NBA Awards Prediction 2023

Vince Carter, Jamaal Crawford, Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, what do all of these players have in common? They've each won an NBA award and although some may say, who cares? The truth is, each one of these players are now cemented into NBA history and with that being said, let's take a look to see which players in 2023 are going down into the history books. Alright guys, first off, let's talk about who's going to bag the Rookie of the Year trophy and in my books, it's going to be none other than Paulo Banqueiro. I initially figured it was going to be a two-way race between Banqueiro and Holmgren, but because of Chet's season-ending injury, Banqueiro's path to winning the award is going to be served on a silver platter. I mean, the absence of Jonathan Isaac already raises Banqueiro's stock since he'll be eating up a lot of minutes as the team's primary power forward. To put it simply, more minutes equals more production. And speaking of production, we've seen what Banqueiro is capable of when he gets minutes. If we're going to take a look at these stats, this dude has the potential to become a near triple-double monster in his sleep. I mean, he plays hard on defense, he can make plays for his teammates, and he can play bully ball just like this. Now, if we take a look at the other competitors in the rookie race, most of them will have to share touches with other ball-dominant players, unlike Banqueiro where he'll most likely be the first option or at least a main focal point in their offense. I mean, Jabari Smith has to share the leather with heavy scorers like Jalen Green and KPJ, Jaden Ivy has to compete for shots with Cade and Sadiq Bey, and a great scorer like Shaden Sharp has to get his shots up playing for Damian Lillard's team while playing as backup for Anthony Simmons. And so, with that being said, I see Banqueiro running away with this award, and perhaps flexing in front of DeJounte Murray. Anyway guys, for the next award we got the 6th man of the year, and for this one, I got my eyes set on none other than Kid Splash, Jordan Poole. Coming off a strong season where he put up career highs across the stat sheet, JP3 seems poised to take his game to the next level. Though he mostly played as a starter for more than half the season last year, with Klay being back as a full-time starter, Steve Kerr will in all likeliness assign JP3 back to the 6th man role so the Warriors can consistently sustain their offensive flow while the big guns are out. We've all seen how well JP3 has complimented Steph and Klay when they're all playing simultaneously, so he'll definitely get inserted in to close some games, which will further increase his production. With that being said, if the Dubs can win a ton of games next season, which I see them doing, there's a high chance JP3 will take home the award as long as he remains consistent in bringing energy and firepower off the bench. Anyway guys, for the next stop, we got the most improved player, and for this one, I'm putting my money on the Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards. From averaging 19.3 points in his rookie year to 21.3 points last season, it's only a matter of time before Ant-Man explodes, and in case you're looking for any hints of this, Edwards actually closed out last season strong by amping up his scoring numbers to 24 points a ball game in the last 11 games. Sheesh. Now to make his case even more solid, the trajectory of his performance looks really similar to Ja Morant's, who we all know won the most improved player award last year. Check this out, Morant and Edwards have really similar stat lines in their first two years in the NBA, with Edwards actually being slightly better in terms of points over Ja. The third season happened to be Ja's breakout year when he became an all-star and won the most improved award, and uh, with how the Ant-Man's career is trajecting, it seems like he's ready for that breakout year, and just like Morant, he'll bag this award. Anyway guys, moving on here, up next we got the Defensive Player of the Year, and based on what I see, I got Bam Adebayo taking home this award. Did y'all know that Bam actually finished in the top 5 for Defensive Player of the Year voting in the last 3 seasons? With this considered, I think 2023 is going to be Bam's time to finally raise the Deep Boy trophy because of the following reasons. First off, his fiercest rival, Rudy Gobert, will now have to split his block in Second off, the Suns are in complete disarray at the moment, so I doubt Mikkel Bridges will win it. And third off, the chances of another guard winning the award is really slim, so I'm gonna count out Marcus Smart. Outside of these three, I don't see anyone competing with Bam for this award, at least for now. Last season, Bam felt disrespected after not being included in the top 3 of the Deep Boy voting, and in his view, he actually believed that he got robbed. In an interview, Bam let it all out and presented his case on why he should have won the award. I feel like I'm damn near the only guy. Me, and I give Draymond and probably Giannis, 3 guys who can literally guard 1-5 and be effective. Switch on to Akairi, switch on to KD, switch on to Joel Embiid. The thing about guards winning it