The Whiteboard is FanSided's daily NBA email newsletter with each daily edition written by a different member of our team — Matt Moore, Wes Goldberg, Chris Kline, Lior Lampert, Quinn Everts and Ian Levy. On Saturday, we all get together for one big roundtable to answer the biggest questions of the week.
Here's what we're talking about today:
Who should win the 2025 Most Improved Player?
Quinn Everts: Give it to Christian Braun. His counting stats have improved, including doubling his scoring output, his efficiency has improved monumentally (his true shooting percentage is 66.5) and the Nuggets are far better with him on the court, which is certainly helped along by playing with Nikola Jokić a bunch, but still – Braun is really, really good. Picked outside the top 20, Braun’s ascension to important cog in the machine surrounding Nikola Jokić has been swift and impressive.
Wes Goldberg: Tyler Herro. Yes, he made his first All-Star team and his stats have improved, but his case goes beyond just the numbers and accolades. Rarely do you see a player with Herro’s résumé (two Finals runs, Sixth Man of the Year, $130 million contract) going into his sixth year say, ‘No, not good enough,’ go in the lab and change everything. Herro used to be very sixth-manny. He dribbled a lot, scored in bunches but not necessarily efficiently, and didn’t make his teammates better. He scrapped all of that in favor of a tidier shot chart that did away with the long 2s and ramped up the volume of 3s, which in turn helped him get to the basket (and the foul line) more. Herro is only averaging 3 more points per game, but his true shooting jumped from 55.8 percent to 60.5 percent. That’s virtually the difference between Jalen Brunson and Jaden Hardy. What’s more is that Herro is more durable. Prior to this, Herro had never played 70 games in a season. He played 77 this season and logged the eighth-most minutes in the league. Herro completely changed who he is as a player, and all for the better. That’s the definition of Most Improved.
Matt Moore: Tyler Herro. Herro was considered trade bait for three years and then, under the shadow of the disaster season for Miami and the Jimmy Butler situation, he stepped up and became the best player on a team that reached the postseason. There has to be consideration for the circumstances under which a player improved. Herro faced more headwind this season than ever before and came out with his best season and more games that he had contributed the most to winning to than ever. This award always gets stuck between expectations and statistical improvement, and Herro balances the two the best. If for no other reasons than the way he became a leader for a team in crisis, Herro should be Most Improved.
Lior Lampert: I wanted to reward Dyson Daniels for his incredible season somehow, but I couldn't pick him for DPOY (albeit highly qualified). So, he'll have to settle for me anointing him MIP instead. Daniels is the heavy betting favorite to earn Most Improved honors, and reasonably so. The 22-year-old nearly tripled his nightly scoring output from 2023-24 and virtually doubled his rebound, assist, and gaudy steal totals. Impressively, he did so while attempting 7.1 more shots per contest on markedly better efficiency. Going from afterthought in New Orleans to mainstay in Atlanta, the Great Barrier Thief gets my vote. But I'd also like to shout out transition demon Christian Braun and certified bucket-getter Norman Powell, the latter of whom fell just short of the 65-game requirement. Both took seismic leaps that were vital to their team's success.
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Who should win the 2025 Sixth Man of the Year?
Wes Goldberg: This is a two-man race between Malik Beasley and Payton Pritchard, but I’m going with Beasley. Admittedly, I framed this more as “Most Valuable Sixth Man,” in my head. Without Beasley, the Pistons offense dries up. His ability to shoot off the catch is the connective tissue that strengthens Cade Cunningham’s impact. Pritchard has been great this season, and was really important at the beginning of the year, when the rest of the Celtics weren’t shooting that well. But the Celtics might still be the best team in the East without him.
Quinn Everts: West Linn, Oregon’s own Payton Pritchard wins it for me. This was not an easy pick, as Malik Beasley has also been a revelation in Detroit, but Pritchard’s continued excellence as a rebounder and sneakily good passing chops put him over the top. There’s an argument to be made that Pritchard’s life is made easier by the surrounding talent, but he still pops off the TV screen, even when surrounded by All-Stars.
