My 2019-20 NBA Regular Season Awards

On July 17th, the NBA announced the regular-season awards would be voted on based on the games played up until the season was postponed on March 11th. Voting for the awards started on July 21st and ends tomorrow on July 28th so I decided to make my picks for each award before the official voting ends. This has been one of the craziest and most exciting seasons of all time, and the awards races are no different.

For each award, I will list my winner and my second and third candidates (for MVP I will list my top five) who missed out but are worth mentioning for the season they had. Without further ado, here are my award winners for the 2019-2020 NBA regular season.

Most Valuable Player

Winner: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

2. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

3. Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers

4. James Harden, Houston Rockets

5. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

Over the last few months, the media has tried to change the narrative and push for LeBron James to win the MVP. Members of the media like Colin Cowherd have used his age, on-off court numbers, and in some cases Kobe Bryant’s death to make a case that LeBron James is deserving of one of the most coveted awards in basketball. By the way, if you exploit Kobe’s death to make a case that LeBron should win MVP, you’re an awful human being and shouldn’t be allowed to talk about basketball. Did LeBron have a great season? Yes. Does he deserve the MVP? Absolutely not.

Giannis Antetokounmpo should win the 2019-20 MVP unanimously. That may seem like a hot take, but I don’t see a legitimate case for anyone else. This season, Giannis averaged 30p/6a/14r and 2 stocks (steals + blocks) on 61 TS% (55/31/63 shooting splits) and lead the Bucks to the best record in the NBA. He had one of the best statistical seasons in recent memory and did it while being the best defender in the league. Giannis improved as a shooter and defender this season and was the most dominant offensive force in the NBA. His impact on both ends of the court is why the Bucks were historically great during the regular season even though they don’t have another star player.

LeBron James had an incredible year in his first season playing point guard, averaging 26p/11a/8r as the primary initiator for the no. 1 seed in the western conference. He led the league in assists and evolved into a high volume three-point shooter as he had one the best seasons offensively in his career. LeBron’s case for MVP is severely weakened though because he plays with another candidate in Anthony Davis. Davis was one of the best players in the league this season and you could argue he was better than LeBron. He put up 27p/3a/9r and 4 stocks as the second option for the Lakers and may win defensive player of the year. He isn’t mentioned a lot in MVP conversations, but he was phenomenal this season.

Once again, James Harden put up incredible offensive numbers (34p/7a/6r on 44/35/86 shooting splits) with an unbelievably high usage rate of 36.4%. He continues to be one of the most lethal scorers in the NBA and the Rockets are a playoff team because of him.

Luka became an elite high usage scorer this season and made the Mavericks’ offense the best in NBA history. He led the league in O-PIPM which shows how dominant he was offensively this year. He is the reason why the Mavericks are a playoff team and he deserves to be recognized for it. Harden and Luka are at no. 4 and no. 5 on my list because their teams are the 5th and 6th seed respectively and it’s hard to win MVP if your team isn’t one of the top seeds in the conference.

Defensive Player of the Year

Winner: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

2. Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers

3. Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz

Just take a look at Giannis’s advanced defensive numbers (minimum 50 games required).

Defensive Rating: 96.5 (1st)

Defensive Win Shares: 0.206 (1st)

Defensive FG%: 36.1% (1st)

D-PIPM: 4.46 (1st)

DBPM: 4.1 (n/a)

STL%: 1.5 (n/a)

BLK%: 2.9 (n/a)

Giannis is such a good defender which is crazy considering the load he has to carry on offense. He may be 6’11 and 242 lbs., but he moves very well laterally and can keep up with guards and wings on the perimeter. His size and mobility allow him to defend all positions 1-5. His versatility combined with his advanced defensive statistics makes him my defensive player of the year.

Anthony Davis is a stocks monster and a versatile defender in his own right, but when you look at the advanced statistics, which are more indicative of defensive impact, you can clearly see that Giannis was a better defender than him this season.

Gobert literally shut the whole league down so I gave him serious consideration, but both Giannis and AD’s statistical profiles put them ahead of him.

Rookie of the Year

Winner: Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies

2. Kendrick Nunn

3. Brandon Clarke

Ja Morant was incredible this season and looked like a future star. He averaged 18p/7a/4r on 57 TS% (49/37/77 shooting splits) and lead the Grizzlies, who I thought would be one of the worst teams in the league, to the 8th seed. His shooting efficiency was fantastic and his creativity as a passer and driver were wonderful to watch. This was an easy decision.

I really wanted to put Brandon Clarke at no. 2 ahead of Kendrick Nunn because of his defense and advanced statistics, but Nunn played around 800 more minutes and shined as an initiator on a top-four team in the East. In 30 minutes a game, Nunn averaged 16p/3a/2r on 45/36/83 shooting splits and played solid defense. He gets second place.

