Voting for the NBA's seven major awards closed on Monday, and while the winners themselves won't be announced until later in the postseason, the league did reveal the finalists for each of them on Friday. The finalists for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Clutch Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year and Coach of the Year are the top three vote-getters in each category.
- Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the finalists for Most Valuable Player.
- Jaren Jackson Jr., Brook Lopez and Evan Mobley are the finalists for Defensive Player of the Year.
- Paolo Banchero, Jalen Williams and Walker Kessler are the finalists for Rookie of the Year.
- Lauri Markkanen, Jalen Brunson and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the finalists for Most Improved Player.
- Malcolm Brogdon, Immanuel Quickley and Bobby Portis are the finalists for Sixth Man of the Year.
- De'Aaron Fox, Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan are the finalists for Clutch Player of the Year.
- Mike Brown, Mark Daigneault and Joe Mazzulla are the finalists for Coach of the Year.
While we don't know yet who will win each award yet, ballot tracking has given us a fairly good idea in some categories. Embiid has notably pulled ahead of Jokic and Antetokounmpo as he pursues his first MVP award. Banchero, Brown and Fox appear to be very strong favorites in their categories as well, and Markkanen is in good shape as well, though his lead isn't quite as strong. The races for Defensive Player of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year appear to be the closest at this stage, with Jackson and Brogdon holding the leads.
Typically, winners are announced relatively early in the postseason. While there is no set date, names typically start to trickle out during the end of the first round and beginning of the second. The NBA does not name finalists for honors like All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defense, so for those categories, we will simply need to wait and see what the voters decide.