NBA SEASON AWARDS 2022
The Official 2021–22 NBA Season Award Ballot
My complete picks & rankings for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, All-NBA, Worst Team All-NBA, the Bench Mob All-Stars, the Tim Duncan All-Stars, and everything in between…
THE NEW 2022–23 NBA SEASON IS ALREADY OFF AND RUNNING, and I never even wrote my 2021–22 awards. That’s all the national staples like MVP, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, DPOY, COY, and 6MOY, plus the usual Brandon specials like Sophomore and Junior of the Year, the Tim Duncan All-Stars, Worst Team All-NBA, the Bench Mob All-Stars, and other made-up awards to summarize and track the season looking back.
So what’s the point of doing this now, when we’re already three weeks into the new NBA season? It’s just good to look back and get these picks on record, like we do every year. I’ll be briefer here, but you can look back at past years if you need explanations.
If you’re wondering where all my Medium articles have gone, I’m full-time now at The Action Network. I’ll cover NBA and NFL there all season, so be sure to follow me there. The best and easiest way to do that is to download our must-have sports app and follow me there. You can also catch me at our NBA podcast, BUCKETS, available anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Alright, let’s look back on the 2021–22 season and make some NBA awards picks…
MVP (2021 ballot, 2020 ballot)
Tier I — The Clear and Deserving Winner
1. Nikola Jokic
Jokic was the clear and deserving MVP one year ago, then lost his two best teammates and was forced to play an entire season with a bunch of dudes he found at the YMCA, then somehow got better at almost everything: he scored more, and more efficiently, got way better as a defender, added three rebounds a game, passed better, got more efficient with more usage, and somehow got his team of scalawags to win one MORE game.
Using BPM as an all-in-one metric to measure greatness, Nikola Jokic won MVP a year ago with a 12.1 BPM, the third best individual season in modern basketball history behind only one MJ and one LeBron season… and then went out the following season and posted a 13.7 BPM, better than all three. Heck of a player.
The Only Real Contender in the End
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo
Last year’s MVP was billed as a two-horse race, and it was in the end. The media just had the wrong second horse. Giannis is a monster. This is a fourth consecutive top-two finish for me. He’s a menace on offense and defense, unstoppable in transition, and still adding to his game.
Antetokounmpo will be a deserving top-three MVP guy any year he’s remotely healthy. What else is there to say? He’s already a clear top 30 all-time guy on my lists. Jokic is already top 40 too.
Should’ve Been On Every Ballot
3. Joel Embiid
4. Luka Doncic
There’s a lot of talk about how “Poor Embiid would’ve been the MVP almost any other year” and I just don’t buy it. He was worse on both offense and defense than both guys above him, despite having a genuinely capital-G Great season. He played a career-high 68 games and led the league in scoring with a massive usage spike. He was truly great. He was just also closer to Luka Doncic in 4th place on my ballot than either spot above.
Eight Guys For One Spot at the Back of the Ballot
5. Steph Curry
6. LeBron James
7. Kevin Durant
8. Trae Young
9. Jayson Tatum
10. Jimmy Butler
11. Ja Morant
12. Chris Paul
Real-life MVP ballots go five deep, but I would be pretty content only voting for a top four. I really have no idea who the fifth guy should be.
By sheer advanced metrics, it’s probably LeBron. But it was also his worst season in like two decades and his team finished 11th in the conference. Kevin Durant was slightly worse but got more help from his friends. Trae Young might legitimately have been the best offensive contributor on the list — scoff all you want, but he was a rounding error away from 29/10 on 51/38/90 shooting which is absolutely absurd.
I ended up going with Steph Curry for fifth because he just felt the most defensible looking back on the season. Steph was running away with MVP for about 20 games before the 3-point record chase and all the Warriors injuries. He doesn’t really deserve a top-five finish, but I liked him best among the options.
MVPs almost always come from a top-two seed. None of my top eight MVP votes were that, but all four guys at #9 through #12 were. Jimmy Butler was awesome again but missed too many games, though I would be pretty content if you made a case for him at #5. I don’t buy the Ja MVP hype. When you only play 57 games and when your team plays so well without you, you’re not a top-five MVP candidate. As for the 64-win Suns, not every great team needs an MVP candidate. But if they had one, it was CP3.