Clarke was a draft twitter darling in the 2019 draft, and he was great off the bench for the Grizzlies this season. He could’ve started, but he had to take a back seat to Jaren Jackson jr. and Jonas Valanciunas which impacted his total stats. However, when he did play, he was fantastic. Clarke was phenomenal as a roll man and defender off the bench and played a big role in the Grizzlies making it into the playoffs.

Zion Williamson is the best player in the 2019 class, but he only played 19 games this season so I didn’t consider him for this award.

Sixth Man of the Year

Winner: Dennis Schroder, Oklahoma City Thunder

2. Montrez Harrell, Los Angeles Clippers

3. Lou Williams, Los Angeles Clippers

Dennis Schroder was an instrumental part of an overperforming Thunder team that clinched a playoff spot and finished as the no. 5 seed when the season was postponed. I thought the Thunder could make the playoffs, but I didn’t think it was likely and I surely didn’t see them being a dark horse in the western conference. Schroder’s 19p/4a/4r stat line this season was remarkably similar to his production as a starter in Atlanta a few years back. The difference is, he’s now a very good three-point shooter. Schroder shot 38% from three on 5 attempts this season, which is absolutely fantastic. His improved shooting and overall scoring efficiency is a huge reason why the Thunder were so successful this season.

Montrez Harrell continues to improve year after year and this season was no different. Harrell averaged 19p/2a/7r with a modest usage rate of 25.5%. His role this year did increase, and he became a huge part of the Clippers’ crunch time lineup because of his finishing ability and his solid defense. Harrell could easily start for the Clippers, but he comes off the bench and continues to improve on both ends of the floor.

Lou Williams’ role shrunk a bit this season with the addition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and his efficiency dipped which is concerning, but he’s still one of the best bench scorers in the league. He averaged 19p/6a/3r and was good in his role, but I’m a little concerned about the dipping efficiency considering the ball isn’t in his hands as much.

Most Improved Player

Winner: Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics

2. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

3. Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat

Jayson Tatum took huge strides towards becoming a superstar this season. After an underwhelming sophomore season last year, Tatum put up 23p/3a/7r this season and was named an all-star for the first time. His improvement as a shot creator and three-point shooter leads me to believe he can be one of the best players in the NBA someday. Tatum’s evolution into a high level two way shot-creator this year on a top-three team in the east is why I believe he should win the award.

Luka Doncic went from a 21 ppg. scorer who barely missed out on being an all-star, to an MVP candidate and a borderline superstar. If he wasn’t a borderline all-star last year, he would’ve been no. 1 on this list. His development into a top ten player this early in his career is insane and worthy of consideration for this award.

Bam Adebayo exploded this season, going from a solid backup center to an all-star and a monster defender. This season, Adebayo averaged 16p/5a/11r and 2.5 stocks and helped lead the Miami Heat to a top-four seed in the east. The most impressive part of Bam’s development is his improvement as a passer. He averaged five assists per game and posted an incredible assist rate of 24%. His defensive versatility and developing passing skills are why he is one of the best big men in the league.

This is one of the hardest awards to give out this year because there are so many players you can argue deserve to win it. Brandon Ingram, Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Devonte Graham, Trae Young, Duncan Robinson, Jaylen Brown, Pascal Siakim, and Domantas Sabonis all showed improvement this season and could potentially win the MIP award.

Coach of the Year

Winner: Nick Nurse, Toronto Raptors

2. Nate McMillan, Indiana Pacers

3. Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee Bucks

The Raptors lost Kawhi Leonard (the best player in the world in my opinion) in the offseason and dealt with a ton of injuries during the regular season, but they ended up winning a higher percentage of their games than they did last season. Of course, Pascal Siakim’s development as a primary scoring option helped, but Nick Nurse’s ability to make adjustments during the course of a game and get the most out his bench is the reason why the Raptors are still one of the best teams in the east.

The Pacers dealt with a ton of loss this season. They lost Bojan Bogdanovich and Thaddeus Young in free agency and Victor Oladipo suffered a season-ending injury thirteen games into the season. After losing Oladipo they easily could’ve just cruised through the season and moved onto the next season, but they didn’t. Instead, they went on a wild ride with an interesting cast of misfits and ended up with a higher seed than the Philadelphia 76ers. Nate McMillan gave Domantas Sabonis the keys to the offense and let him blossom into an all-star. The Pacers getting the 5th seed without their best player is very impressive and McMillan deserves a lot of respect for it.

Do I really need to say that much about Mike Budenholzer? The Bucks had a historically great season and even though they lost Malcolm Brogdon in free agency, they got even better. Budenholzer bought into Giannis as a primary initiator a few seasons ago and has turned the Bucks into a freaking juggernaut. I’ve been critical of him for his performance in the playoffs, but there’s no denying he is a wonderful regular season coach.