With the end of the regular season in the NBA comes end-of-season awards, which mark the incredible individual performances over the span of the 72-game season.
These awards include Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Coach of the Year.
Despite the recently released finalists list for every award, some of these awards can be predetermined, considering how certain players have separated themselves from the ladder this year. But in others, you have tight races with both sides having a point as to why they think said player deserves said award.
End-of-Season Awards on Top Shot
With end-of-season awards coming soon, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for Top Shot to release a challenge where all award winners receive a special Moment to celebrate their accomplishments. However, this is purely speculation; there has been no official word on Top Shot’s end about end-of-season awards and if they have plans to do anything for the winners.
Last season, a Rare “MVP Moves” set was minted with 10 plays celebrating Giannis Antetokounmpo’s MVP award. There has been no indication if this will be a recurring set for the MVP in 2021. However, Top Shot has said end-of-season award winners could receive a distinction, similar to the pink star for Challenge rewards.
With potential for the end-of-season award winners to receive additional recognition on Top Shot, let’s jump into which players will win each award and potential Moments that could be added to their name.
Most Valuable Player: Nuggets center Nikola Jokić
If not for injuries, we could’ve been looking at one of the tightest MVP races in recent history. But with the compressed season and schedule, we’ve seen major injuries knocking players off the hardwood and into recovery, including LeBron James and Joel Embiid.
With injuries to frontrunners, the door opened for Jokić, who still hasn’t missed a game, playing in all 72 contests.
Averaging a career-high in points (26.4), rebounds (10.8), and assists (8.3) while playing every game, nobody stands a chance to claim MVP beside Jokić — now -8500 to win the award. If point guard Jamal Murray wouldn’t have fallen victim to a tight schedule and torn his ACL, the Denver Nuggets had championship aspirations.
Jokić was .2 assists shy of breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record of averaging the most assists by a center in a single season. Anytime you’re mentioned in the same category as Wilt, you know you’re doing something right. By the time Jokić retires, he could be known as the greatest passing big man ever.
The presumed MVP has seven Moments in Series 2 on Top Shot, including a Rare All-Star Game Moment and a Legendary assist Moment. There are plenty of highlight-worthy plays from Jokić that aren’t Moments: if Top Shot decides to mint a special Moment of Jokić, look no further than this assist against the Charlotte Hornets. If that doesn’t do it, maybe his patented rainbow one-footed fadeaway will.
There’s at least one play a game from Jokić that makes your jaw drop, especially with his absurd passes.
Defensive Player of the Year: Jazz center Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert is hunting for his third Defensive Player of the Year award while helping catapult the Utah Jazz to first place in the grueling Western Conference. If the Frenchman gets voted as Defensive Player of the Year, Gobert would be putting himself into Hall of Fame territory. Yes, you read that right.
The only players ever to win at least three Defensive Player of the Year awards are as follows: Dikembe Mutombo (4-time winner), Ben Wallace (4-time winner), and Dwight Howard (3-time winner), and all will be Hall of Famers once Howard retires. That’s it. In fact, the only player to not make the Hall of Fame with at least two Defensive Player of the Year awards is Mark Eaton.
Although Gobert is only averaging 14 points on offense, his presence in the paint on the defensive end of the floor is unmatched, posting 2.7 blocks a game.
Gobert’s defensive ability is truly generational. Just look at some of these statistics from FiveThirtyEight about his performance this season — which shows that this season was one of the greatest individual defensive seasons of all-time.
Out of Gobert’s six Series 2 Moments, half are blocks, but if he’s crowned Defensive Player of the Year, it might be time to tip the scale in favor of block Moments.
Rookie of the Year: Hornets guard LaMelo Ball
This is the closest competition of the bunch, in my opinion, though the Vegas odds tell a different story. My mind is made up: LaMelo Ball is the Rookie of the Year.
Although Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard Anthony Edwards has put up some gaudy scoring numbers the second half of the season, these performances haven’t resulted in wins. This season, Edwards joined LeBron James as the only other teenager to score 40 points twice.