All-NBA Teams (2021, 2020)
First Team All-NBA
Luka Doncic
Steph Curry
Giannis Antetokounmpo
LeBron James
Nikola Jokic
Like always with All-NBA, I’m less concerned here about time on the court and overall “value” as such. This is about taking a snapshot of the season and trying to recognize the best players over the course of the year. I do follow position rules strictly, unlike the wonky new voting rules. Sorry about it, Joel Embiid. There’s only one First-Team center and you ain’t it.
Second Team All-NBA
Ja Morant
Trae Young
Kevin Durant
Jimmy Butler
Joel Embiid
Third Team All-NBA
Chris Paul
Dejounte Murray
Jayson Tatum
Pascal Siakam
Karl-Anthony Towns
Four of our five First Teamers stayed the same. James Harden drops out of the three official teams entirely, with Luka Doncic taking his place. Interestingly enough, the two forwards and center on my Second Team were also identical. Voters really don’t like giving Jimmy Butler credit for some reason. The Third Team is where things really start shifting, with CP3 a holdover and the other four names moving up from Fifth Team or lower.
4th Team All-NBA
Donovan Mitchell
James Harden
Paul George
Draymond Green
Rudy Gobert
Why do we stop at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Team All-NBA? Why not continue forward and recognize more guys? These are the guys who just missed my cut, even as a few made the real thing. And this is why the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes was such a big deal this summer.
6th Team All-NBA
Fred VanVleet
LaMelo Ball
Jaylen Brown
Brandon Ingram
Domantas Sabonis
These are the guys that finished just outside the top 25 overall since five teams times five is 25 and this is the Sixth Team. We also pick 24 All Stars, so these guys are borderline All Stars, or likely actual choices when you account for some of the injuries above. Feels about right with this quintet.
10th Team All-NBA
Mike Conley
Damian Lillard
Scottie Barnes
Evan Mobley
Anthony Davis
Well that’s a pretty fascinating group of five — two rookies who had outstanding seasons on their way up, two veteran guards with disappointing seasons on their way down, and one “top 75 all-time guy” who could not be more disappointing at this point.
15th Team All-NBA
D’Angelo Russell
Bradley Beal
Matisse Thybulle
Mo Bamba
Steven Adams
The 15th Team is basically the league-average guys. That feels about right for DLo, and it speaks well for what Bamba accomplished last year. It’s a pretty shocking team for Beal to be in, but defense is the great equalizer here — it brings down both guards and elevates the other three.
30th Team All-NBA — Worst Team NBA
Killian Hayes
Avery Bradley
Doug McDermott
De’Andre Hunter
Richaun Holmes
RIP to the Andrew Wiggins All Stars. Now that our guy is an actual NBA champion and a pretty important contributor on the journey, I guess we’ll have to find a new moniker for the league’s five worst starters.
This year’s LVP is Avery Bradley, and it only seemed fair that a Lakers starter would be the least valuable player in the league. Bradley really started 45 games for that joke of a roster. Killian Hayes was the worst regular in the league, but there’s no need to dump on youngsters.
31st Team All NBA — The Bench Mob All-Stars
Gary Payton II
DeAnthony Melton
Kevin Love
Brandon Clarke
Montrezl Harrell
You’ll notice actual 6MOY Tyler Herro didn’t make my 31st Team at all as even one of the top five bench players. I of course prefer all-around difference makers to bench gunners. Payton and Melton are two of the best guard defenders in the entire league and will be big offseason pickups for their new teams. Love, Clarke, and Harrell were my top bench producers.
32nd Team All-NBA
Tyus Jones, Tyler Herro, Otto Porter Jr., Cam Johnson, Isaiah Hartenstein
33rd Team All-NBA
Alec Burks, Luke Kennard, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Obi Toppin, Hassan Whiteside
We always pick 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Team Bench Mobs, so that’s these three teams and it’s often many of the same players. You see a handful of Knicks here, past and present, plus some of those bench gunners. The Clippers and Grizzlies get multiple reps too, which makes sense as much as the depth on those teams stood out. And Otto Porter Jr. might have been the most valuable bench guy in the league counting the playoffs.