Matt Moore: I find the Celtics’ positioning of Pritchard distasteful, as he took one of the top volumes of shots when a team was up by 20 or more this season. Boston came into the year determined to get him this award, and they’re going to. I’m going to go with Ty Jerome for the Cavs. The Cavs’ second unit falls behind without another creator and ball-handler, and Jerome’s ability to make big plays consistently for the best team in the East deserves recognition. After him, I’d go Beasley due to his monstrous season from beyond the arc and then Pritchard. Pritchard deserves a ton of credit for his offensive rebounding and playmaking, both of which are underrated, but the real reason he shines is that he takes catch and shoot 3s on a team defined by that very shot. Any number of shooters shine the same in Boston.
Lior Lampert: Malik Beasley finished one three shy of tying Anthony Edwards for the total league lead -- off the bench! He made eight more treys than Stephen Curry ... as a reserve. "Threesley" was less than a fraction of a percent away from joining the Warriors icon in uncharted long-distance territory. Being as productive as he's been as the leader of a second unit can't be overstated. Knowing that his efforts have been instrumental to the Pistons' best season in nearly a decade makes them even more exceptional. Beasley is a massive part of why Detroit's in a position to win its first playoff game since Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals. 6MOTY favorite Payton Pritchard has been great for the Celtics, though Wes hit the nail on the head: Boston's a wagon with or without him. Ty Jerome is also a deserving candidate worthy of recognition, but has played almost 1,000 fewer minutes than Beasley and Pritchard.
Who should win the 2025 Coach of the Year?
Wes Goldberg: Kenny Atkinson. This comes down to degree of difficulty, and it’s entirely subjective. Is it harder to innovate something that already exists, or to create something that wasn’t there before? The latter is the JB Bickerstaff argument. Bickerstaff turned a 14-win Pistons team into the sixth seed. He built a foundation that hadn’t been there before and provided a young team with organizing principles. He’s a good coach, but that argument bakes in how bad a job the previous coach did a little too much for my liking. Atkinson took over for a good coach and did an even gooder job. With most of the same players, he tweaked the feng shui just enough to turn a team that had been lesser than the sum of its parts into something more than. In my opinion, that’s more difficult.
Quinn Everts: Kenny Atkinson. Of course, guys like JB Bickerstaff deserve props for taking over a bad team and turning them into a solid team. But Atkinson took over a good team that plenty of pundits believed had reached its ceiling, and he flew right past that ceiling into a new stratosphere. This is the same roster that the world tried to convince you was a perennial early playoff exit. Instead, Atkinson created a contender out of them.
Matt Moore: Kenny Atkinson. Mark Daigneault probably deserves this just as much considering how he blended in new acquisitions and player development then dealt with injuries to both his centers while still having the best defense in the league and one of the top ten era-adjusted in history. But Atkinson’s ability to get the most out of the individual players while building a new offensive system that made Cleveland a juggernaut is inescapable. Other worthy candidates include Bickerstaff above, Ime Udoka in Houston securing the two-seed without a certified star, and Jamahl Mosley for weathering the storm of injuries Orlando endured.
Lior Lampert: There are plenty of outstanding candidates for this award, but it's mind-blowing that Ty Lue won't end up on most ballots. After losing Paul George for nothing last offseason, the Clippers entered 2024-25 with a 35.5 expected win total only to go 50–32. Oh, and L.A. only had Kawhi Leonard at its disposal for 37 regular-season games -- and it took him roughly a month to settle in. Lue has pushed all the right buttons and set his team up to make noise in the playoffs. He can seemingly turn water into wine, reclaiming damaged goods like Kris Dunn and Ben Simmons and repurposing them as key rotation pieces. You could easily make cases for Kenny Atkinson, J.B. Bickerstaff, Mark Daigneault, Ime Udoka, Joe Mazzulla and JJ Redick. But (to me), Lue has faced and overcome the most adversity of the bunch listed.
Who should win the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year?
Quinn Everts: Dyson Daniels. I wouldn’t be mad at Mobley, Thompson or even Green, but Daniels' stunningly consistent ability to steal, swipe and disrupt the ball-handling attempts of anyone he’s matched up with gives him the edge on my (imaginary) ballot. Maybe it’s a reductive way to vote for DPOY, but I think Daniels does the most damage as an on-ball defender, and that’s what earns him my vote here.
