‘Go Harder Next Season’: Players React to NBA Awards Finalists Featuring Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic

The NBA regular season is over, and the fans will be eager to find out about the award winners now. The NBA awards have often been controversial in the past because of how it divides fans and players. And this season, it won’t be any different.

The finalists for the awards were announced earlier today, and that has spurred some interesting reactions from players. Pacers’ Myles Turner, Hawks’ Clint Capela and Heat’s Bam Adebayo all reacted to not making it to the DPOY finalists. Adebayo had the best chance out of them all, and he simply laughed it off.

Christian Wood and Chris Boucher also reacted to getting snubs while others gave their votes for award winners.

Who are the finalists for all NBA awards?

Each award category has three finalists each. For the most coveted award, the MVP, the finalists are Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry, and Joel Embiid. It is an easy choice to pick them as the top three contenders for the award. For DPOY, Rudy Gobert, Ben Simmons and Draymond Green finished as finalists. Many would feel Bam Adebayo deserved to be among them, but sadly this time he won’t.

As for Rookie of the Year, LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and Tyrese Haliburton are the finalists. Jerami Grant, Michael Porter Jr, and Julius Randle are the top contenders for MIP. Jordan Clarkson, Joe Ingles, and Derrick Rose are the three finalists for Sixth Man of the Year. Finally, Quin Snyder, Monty Williams, and Tom Thibodeau are the three challengers for the Coach of the Year award.

Who will win the most coveted award, the MVP?

The MVP award is likely to be the most contentious. Jokic, Curry, and Embiid have all had incredible seasons and have carried their teams. The current NBA MVP ladder had Jokic at the forefront but will the voting reflect similarly?

Many fans believe it should be Steph based on how he is carrying the Warriors single-handedly. He also finished as the scoring champion after averaging 32 points per game this season. While there is no denying how much is of an impact he has had, he only influences the game on offense. Unlike him Jokic and Embiid are important for their teams on defense as well.

What rules Embiid out is his 25 missed games while Jokic has only missed two all season. Jokic also helped the Nuggets to hold on to the third seed despite missing Jamal Murray for the last two months. So these factors could propel him to his first MVP award.

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