While we’re here, let’s use this to launch right into our Sixth Man of the Year and the other traditional awards…
Sixth Man of the Year
1. Kevin Love
2. Montrezl Harrell
3. Brandon Clarke
Kevin Love was the best bench player in the league by a decent margin but only played 22 MPG for a team that faded down the stretch, so no one really noticed. He’s quietly gone from pouting and purposely-3-seconds-in-the-lane-ing his way out of Cleveland to veteran leader and key contributor. Might we look back at that 2016 Cavs title team a decade from now and decide he, not his guard teammate, was the second best player?
Harrell is always a threat for this award. I thought he had a real All-Star case for Washington the first half of the season before disappearing into the Charlotte vortex. And shouts to my guy Brandon Clarke, who bounced back in a huge way and continues to make my draft take look good. That Memphis bench unit was really something.
The 2022 Tim Duncan All-Stars
You can read the full explanation for the TD All-Stars here, but the basic premise of this team is a collection of the best bargains in basketball. Two rules: you have to make $5 million or less and can’t be on a rookie contract.
The starters
Gary Payton II, $1.7 million
Herb Jones, $1.7m
Otto Porter Jr., $1.7m
Dorian Finney-Smith, $4m
Isaiah Hartenstein, $1.7m
Four of our five TD All Stars made the league minimum, and two of them played for the world champion Warriors. It takes more than a few superstars to win a title, and Golden State absolutely would not have won its title without OPJ or GPII.
Porter is this year’s TD MVP. He played at an All-Star level the first part of the season as Golden State’s clear third best player while Klay Thompson rehabbed and Wiggins found his way, and he was a key playoff rotation guy.
Shouts to DFS, who my colleague Raheem Palmer once declared the third best player in the Warriors-Mavs WCF series in a moment of madness.
Heck of a starting lineup for $7 million, huh? Like most TD All Stars, these names don’t last. Three of our five starters got the bag this summer and found new team homes. One year’s bargain is the next one’s overpay.
The bench
Bruce Brown, $4.7m
Max Strus, $4.7m
Jose Alvarado, $1.5m
Hassan Whiteside, $1.7m
Caleb Martin, $528k
John Konchar, $2.2m
Bobby Portis, $4.4m
A measly $27 million for this entire squad!
Brown was on this team two years in a row and finally got paid. He already looks like a genius signing by Denver. Strus started for Miami last year, and Martin is starting this season. Alvarado and starter Herb Jones were massive rookie contributors for New Orleans and basically came for free. Whiteside was genuinely good last season but can’t find a home while Golden State plays $10m bad Whiteside instead because he was a high draft pick. And shouts to my guy John Konchar, who got that summer bag.
As always, there are any number of other big men — Daniel Gafford, Andre Drummond, Jarred Vanderbilt, Mike Muscala, JaVale McGee — who could have also made the list. Friends don’t let friends overpay big men.
Rookie of the Year (2021, 2020)
1. Evan Mobley
2. Scottie Barnes
3. Herb Jones
There are really two decisions here — one between the top two, and one for third place among four worthy candidates.
I’m still bitter my Mobley ROY tickets didn’t cash because of a poorly timed injury late, but the truth is that this is genuinely splitting hairs the way Barnes came on so strong down the stretch. This is a dead heat and a great year for Co-ROYs. Tie goes to the prospect I thought was the best in the class.
Herb gets the nod for the final spot. Anytime an undrafted rookie leads a playoff team in minutes, that’s a pretty good reason to make a ROY ballot.
First Team All-Rookie
Mobley, Barnes, Jones, Franz Wagner, Cade Cunningham
Second Team All-Rookie
Josh Giddey, Jose Alvarado, Bones Hyland, Ayo Dosunmu, Jalen Green
All-Rookie Teams don’t pay any attention to position, so this is just a top 10 rookie ladder in order. I had a tier from 3 to 6, so tough break for Giddey to drop to the second team. Franz and Cade were just a little better, and tie always goes to the better prospects on these teams.
