The NBA announced that the 2020 award winners will be selected based on their performance through March 11, when the league suspended the season due to the coronavirus outbreak. Now people have started to pick their winner for these prizes and, of course, some are more controversial than others around the NBA community.
Former NBA-player-turned analyst Kendrick Perkins selected his winners in recent hours. He shared a picture on Twitter asking people to select their MVP, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and the Coach of the year.
Perks went with Lebron James as the Most Valuable Player, Ja Morant as Rookie of the Year, Dennis Schroder as the Sixth Man of the year, Anthony Davis as the Defensive Player of the year, Bam Adebayo as the Most Improved Player and Nick Nurse as the Coach of the year.
Lebron James
Ja Morant
Dennis Schroder
Anthony Davis
Bam Adebayo
Nick Nurse pic.twitter.com/xiqs1FM9Do
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) July 19, 2020
Plenty of people believe Giannis Antetokounmpo is the rightful MVP award winner this year but not for Perkins. His admiration for LeBron James is well known but he’s not alone with this. Frank Vogel, DeMarcus Cousins and more people have made the case for Bron recently, although Giannis remains the strongest candidate to take the prize. This season Bron is averaging 25.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 10.6 assists per game.
Ja Morant seems to be a lock for the ROY award, despite Zion Williamson’s good start to his season.
Dennis Schroder is one of the strongest candidates for the Sixth Man of the Year, but other players could take the award home, including Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers.
It looks like the only competition Anthony Davis has for the DPOY award is Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Brow appears to be a few steps ahead of the Greek Freak.
The MIP is a tough one. Bam Adebayo has had a terrific season, even becoming an All-Star but other players like Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, and Brandon Ingram have a good case for the award, too.
As for the Coach of the year, Nick Nurse has done a terrific job with the Raptors even after losing Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers in the offseason. However, Frank Vogel has done great with the Lakers, Billy Donovan with the Thunder is also a good candidate and Mike Budenholzer with the Bucks. Still, Nurse seems like the strongest name to claim the prize.
At this moment, it’s more a subjective selection rather than objective. Perkins won’t vote for the actual winners of these awards but he expressed his opinion on who deserves to win this and that. Now, who are your 2020 NBA awards winners?
