The NBA announced its finalists for all the major 2022/23 regular season awards on Friday evening (All Twitter links can be found here).
Here is the full list of finalists for each of the awards, listed in alphabetical order:
Most Valuable Player
- Giannis Antetokounmpo – Bucks
Joel Embiid – Sixers- Nikola Jokic – Nuggets
Defensive Player of the Year
- Jaren Jackson Jr. – Grizzlies
- Brook Lopez – Bucks
- Evan Mobley – Cavaliers
Rookie of the Year
- Paolo Banchero – Magic
- Walker Kessler – Jazz
- Jalen Williams – Thunder
Most Improved Player
- Jalen Brunson – Knicks
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Thunder
- Lauri Markkanen – Jazz
Sixth Man of the Year
- Malcolm Brogdon – Celtics
- Bobby Portis – Bucks
- Immanuel Quickley – Knicks
Coach of the Year
Mike Brown – Kings- Mark Daigneault – Thunder
- Joe Mazzulla – Celtics
Clutch Player of the Year
- Jimmy Butler – Heat
- DeMar DeRozan – Bulls
- De’Aaron Fox – Kings
TNT will begin announcing the winners next week during its coverage of the 2023 playoffs, according to the NBA. The three finalists for each award are based on voting results from a global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.
Antetokoumpo, the league’s back-to-back MVP winner in 2018/19 and ’19/20, has finished fourth and third in MVP voting over the past two seasons, respectively. He averaged a career-high 31.1 PPG along with 11.8 RPG and 5.7 APG on .553/.275/.645 shooting in 63 games (32.1 MPG) this season in leading the Bucks to the NBA’s best record at 58-24.
Embiid, the MVP runner-up the past two seasons, led the league in scoring for the second consecutive season, posting a career-high 33.1 PPG along with 10.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.0 SPG and 1.7 BPG on .548/.330/.857 shooting in 66 games (34.6 MPG). The Sixers finished third in the East with a 54-28 record, though it’s worth noting that record is also the third-best mark in the league.
Jokic, the reigning back-to-back MVP, averaged 24.8 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 9.8 APG and 1.3 SPG on .632/.383/.822 shooting in 69 games (33.7. MPG). In addition to breaking Wilt Chamberlain‘s record for most assists per game by a center (8.6), Jokic led the Nuggets to the top seed in the West with a 53-29 record.
It’s long been assumed that Banchero, Brown and Fox were the runaway favorites for their respective awards. Given Embiid’s excellent play to end the season and Denver’s stumble to the finish line, it seems likely that Embiid will edge out Jokic and Antetokounmpo to win his first MVP — all three finalists are more than deserving, just as they were last year.
However, the other three awards are more up in the air. Jackson and Lopez have been considered the betting favorites for DPOY for much of the second half of the season. Mobley’s inclusion is somewhat surprising, but maybe it shouldn’t be — the Cavs finished with the league’s top defense and he is arguably the best defender on the team.