NBA Individual Trophies and Awards

Basketball il a collective sport but it could be important for some NBA players to have individual trophies and / or awards. Indeed, got one of the trophy or award that will be presented just after can have some consequences on a salary player.

Most Valuable Player (MVP)

MVP trophy (called also Maurice Podoloff in honor to the first chairman of the NBA) is the biggest individual trophy in NBA. The most famous and better players in NBA history had this reward in their career (Kareen Abdul-Jabar x6 and best scorer in NBA history, Mickael Jordan x5, Bill Russel x5, LeBron James x4, Magic Johnson x3, Larry Bird x3, Stephen Curry x2, Hakeem Olajuwon x1, etc.). In the facts this trophy is not decerned to the best player of the year but for the player who help his team to have the best results. Generally, you need to have a good ranking with you team (and also have good statistics…) to be MVP.

NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (NBA Final MVP)

This is the simply the best player of the NBA Finals. He is at 99% a member of the team which win the champonship (except Jerry West for the first year than we give this trophy).

Defensive Player Of the Year (DPOY)

Defensive player of the year trophy reward the best defensive player during the regular season. There are many ways to be a good defender in basketball. You can make steals, blocks, be efficient in the individual marking, have a good respect of rotations in a defensive action or deter the opponent to take a field goal or change the path of a shoot. Cocorico ! For the second time in history (after Joackim Noah in 2014) this is a french player, Rudy Gobert who receive this trophy ! Congratulations Rudy !

6th man on the year

There are five players who begin the match, five who finish, five who play at the same time during match but a team have 15 players to make a season. The 6th man is the « best » substitute of the team. This is a very important composant of a team. We can quantify a 6th man player as a player who did play less than 50% of the season without injuries. A lot of player based their career as 6th man.

Most Improved Player (MIP)

The Most Improved Player is the player who improved the more between two regular seasons. We could see his progress in his statistics, in his impact in his team and the difference of ranking of his team. The players who receive this trophy have passed a course and must have as their goal to catch the MVP trophy now !

Rookie Of the Year (ROY)

A rookie is a new player. This is the trophy for the best best player who plays his first year in NBA. As MVP award the ROY award should reward a rookie with good statistics but also improve the level of his team. As NBA, huge player in NBA history get this trophy (Jordan, James, Durant, Duncan, O’Neal, Carter-Williams).