2025 NBA Regular Season Awards: Winners, Finalists & Legacy Impact

Awards and accolades are some of the most career-defining achievements a player can receive, regardless of the sport. But in the NBA, these honors carry unique weight—often shaping how a player’s legacy is viewed for decades.

The 2025 NBA regular season ended on April 13, and the awards soon followed. These honors are based solely on regular-season performance, not the playoffs. Here are the awards up for grabs:

Most Valuable Player (MVP)

Rookie of the Year (ROTY)

Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY)

Most Improved Player (MIP)

Sixth Man of the Year (6MOTY)

Clutch Player of the Year (CPOTY)

Hustle Award (HA)

Teammate of the Year (TOTY)

All of these awards are limited to the regular season, meaning that the playoffs wont impact one’s ability to win the award. These awards are also limited for some, with ROTY being achievable only during one’s rookie year, and MIP being a very rare case, since nobody has won it more than once. They also tend to have big differences in importance when it comes to determining one’s legacy due to these awards.

Since the regular season ended Apr. 13, 2025, this meant that the awards would shortly follow after, with the three finalists for these awards being announced, then followed by the actual announcement of the award. Since there is a delay between each award, this gives a lot of analysts and just sports fans in general lots of time to speculate who’s the most fit candidate for each award out of the finalists.

A very important key factor to consider for players to win is eligibility. The NBA has officially ruled in 2023 that players must play a minimum of 65 regular season games, and in those games, they have to be playing at least 20 minutes in at least 63 of those games.

This is a requirement for most awards including MVP, DPOY, ROY, and a few more. So aside from just good performance on the court, it’s important that a player stays healthy and stays consistent in playing and attending games.

To further discuss the possibilities of who could win, the criteria of each award is extremely important to understand, as all of them have very different criteria and requirements for being eligible to win the award.

MVP

The finalists for this award are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Throughout the season, this was primarily the MVP ladder, meaning that these three solidified their position from the beginning.

As for the criteria for winning MVP, it is slightly loose due to the voters having different interpretations of it, and different perspectives into why someone should be considered an MVP. Some tend to simply believe that the best player on the team with the best record is simply the MVP, while others believe that it should be defined as who can help their team rise up to the best or their ability, and to be a leader to the team to elevate the team to success.

This criteria is creating a big split in who should win the MVP for the 24-25 season, since Gilgeous-Alexander is considered to be the best player on the best team in most people’s eyes, while Nikola Jokic is the player who helps his team rise to the best of their ability by most people’s belief.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been playing great this season, and is well deserving of the finalist spot, but the reality is that people are split between Gilgeous Alexander and Jokic due to them being more valuable, and the better players in fans eyes. 

This is possibly going to be one of the most close decisions due to Jokic’s average of a triple double with 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists, which is relatively common for him. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds, which is also common for him.

Both of these two players are clashing since Gilgeous Alexander managed to lead his team to the best record in the league this season, while Jokic led his team to the fifth seed meaning GIlgeous-Alexander has the upper hand when it comes to team success.

The impact of winning would hit Gilgeous-Alexander the hardest, since he’s the only one without an MVP out of the three, Antetokounmpo has 1 currently, while Jokic has three. Jokic winning would almost guarantee him a spot in the Hall of Fame, which is an award won after retirement to congratulate a player for having a successful career.

If Antetokounmpo won, it could further extend his argument for being deserving of a Hall of Fame spot, since most retired MVP’s are currently in the Hall of Fame, primarily because of the fact that they won an MVP. Gilgeous-Alexander winning would be the biggest impact as an MVP would solidify him as an all-time great due him competing with previous MVP winners and still coming out on top. The results have yet to come out, leaving fans with tons of suspense into who will come out on top for this award.

ROTY

The finalists for this award were Stephon Castle, Zaccharie Risacher, and Jaylen Wells. A close runner up was Alexandre Sarr, and a key mention should be Jared McCain.

As for the criteria, it’s very similar to MVP,  but it’s limited to only rookies. The voters want to see that the addition of a rookie was a positive benefit for the team, meaning that a player not only plays well, but was a good asset to the team.

Sarr and McCain were previously in the race, but McCain got injured, which not only ruined his shot at winning, but completely cut him due to the eligibility requirement.   Sarr was one of the rookies that managed to be in the runnings during the season, meaning he did relatively well but fell out around the end of the season which meant he didn’t make the finalist list.

As for the three finalists, they all have proven themselves to be a positive addition to their team as their stats were good, especially for a rookie.

Stephon Castle averaged 14.7 points, 4.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds
Zaccharie Riscacher averaged 12.6 points, 1.2 assists and 3.6 rebounds
Jaylen Wells averaged  10.4 points, 1.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds

Although Castle has the best stats, Riscacher and Wells managed to assist their team to a possible play off run. Riscacher and the Hawks managed to make the play-in, but lost the game which meant they didn’t make the playoffs, while Wells and the Grizzlies made the playoffs, but as of right now they have lost in the first round.

For all three players, winning this award would be a small achievement on their behalf, because ROY is a very great award to get, but sometimes it does get undervalued in the NBA community, for both fans and analysts. 

As of Apr. 29, Stephon Castle was officially ranked the 2025 Rookie of the Year.

DPOY

The finalists for this award were Draymond Green, Evan Mobley, Dyson Daniels.

