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ESPN Senior Writer- Tim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what's impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.
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ESPN Senior Writer- ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
- Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
- Author of two books
The final 10 days of the NBA's regular season are full of battles over playoff and lottery positioning. But this stretch of the calendar is also time for another end-of-season staple: lobbying for awards.
Players, coaches and teams are all making their best arguments for the league's top individual honors: Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year, among others.
We covered the MVP race Wednesday, when we unveiled the third and final straw poll of the 2024-25 season, which saw Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander maintain his lead over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic for what would be his first MVP. Jokic, meanwhile, is hoping to claim his fourth in five years, something only LeBron James and Bill Russell have done.
But what about those other three awards? All remain wide open with several viable contenders. And, in our weekly trip around The Association, we're diving into the state of each race, and what sources around the league are saying about who should go home with the hardware.
Jump to an award race:
Defensive Player of the Year
Rookie of the Year
Coach of the Year