NBA Awards night thread

The NBA Awards show airs tonight on TNT at 8pm CST, and the Rockets are front and center with James Harden one of the finalists for the MVP award, even though there’s not much suspense as to where he will finish.

The Beard joins prohibitive favorite Giannis Antetokouompo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Paul George from Oklahoma City Thunder as the three finalists. I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of the MVP debate at this point. We’ve beaten that horse to death several times over here at TDS, but suffice it to say we think Harden has the clearest case.

The other awards tonight are for Rookie of the Year, featuring finalists Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, and Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns.

Up for Defensive Player of the Year award is Antetokouompo, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, and Paul George again.

The three finalists for Sixth Man of the Year are Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell of the L.A. Clippers, which is interesting, since one of them was actually the team’s seventh man, and Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers.

The Most Improved Player award has Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors, De’Angelo Russell of the Brooklyn Nets and De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings.

And finally, the Coach of the Year award features finalists Mike Budenholzer of the Milwaukee Bucks, Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets, and Doc Rivers of the Clippers.