This is an award that gives players recognition for their defensive efforts, mostly focused on steals and blocks. This is what the criteria is mostly based off of, but other factors are considered too such as defensive rating which is a calculation based on how many points are scored per possession. It has a complex formula, but it is simple to understand if people understand that the lower it is, the better.

This was relatively close since all three of these players were very efficient on defense and proved themselves to be amazing defenders this season. Meaning that this was a very close competition for each of them.

For their defensive averages:

Green averaged: 1.0 blocks, 1.5 steals, with a 108.6   defensive rating
Mobley averaged::  1.6 blocks, 0.9  steals, with a 108.3   defensive rating
Daniels averaged: 0.7 blocks,  3.0 steals, with a 110.9   defensive rating

This shows that Green was more of a balanced defender, while Mobley was more so of a rim protector, who was very capable of blocking shots, while Daniels was more of a perimeter defender and was better at getting steals to force the ball into his team’s hands. 

The differences between the 3 make it difficult to interpret whos the best defender, but the defensive ratings also help differentiate them since its evident that Mobley has the best defensive rating since his was the lowest

In the end, Mobley managed to come out on top and officially won Defensive Player of the Year on Apr. 24.

MIP

The finalists for this award were Dyson Daniels, Issac Zubac, and Cade Cunningham.

The criteria for this award is extremely simple, and can be categorized by small questions: How has this player improved and to what extent?, Has this improvement shown to be a big impact for their team?,Was it a big improvement from last season?

All of these players obviously have went through some form of improvement seeing as they made the final three for the award, but differentiating how much this improvement meant to their team matters. Dyson managed to improve his defense tremendously, and even was a finalist for the DPOY award due to his immense stealing ability. This was a big improvement on his behalf, and shows why he deserves his finalist spot.

Cade was already a solid player, considered the best player on his team last season, but he managed to improve most of his aspects for both offense and defense, proving himself as the great player he is. Zubac managed to increase his points, rebounds and some other stats this season as opposed to last season, showing his improvement and showing that he was able to successfully better himself this season. 

All of these players had a shot in the playoffs except for Daniels since he lost his chance after losing in the play-in. This shows that all of them helped lead they team to the playoffs for the most part.

As of Apr. 20, Dyson Daniels was awarded the 2025 Most Improved Player.

6MOTY

The finalists for this award were Malik Beasley, Peyton Pritchard, and Ty Jerome.

The awards criteria consists of essentially being the MVP,  but limiting it to the non-starters. This requires a player that is not  a starter, and determines how valuable they are to the team.

For their averages:

Pritchard averaged 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists.
Jerome averaged 12.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists.
Beasley averaged 16.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists.

These stats are very good for players that are on limited minutes due to being bench players, showing why they deserve this award. They all have their own unique stat, with Beasley being more efficient with scoring, and Pritchard being efficient in all around stats, with Jerome being the same as Pritchard.

Judging by the stats, its evident that the main debate will be between Pritchard and Beasley since Jerome’s stats are similar to Pritchards, but lower in every category.

Pritchard managed to officially win as of Apr. 22, declaring him the official Sixth Man of the Year.

CPOTY

The finalists for this award were Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Nikola Jokic.

This award focused on the concept of stepping up when it mattered the most. Although consistency and playing well all game matters, some players need to be able to hit the shot that closes a game in tough and nerving situations. 

Things like game winners and points in the final minutes of a game are very important when it comes to this criteria since  they are the most nerve racking and scary situations for a player to be in.

Edwards- 6.4 points in the 4th quarter
Jokic- 6.4 points in the 4th quarter
Brunson- 6.4 points in the 4th quarter

Oddly, they all averaged the same number of points in the 4th quarter as of this season, which shows just how close this award was for the players to win. 

Winning this award is not a big impact, but being clutch is certainly something that you would want to be seen as, as it is definitely a legacy defining trait to have.

As close as it was, as of Apr. 23, Jalen Brunson was named the 2025 Clutch Player of the Year.

HA

This is a more broad award, with a lot of different finalists, including players like Draymond Green, Naz Reid, and many more. This is also a more recent award implemented by the NBA officially in 2017.

This award focused on players’ bravery and consistency when it comes to hustling. This means that if a ball is loose and about to go out of bounds, the person who deserves this award would dive immediately into the crowd to get the ball and save it. That’s the base of the award, and many other circumstances can occur that show off one’s ability to hustle.

This award isn’t very impactful and memorable in most fans eyes, especially due to the recency of its creation. Draymond Green was officially declared the winner of this award on Apr. 25.

TOTY

Similar to the Hustle Award, this is a more recently implemented award as it was created in 2013, and is given to a large group of finalists. This group includes people like Stephen Curry, Jalen Brunson, or Brook Lopez.

The criteria for this award is simply being a good morale booster, being a team leader and a generous player. Someone who can be a team player and elevate their team to the best of their ability to help their team have more success. This again, does not have much of an impact on players careers due to recency and the fact that this is more of a mentality award. than an actual skill award.

This was awarded to Stephen Curry, declaring him the official Teammate of the Year on Apr. 28.

Aside from all of these awards, there’s a few others that follow during the postseason, as well as one for Coach of the Year that has yet to be announced, which focuses on the head coach of some of the best teams in the league.

Overall, these awards can sometimes be legacy changing, while others might just be a simple addition to one’s resume, but in the end its still an award, and players should be grateful that their hard work and dedication pays off in the end for whatever award they managed to get.