Unlike the voters, I prefer good play to high counting numbers. That means guys like Alvarado, Hyland, and Dosunmu make the list as quality contributors on playoff teams ahead of the better counting stats for Chris Duarte, Alperen Sengun, and Jonathan Kuminga.
Sophomore of the Year (2021, 2020)
1. LaMelo Ball
2. Tyrese Haliburton
3. Desmond Bane
I never understand why we don’t do sophomore and junior awards too. At least for now, LaMelo Ball is the clear head of the class. His game has real holes, but the good stuff is really good. Haliburton and Bane were outstanding, and Hali might have won SOY if he played on Indiana all year.
The surprising omission here is Anthony Edwards. The flashes are great, and he scored 21 a game, but I need more consistency and appreciate what those guys above did to help their teams more.
First Team All-Sophomore
Ball, Haliburton, Bane, Edwards, Tyrese Maxey
Second Team All-Sophomore
Obi Toppin, Saddiq Bey, Payton Pritchard, Immanuel Quickley, Cole Anthony
Suffice to say this draft class falls off in a hurry after that top five. Yikes.
Junior of the Year (2021, 2020)
1. Ja Morant
2. Darius Garland
3. Jordan Poole
Morant is a pretty obvious JOY winner, though Garland had an awesome breakout season for a worthy runner-up finish. You know how I hate my shooting guard gunners, so that tells you how rough this draft class is when Poole fends of Herro for the final spot on the ballot.
First Team All-Rookie
Morant, Garland, Poole, Tyler Herro, Brandon Clarke
Second Team All-Rookie
Cam Johnson, Matisse Thybulle, Daniel Gafford, Max Strus, John Konchar
And you thought the sophomore class’s depth was embarrassing.
Most Improved Player (2021, 2020)
1. Dejounte Murray
2. Ja Morant
3. Darius Garland
I just mentioned the breakouts for Morant and Garland, and I’m fine with Morant winning MIP especially since he was my 33–1 pick before the season. But I thought Dejounte Murray made the even bigger and more unexpected leap. He was basically a one-man team and dragged the Spurs to the play-in, leaping from 15/7/5 to 21/9/9 and flying all the way from 0.8 to 5.4 BPM at age 25. The shooting didn’t really improve much, so we’ll see how that jump holds up next to another star in Atlanta.
That was a clear top three tier for me. My next three MIP contenders would have been Trae Young for his efficient star leap, Devin Booker for finally becoming the guy people pretended he was for a few years, and Pascal Siakam for finding the consistency he needed to be a true star.
Guys like Desmond Bane, Jarrett Allen, and Miles Bridges come after that for me. Those guys improved by a bigger amount than the players above, but the improvement from good to great or great to elite is more important.
Coach of the Year (2021, 2020)
1. Taylor Jenkins, Grizzlies
2. J.B. Bickerstaff, Cavs
3. Chris Finch, Timberwolves
The voters got this wrong. I love Monty Williams but he wouldn’t have made my top five here. Chris Paul is just as much a coach on the court, and there were just other better performances worth recognizing more.
I think the top two has to be Jenkins and Bickerstaff in some order, and I’m fine with either. The Grizzlies had the league’s second best record, won a ton of games without Morant, and maxed out what they got from basically every player on the bench. That’s elite coaching.
Bickerstaff took a team that was supposed to win the lottery, played a weird giant lineup I made fun of before the season, and coaxed a ginormous defensive leap and a best of the East season out of his team for much of the season before injuries derailed everything. Magnificent.
For the record, I ranked Ime Udoka and Steve Kerr above Williams too. There were some really great coaching outcomes last year.
Defensive Player of the Year (2021, 2020)
1. Draymond Green
2. Al Horford
3. Bam Adebayo
Holy cow did voters ever get this one wrong. Everyone knew Draymond Green was the best defender in the league and runaway winner for this before he got hurt. After that, everyone knew Bam was a perfectly deserving alternative winner, and then he got hurt too. So then voters turned to the elite Celtics defense and were set to pick Robert Williams, who wasn’t even the most important big man defender, and he got hurt too.
