bring home the trophy, but just to drive home the point, he also leads the league in real plus-minus, dunks and threes, defensive estimated plus-minus, post-ups defended, total blocks, and several other defensive stats. Someone should tell Ben Simmons he’s not actually going to win DPOY — maybe it should be Matisse Thybulle since he’s actually the best defender on the 76ers.
Sixth Man of the Year
Brian
1. Joe Ingles
If you asked me this on Feb. 1, Jordan Clarkson wins this award going away. Clarkson averaged over 18 ppg with a legitimate chance to break into the 50/40/90 club. Nagging injuries, defensive adjustments and a regression to the norm caused Jordan to slide a bit. For me, another Jazzman, Joe Ingles, has surpassed Clarkson for a few reasons. Ingles is the consummate pro that does whatever is asked of him and excels at everything. Averaging 12.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg and 4.7 apg, Ingles has been the better all-around player and shown more consistency than Clarkson.
Ethan
1. Jordan Clarkson
2. Derrick Rose
There are tons of guys worthy of consideration for this award. Rose and Anthony are veterans contributing on solid playoff teams, both of whom deserve recognition for being willing and ready to come off the bench at this stage of their career after both were superstars in years past.
Clarkson is the runaway choice for first place, in my opinion. Yes, there have been moments of inconsistency and inefficiency, but the raw numbers playing for the best team in the league are impossible to argue against. I’m hesitant to include two players from the same team on my ballot because it sort of goes against the definition of “sixth man”, so that’s why I left Ingles off here. Clarkson will win this award and he deserves to; he’s been a huge part of the Jazz’s success this season.
Cole
1. Jordan Clarkson
2. Joe Ingles
3. Miles Bridges
Much of what Utah has been able to do this season can be attributed to Clarkson and Ingles. The two are easily having the best season of their careers as Clarkson is an absolute offensive flamethrower, averaging 18.4 points per game (career-high) with Ingles having the best all-around seasonal performance, averaging 12.1 points (career-high), 3.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists while shooting 48.9% from the floor (career-high) and 45.1% from beyond the arc (career-high). However, you’ve got to give it to Clarkson as he has come off the bench every night, whereas Ingles has started nearly half of the season.
Coach of the Year
Brian
2. Quin Snyder
I could see this vote going in any direction because COY is a narrative-driven award. Personally, I wish I could give it to Coach Q, but I believe Monty Williams and the Suns exceeded preseason expectations just a little more than the Jazz did. What Tom Thibodeau did with the New York Knicks, leading them to the four seed in the east, has been incredible but it pales when compared to both coaches out west. Leading the only two teams to finish the season with 50+ wins, it’s got to be Williams and Snyder 1-2.
Ethan
1. Tom Thibodeau
2. Monty Williams
3. Quin Snyder
I picked Williams to win this award prior to the season, and I have so much respect for what he and the Suns have done this year. However, you cannot ignore the fact that the New York Knicks were projected by nearly everyone to be one of the worst teams in the league this season, and instead, they have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Thibodeau is the clear choice here, with Williams second, and Snyder grabs third for coaching the team with the best record in the league, even if they were projected to be better than both New York and Phoenix in the preseason.
Cole
1. Monty Williams
2. Quin Snyder
3. Tom Thibodeau
This award could go to any one of these coaches and I would not be surprised, nor would I complain. Williams and the Phoenix Suns have been absolutely incredible, going from a tenth place finish last season to second in the West and the second-best record in the league. While the organization did add Paul in the offseason, Williams had to correctly formulate a game plan that would produce results and he has done just that.
Snyder also exceeded expectations, leading the Jazz to their first-ever league-best record. Notably, the Jazz had to finish the last 14 games without star Donovan Mitchell and yet he still put together lineups that got the job done and finished at the top of the NBA. When the season started, the New York Knicks were overlooked just like any other year. However, they proved to be a formidable opponent as they finished 41-31, earning the No. 4 spot in the East and their first playoff berth since 2013.
