2018 NBA Award Predictions For Tonight
The 2018 NBA Awards Show will be on tonight at 9 PM ET on TNT. So, we will find out who will win awards like NBA's Most Valuable Player, NBA Rookie of the Year and other awards. I am going to predict who will win all of the categories tonight as the full list of finalists for six awards were announced on Wednesday May 16th 2018. There were a list of finalists for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, NBA Sixth Man of the Year, NBA Most Improved Player of the Year and NBA Coach of the Year. The other categories are the Twyman–Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, NBA Sportsmanship Award, NBA Community Assist Award and NBA Executive of the Year Award do not have any finalists as anybody can win those categories as there were no lists of finalists.
So let the predictions begin. Let's start with the NBA Executive of The Year Award. I think Bob Myers, the general manager for the Golden State Warriors, will win the award for the second straight year in a row because he is the only manager in the NBA right now who has formed a team that is a dynasty in the making. If Bob cannot win the award again, it would be pretty sad especially after his team won the NBA championship for two years in a row and three in the last four years.
I think Al Horford of the Boston Celtics will win the NBA Community Assist Award because I think the work he has done to help the countries in the Western Hemisphere shows that Horford is not only thinking about how to make the United States become a better place but the whole entire world. Besides, the player that wins this award has to be a player that people can respect and I think in my opinion that Horford is a respectable player.
I predict that Sacramento Kings shooting guard Vince Carter will win the NBA Sportsmanship Award because bascially after every game he smiles and has conversations with other players on other teams for a long period of time because at his age he doesn't care about winning NBA championships. He is playing for the Sacramento Kings for God's sake. But Vince would play anywhere that would want him in his part of his career because he is appreciating the game of basketball probably at a level that he has never had before. He does not get upset if he loses because he knows that being on an NBA roster and getting paid money is a win so throughout this entire NBA season he has been winning.
Now for me it's really hard to predict who deserves the Twyman–Stokes Teammate of the Year Award because there are many so good players in the NBA right now who act like a good teammate. But I would have to say I think the player that will win this award this year is Chris Paul, point guard for the Houston Rockets. Paul deserves this award because you can tell that everytime that Paul was on the court that the all the other Rockets on the floor had a big boost of energy in them. Paul was a reason that the whole Rockets team got together and played some good basketball throughout the regular season and even postseason as well.
Out of the three finalists for NBA Coach of the Year I would have to say that Dwane Casey deserves to win this award. You might think to yourself that Casey should not win it because of the way the Raptors played against the Cavs in the playoffs but these awards are based on what happened in the regular season and the Raptors looked very strong in the second half of the season and they were able to shoot so well and play good defense in the second half of the season that they were number one in the Eastern Conference once the regular season ended.
Victor Oladipo, shooting guard and point guard of the Indiana Pacers, should win NBA's Most Improved Player of the Year Award because he carried Indiana to the playoffs as he averaged 23.1 points per game in the regular season. Oladipo is the leader of the Pacers now. Before Oladipo was with the Pacers this year he was with the Thunder and really was just considered an average player. You see I did not pick either of the other two finalists in Spencer Dinwiddie or Clint Capela because even though both Spencer and Clint were better this season than they were last season both of them did not go from average to star they both went from below average to popular NBA player. Oladipo on the other hand went from average to a super star play maker and that's why he should win the award.
Eric Gordon, shooting guard for the Houston Rockets, should once again for the second straight year in a row win NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award because the dude honestly just comes off the bench and averages 18 points per game. Gordon in my opinion could be a starter on any of the 30 NBA teams in this league but the Rockets like what they are doing with him making him come off the bench and shooting inside the arch like a monster. Eric Gordon does not mind coming off the bench either because Mike D'Antoni is still giving him good playing time once he comes off the bench.
On January 1st 2018 the Utah Jazz's record was 16-21 and they were placed tenth in the Western Conference. But then in the middle of January something started clicking for the Jazz as they started winning games and ever since the first day of 2018 ended the Jazz had a record of 32-13 ending the regular season which resulted in the Jazz being placed number fifth in the Western Conference clinching a playoff berth. Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz shooting guard, played sensational but so did the defense for the Jazz. The player on the Jazz that made a big impact for the Jazz on defense is Rudy Gobert and the way that he played defense in the second half of the season was so well that I think he will NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award tonight.
I also think there will be two Jazz players winning awards tonight as I think Donovan Mitchell will win NBA's Rookie of the Year award tonight. Between Mitchell and the other two finalists Jayson Tatum and Ben Simmons, I think Mitchell is the best all-around player as he can do everything when it comes to shooting the ball from inside or outside the arch, rebounding, playing defense, shooting foul shots and playing in transition. Mitchell can even dunk too but doesn't really have too that much.
And finally I think James Harden will win the award for NBA's Most Valuable Player because when I watched Harden play this season he played like that he was not only one of the best players in the league but one of the best of all-time. Let me tell you after watching Harden play for the Oklahoma City Thunder it was hard to believe that Harden would become one of the best players in the league because when Scott Brooks was the head coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder he did not want the ball in Harden's hands even though Harden could score. Brooks would want the ball in the hands of Durant, Russell Westbrook, Derek Fisher and even Serge Ibaka before Harden. Harden then got traded to the Rockets and Harden wanted to prove to Scott Brooks that he should have been the star player for the Thunder for the long-term as Harden would average over 20 points per game in the next six seasons that he would play with in the Houston Rockets after he left Oklahoma City. Harden averaged 30.4 points per game this past season and if Harden would see Scott Brooks again he might tell him something like "Do you wish that you guys' wouldn't have traded me? Because if I was still on the Thunder in the 2013-14 NBA season you guys probably would have defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals."
The Awards show is going to be good tonight to see who wins each category. Also, musician Travis Scott will be performing his hit songs like "Butterfly Effect" and "Goosebumps" tonight as well so it will be fun to watch a star sing some good songs.