And so we got Marcus Smart, an absolute blight on the voters and on the history of this award. Sigh.
Horford I would’ve been fine with. We saw just how valuable a defender he was on that entire Finals run. But really, this was Draymond. It was always Draymond, just like it was the year before too. Forget the games played. Just give the best defender of the generation the award. And it’s not just him — it’s how he elevated the defense from the role players around him.
Guess he’ll have to settle for another ring instead.
First Team All-Defense
Chris Paul, Marcus Smart, Draymond, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Horford
Second Team All-Defense
Gary Payton II, Dejounte Murray, Robert Williams, Jae Crowder, Adebayo
Third Team All-Defense
De’Anthony Melton, Matisse Thybulle, Evan Mobley, Jaren Jackson, Nikola Jokic
Rules say we have to shoehorn guards onto these teams, so Smart makes First Team even though there were at least 10 or 15 more impactful defenders. Huzzah. Honestly, the guards on the teams below him are better defenders too, they just played less.
Not like the alternate choice was any better. A lot of the defensive metrics suggest that Jae Crowder is the better and more impactful all-around defender than Mikal Bridges. Seems like a guy you’d want in your rotation.
Not present: Rudy Gobert.
Defensive Coach of the Year
Jason Kidd, Mavericks
How in the world did Kidd coax a borderline top-five defense out of that personnel? Your guess is as good as mine, but it starts with running opponents off the 3-point arc and ends with Jason Kidd. Give the man his flowers.
Playoff MVP (2021 ballot)
1. Jimmy Butler
2. Steph Curry
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo
4. Luka Doncic
5. Jayson Tatum
Finals MVP remains a ridiculous award, the smallest of samples given on a max seven-game sample that’s really just the four wins that “count.” We should give out a Playoff MVP, a far more meaningful way to recognize the best players over a long, grueling two-month playoff journey.
Many years, the Playoff MVP is not a champion — most, actually. Teams win titles, not players. The most valuable player in last year’s playoffs was unquestionably Jimmy Butler. His 27/7/5 on 60% True Shooting dragging his own injured body and a broken-down roster to within a single shot of the Finals was absolutely remarkable. He was better than Steph or Giannis against that vaunted Celtics defense. He was magnificent. And because we don’t give out PMVP and he didn’t make the Finals, his run will be largely forgotten to history. A crying shame.
Butler is my first PMVP since LeBron James in 2009 to not even make the Finals. That’s not easy to do, since that’s a full extra round of games to add value. Butler was simply better in three rounds than anyone else was in four. And it’s his second PMVP top three finish in three years. That sort of stuff should matter in NBA history. Give Jimmy Butler that Anthony Davis top 75 spot, please and thank you.
Curry loses another Finals MVP, but don’t worry. He’s my 2015 PMVP and finished top three in 2016, 2017, and 2019, so he’s doing just fine. Giannis was last year’s obvious PMVP and finishes third.
You might want to argue for pushing Tatum a spot or two up the list. I’m not even positive he was a more valuable Celtic than Al Horford all things considered, so let’s call it a draw.
By the way, the Playoff LVP was Dillon Brooks, who torpedoed an otherwise excellent Memphis squad. Trae Young was a worthy runner-up, and the corpse of Kyle Lowry kept Kevin Durant off the ballot for the final spot.
2022–23 NBA Award Predictions
We made it! Whew. Every 2022 award all in one place just in time for none of this to matter because the new season already started.
And hey, since the 2022–23 season is already upon us, I might as well make some predictions for the new season. I’ll pick two names at each spot to give myself a couple options, but I prefer the first…
Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff or Michael Malone
Sixth Man of the Year: Norman Powell or Jordan Poole
Most Improved Player: Jalen Brunson or De’Aaron Fox
Defensive Player of the Year: Joel Embiid or Bam Adebayo
Rookie of the Year: Paolo Banchero or Keegan Murray
MVP: Nikola Jokic or Giannis Antetokounmpo
Let’s play some ball! Enjoy the new season.
Brandon is a full-time NBA and NFL staff writer at The Action Network. You can also follow him on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, television, humor, and culture. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.
