The NBA has confirmed a weekend report, announcing today in a press release that its 2020 awards will be based on games played through March 11, without this summer’s “seeding games” being taken into account.
To ensure that the media members who vote on the awards aren’t influenced at all by the upcoming seeding games, voting will take place during the next week, from July 21-28, according to the league. The 2019/20 season is set to resume on July 30.
“The decision to exclude seeding games from awards voting ensures a fair process in which players and coaches from all 30 NBA teams will have the same opportunity to be honored as top performers for the 2019/20 regular season,” NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said in a statement.
With July and August games not being taken into account, certain award winners look like foregone conclusions. For example, Grizzlies guard Ja Morant is a virtual lock to be named the 2019/20 Rookie of the Year.
However, in other instances, it remains unclear which direction voters will go — notably, Lakers forward LeBron James built a strong Most Valuable Player case and is a threat to Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will be seeking his second consecutive MVP award.
Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, and Coach of the Year are also up for grabs, along with this season’s All-NBA, All-Defensive, and All-Rookie teams.
According to today’s announcement by the NBA, TNT will announce this season’s award winners during its coverage of the postseason this summer.
The NBA VP of operations saying, No. The Uninvited Eight are not getting screwed.
Only two of them will be any good next season, while both the Hawks and Warriors will struggle just to make the playoffs anyway.
I projected 65 wins for Warriors.
Only need to trade 7 of 10 picks next 3 years.
and of course TE and MLE
The Clippers are about to have back to back Sixth Man OTY winners. There is no argument about who the deepest team in the league is.
@ Luke Adams
Does your media position get you a vote?
Can you write something about the vote breakdown, ie media vote % compared to other voters and where the remaining other voters come from?
Cheers
It’s exclusively media members that vote on these awards (all but Executive of the Year, which is voted on by execs).
If you want to see specifically which 100 reporters/broadcasters voted on last year’s awards, that info can be found here (click on “media ballots” for any award): link to pr.nba.com
Cool thanks for the reply
It is very clear which way the MVP vote will go if you read columns from the major media outlets including ESPN, where 17 of 20 writers voted for Giannis
Everyone knows Giannis will be the MVP, only Lakers fans think that LeBron will win. Giannis will probably get defensive POY as well, but that one will be closer. AD has a much better chance of winning that than LBJ does of getting the MVP.
I think they “give” this mvp to LeBron as a lifetime achievement award, knowing Giannis will be in the mvp mix for several years to come. I see LeBron still having more good years, but not sure he can keep playing at this “Top 2 player in the league“ level anymore, especially after this covidness and all the unknowns that will come after this.
And, it’s my opinion that he’s had an mvp-worthy year.
He already has 4 MVP’s so what difference will a 5th one make? LeBron is barely a top 5 player anymore, just because he got a bunch of assists means he should get the MVP? He is averaging 25.7 PPG with 7.9 RPG and 10.6 APG, big deal. The year Westbrook won the MVP James Harden averaged 29.1 PPG with 8.1 RPG and 11.2 APG, better in every category than LeBron’s supposed MVP numbers this year.
Yeah, that’s true. A guy winning a league mvp – in any sport – in his 17th year is nothing special. What the hell was I thinking?
“They “ have clearly shown that Giannis will win the MVP VOTE easily
Using Lebron’s age as an argument is an indictment against him. Giannis plays 5 minutes less than Lebron and over powers him in just about every major statistical category. If Lebron was performing at this level with last years roster, then he’d be mvp. He couldn’t so he got an mvp caliber player in Anthony Davis.