But the Timberwolves ended with the third-worst record in the West, while LaMelo Ball led the Hornets to the Play-In Tournament. To be clear, the only reason this award is so tight is that Ball suffered a fractured wrist, resulting in him missing 21 games — nearly a third of the season. Ball has put up impressive all-around numbers his rookie season, averaging 15.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.
What makes it all the more impressive is that he only started 31 out of his 51 games.
Before the season, ESPN predicted the Hornets had a 22 percent chance to make the playoffs while giving the Timberwolves a 29 percent chance. Winning games is more important than individual numbers, and Edwards only edges Ball by 3.5 points per game. And when you look at every other category, Ball has an advantage — including more rebounds and assists while shooting a higher field goal and 3-point field goal percentages than Edwards.
Every game Ball plays, there’s a chance he makes a move or pass you’ve never seen before, like this full-court underhand pass. Just watch some Horntes highlights, and you’ll see him flash. He’s a generational passer.
This would be a beautiful play to have as a Moment on Top Shot to pair with his four Moments, which include the Cool Cats reward Moment coming shortly. Ball has an extremely bright future, and at only 19 years old, barring a catastrophic injury, expect Ball to produce groundbreaking plays for at least the next decade and his Moments will hold significant value.
Sixth Man of the Year: Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson
This is the only award of the group where there’s no competition. The award is all Jordan Clarkson’s. Clarkson’s had the best season of his career off the bench for the Jazz, averaging a career-high 18 points. He made it clear from the jump that nobody would be able to keep up with his impact off the bench.
This season, there have only been four instances in 68 games where Clarkson failed to put up at least 10 points. That’s consistency.
Clarkson will be the first Jazz player ever to be awarded Sixth Man of the Year. Without Clarkson’s ability to torch defenses on the offensive end and Rudy Gobert’s instincts protecting the rim, there’s little chance the Jazz would’ve finished as the one seed in the West. This is especially true in the last few weeks, as Donovan Mitchell nursed a nasty ankle sprain. In the span Mitchell’s been sidelined, Clarkson has turned his scoring up another notch, posting averages of 22 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists.
On Top Shot, Clarkson only has three Moments, which is fairly surprising considering he’s a flashy scorer who can finish craftily at the rim in traffic. He only has one Series 1 Moment, but has two other Series 2 Moments where he puts back a dunk in one and drops his defender in the other, with both selling for under $10.
Both are flashy Moments, but it would be nice to see more of Clarkson on Top Shot, considering how productive a player he is and the level of talent he brings off the bench. Another ankle breaker, like this, is hopefully on the way from Top Shot.
Most Improved Player: Knicks forward Julius Randle
Your New York Knicks are back in the playoffs! That’s not a sentence many NBA fans thought they’d hear at the start of the season, but Julius Randle and new coach Tom Thibodeau shook up the Eastern Conference.
Before the season, ESPN gave the Knicks a two percent chance to make the playoffs, and now they find themselves as the four seed, hosting home-court in the First Round. And nobody — I mean nobody — expected Julius Randle to make this giant of a leap
Randle just made history joining Larry Bird as the only player in a season to ever average 20 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, plus 40 percent shooting from 3-point territory. It’s a historic season for Randle and certainly a season Knicks fans won’t forget anytime soon.
Randle can’t get enough credit for his stellar season, but it’s hard not to mention Thibodeau in the same sentence with Randle. Thibodeau transformed this team into a team that doesn’t take off plays, but most importantly, unlocked Randle’s skillset, putting him in positions where he felt most comfortable.
This worked quite well for Randle as he averaged career highs in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, free-throw percentage, and three-point percentage. Randle has six Moments on Top Shot in Series 2 compared to just one in Series 1 (with four versions). Even though Randle has six Moments this season, it wouldn’t hurt to add another Moment like this clutch jumper, especially considering Randle just capped off a historic season.
End-of-Season Awards are Coming Soon!
If there’s anything to take away from this article: go look at these players and their Moments on the Marketplace. It won’t be surprising if they see a sudden spike when they receive their awards down the line.
Beside Ball, all of the other award winners will be playing in the postseason, with all eyes on them and able to be played in MomentRanks Play. That’s just one more reason to snag a few of their Moments before the awards are officially announced.