is, they don't be down there, they don't be in that semi-circle. Alright guys, from Defensive Player of the Year, let's now jump to the Coach of the Year, and for this award, I got Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves. To be quite honest, Chris Finch didn't get much love for salvaging the T-Wolves two seasons ago. I mean, after their horrendous 2021 season where they only won 23 games, Finch took over, and in his second year, he completely turned things around by leading Minnesota to a 46-win season, along with a playoff appearance. The great thing too is Minnesota recognized what he did, and they locked him up by signing him for the long haul. Though they got booted out by the Grizzlies last year in the playoffs, 3 of their losses were just by single digits, and in those games, it could have actually gone either way if it weren't for the breaks of the game. I mean, check this out. This is game 5 of the series, and you can see here that Memphis is on the verge of winning. But instead of giving up, Finch drew up this brilliant play to set up Edwards in the corner to tie the ball game, a little give and go on the top, a flare action on the weak side, and bam. But after hitting that shot, Ja hit the game winner to crush their souls. Anyways, with Gobert added to the mix, I'm projecting the T-Wolves to once again make the playoffs, and if this happens, I really hope the voters will finally give Finch the respect that he truly deserves. Now guys, from predicting the minor awards, let's now shift to the big ones starting with the MVP, and for this one, I'm putting my money on Luka Doncic. Though Luka struggled a bit at the start of the season due to coaching changes and the departure of Korzingis, he eventually found his MVP form around mid-January where he averaged 31.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 8.7 assists while leading the Mavs to a 25-11 record. After this strong run, Luka continued the momentum by having a great outing in the playoffs which ended up in a Western Conference Finals appearance against the Dubs. In a recently conducted survey among the NBA top GMs, 48% of the vote indicates Luka as the heavy favorite to win the MVP next season, followed by Giannis with 34% and Embiid with 14%. One of the Western Conference executives who chose Doncic as his MVP explained how he'll win the award and here's his take. This is as wide open a field as you could possibly have, because Giannis and Curry are back in the equation, but I'll take Luka. His numbers will be super high, Christian Wood will and they're going to win 50 plus games. Losing Jalen Brunson stinks, but whatever his usage was last year, which was already off the charts, it will only boost his chances next season. Anyway guys, next on our list is the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and for this one, I'm betting on Joel Embiid. Though they were consistently considered a semi-finalist in the last couple of years, I believe the 76ers will finally have a breakthrough in the East with Embiid leading them to the top. Coming off his strongest season, averaging 30 points and 12 boards, Embiid looks primed to have another great year. And now that Harden is back in shape and Maxie budding to be an all-star, Embiid has all the help he needs and I see them getting over the hump and reaching the finals. I mean, to add on to this, the Celtics just got slapped with the Ime Udoka issue and with the Nets, well, they have their own sets of dramas to deal with and when it comes to bucks, that'll be a monster series. But ultimately, I see the 76ers coming out on top. Alright guys, we're down to the last two awards and for the Western Conference MVP, I'm picking Klay Thompson. Now, you might think I'm crazy for saying this and you'll definitely argue that Steph's gonna win it if the Warriors are gonna reach the finals, but I see the 2019 version of Klay coming back and putting up some classic Game 6 performances to propel the Warriors back into their second straight finals appearance. I mean, coming off of an injury, Klay only played 32 games in the regular season, but despite this, he actually did pretty well by averaging 20 points a ballgame while shooting just a hair short of 40% from beyond the arc. Klay is returning to his old form and in 2023, I see him having a bounce back season and uh, he's definitely going to be one of the players to watch, especially during the playoffs. Because this guy's like a microwave who can turn up the heat and the next thing you know, he'll be dropping 30 or 40 points within the blink of an eye. Now, for the last award, we have the finals MVP and for the second year in a row, I got the chef bagging this trophy once again. With the way the defending champs are currently trending, I wouldn't put my money against the dubs in winning the chip yet again and with that being said, just like in 2022, I see Curry putting on epic performances in the finals. From back to back losing seasons on top of dealing with Klay's injuries, Steph single-handedly brought the dubs back to life by putting up these types of numbers and despite not being considered as heavy favorites in the playoffs, Steph carried the dubs all the way to another championship, which proves how big time he is on the biggest stage of the NBA.