Who and why
The Woz’s unabashedly unbiased ’23-24 NBA awards explainer
Every year, the NBA asks the media to make extremely tough choices, some of which can impact the earnings of its top players since some maximum contracts are tied to award recognition.
It’s an assignment that requires a lot of research to be done fairly and one this corner takes seriously. Most years, Postmedia gets an official vote either from myself or colleague Mike Ganter. It was my turn for 2023-24 and while some choices were of the more obvious variety, others are worth explaining.
We’ll start with the big one, NBA MVP. Nikola Jokic ultimately became just the ninth three-time winner of the most prestigious regular season award and he’s the best player in the league. My surprise was how resoundingly Jokic won it (79 of 99 first-place votes). Canadian Shai Gilgeous-alexander had an absurdly good year himself, as did Luka Donic, but they were nowhere close. Even Giannis Antetokounmpo had another great two-way season and finished miles behind in fourth, which is where Giannis landed on my ballot. I also had New York’s Jalen Brunson fifth, which is where he ended up, and Doncic third, which was his official finish too.
But I had Hamilton’s Gilgeousalexander first, just as I’d ranked him in three straw polls conducted by ESPN’S Tim Bontemps throughout the season. While Jokic had the strongest finish, we shouldn’t ignore that Gilgeous-alexander was better through December and neck-andneck the rest of the way.
Plus Gilgeous-alexander is an excellent defender (though Jokic is better at that end than he’s given credit for), just as dominant in the clutch and took his team from 10th in the extremely tough Western Conference to first while averaging 30.1 points 6.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds and an Nba-best two steals per game.
Some will claim there’s bias at work here, since three of Gilgeousalexander’s 15 first-place votes came from the Canadian voters, but I don’t see it that way. Gilgeous-alexander deserved to win MVP as much as
Jokic did. Particularly if you factor in that the award doesn’t always go simply to the league’s best player.
Plus, if I were biased, would I say in print that Canadian hoops icon Steve Nash probably didn’t deserve either of his MVPS? Nash, like others like Karl Malone and Allen Iverson, Russell Westbrook and even Embiid last year won MVP in part because they had the best story that year.
The all-nba results aren’t out yet but I had Jayson Tatum on the first team with Jokic, Gilgeous-alexander, Antetokounmpo and Doncic, not Brunson, because I believe MVP and all-nba are different animals. ALLNBA should incorporate team success more and reward Boston for being by far the best team in the league. Tatum and Brunson had nearly identical numbers so he got the edge, but Brunson was a better MVP candidate because he carried a far weaker Knicks team.
SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
My ballot: Naz Reid, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Malik Monk.
Official finish: Reid, Monk, Bobby Portis (Bogdanovic was fifth).
Caught some heat for this one from Sacramento fans and while Monk was awesome and the Kings fell apart late when he got hurt, they did have two fantastic players already who did much of the heavy lifting all year. Bogdanovic, on the other hand, carried the Hawks when star guard Trae Young went down for months and the team was way better with him on the court than not. Surprised he didn’t get more support.
Reid was brilliant for the Wolves both with Karl-anthony Towns healthy and when he had to step in for Towns later in the year. He shot 41% from three, rebounded well and had much better advanced stats than Monk. An easy choice for me, but it was quite close for others (352 points for Reid, 342 for Monk).
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
My ballot: Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Miller.
Official finish: Same.
Holmgren got off to a great start and was actually the betting leader before the calendar changed to 2024, but Wembanyama’s remarkable first season could not be denied in the end. Holmgren, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, was a worthy runner-up, while Miller made the many pundits who thought his selection by Charlotte over Scoot Henderson (sheepishly raises hand) look a bit foolish, at least in Year 1.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER
My ballot: Rudy Gobert, Wembanyama, Bam Adebayo.
Official finish: Same.
Toyed with the idea of giving Wembanyama his first of many nods to come, but Gobert couldn’t be denied for a fourth time.
Also had Herbert Jones and Alex Caruso on my all-defensive first team. Jones is the best wing defender in the NBA, while Caruso is a relentless difference-maker deserving of a second straight selection.
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
My ballot: Tyrese Maxey, Coby White, Jalen Williams.
Official finish: Maxey, White, Alperen Sengun, Williams.
This one came down to how you feel about who should get this award and the spirit of what it represents. My take is it’s a lot harder to jump from really good to close to all-nba level the way Maxey did compared to going from around replacement level to solid starter the way White did. Sengun and Williams both also made impressive leaps and Jalen Brunson went from close to all-star level to fifth in my NBA MVP vote, which is another monster jump.
CLUTCH PLAYER
My ballot: Demar Derozan, Steph Curry, Gilgeous-alexander.
Official finish: Curry, Derozan, Gilgeous-alexander.
Voters were split on this one, but ultimately decided Curry was slightly better in the clutch, which is fair.