Wes Goldberg: Amen Thompson. The advanced stats love his case. He’s right there with Draymond Green, Dyson Daniels and Lu Dort depending on whatever alphabet soup metric you look at. He’s also been the single biggest difference in a team that was out of the playoffs a year ago and is now the No. 2 seed. Thompson doesn’t just guard his man well, he practically tractor beams them out of the arena. I haven’t seen a young defender burst onto the scene since Kawhi Leonard 12 years ago. Thompson held Stephen Curry to 1 for 10 shooting in an important game. He defends everyone, from Steph to Jayson Tatum, and he does it all at a high level. If you’re giving me one pick out of every award-eligible player in the league to build my defense around, I’m picking Thompson.
Matt Moore: Lu Dort. On some level, we have to reward OKC for what it did defensively this season. Dort is the start and end of their system, and his ability to frustrate and deter primary offensive weapons in a perimeter league deserves notice. Dort isn’t out there racking up steals while over-gambling, and he’s not a rim protector who seem to get this award every season. But he’s the most important player on the best defensive team we’ve seen in some time and I feel it necessary to reward that performance with DPOY. If we’re being honest … Dort deserves DPOY a little more than Shai deserves MVP.
Lior Lampert: The fact that we all have different answers speaks to how hard Victor Wembanyama's season-ending deep vein thrombosis diagnosis made it to pick this award. But if you couldn't tell from a couple of my previous answers, I'm a big fan of what the Clippers have done this season. That being said, despite Draymond Green's best public campaign efforts, Ivica Zubac is my DPOY. I'm quickly just going to rattle off several L.A./Zu-related stats. The Clips finished third in defensive rating and first in defensive rebound percentage while allowing the second-fewest second-chance points per game. Moreover, only Brook Lopez contested more shots than the Bosnian big man, plus he's the sole player in the NBA to clear 1,000 rebounds. No one has consistently protected the paint and cleaned the glass like Zubac this year.
Who should win the 2025 Rookie of the Year?
Quinn Everts: Stephon Castle. San Antonio’s young cornerstone didn’t have a ton of competition this year, even with a late run from Zaccharie Risacher, who’s trending toward a great future in Atlanta. Although Castle’s shooting efficiency wasn’t sublime, he often looked much more comfortable operating with the ball than I expected from him in his first year. The rookie class at large didn’t blow anyone away, but Castle is a deserving ROY.
Wes Goldberg: Stephon Castle. The statistical case can sway you toward Zaccharie Risacher, and that’s fine. There’s a lot to like about Risacher. He moves well off the ball and is solid defensively. But most of his value comes from how he plays off other players. I’m going with Castle because he just makes stuff happen. He has the ball in his hands and makes stuff happen. He defends and makes stuff happen. I understand that’s a product of his role, but I value that skill quite a bit.
Matt Moore: Jaylen Wells. This one drives me nuts. Wells is a) The best perimeter defense on a team that was top ten before the bottom fell out on their season thanks to bad front office decisions, and b) the most efficient rookie when comparing shot selection. This should not be close. Castle has been maybe the most impressive, but his low lights and bad games are consistent. Wells’ season ended early due to his wrist injury, but that shouldn’t stop him from winning this award in what should honestly be a landslide. He earned starting minutes on a team with title aspirations and didn’t even need the executive to fire a coach to get him playing time!
Lior Lampert: Zaccharie Risacher played meaningful minutes and contributed to a Hawks team that scratched and clawed its way into the play-in/postseason picture. Sure, you can argue the Eastern Conference play-in picture is the NBA's version of the NIT. But Jalen Johnson's season-ending shoulder injury and the De'Andre Hunter/Bogdan Bogdanović trades forced him into a primary scoring role that he handled shockingly well. Meanwhile, Risacher has given us a taste of his defensive versatility and two-way upside. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick looked the part of a future star, particularly down the stretch, as Christopher highlighted in his final ROTY rankings.
Who should win the 2025 Most Valuable Player?
Quinn Everts: SGA. Again, I came to this decision by simplifying my thought process; Shai is the NBA’s leading scorer, plays for the best team in the league, put up staggering efficiency for a guard, takes pride in being a high-level defender and his team would be a low-level play-in team without him. Nikola Jokić is the best player in the NBA, but I think it’s Shai’s year.
Wes Goldberg: I’ve got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This is one of the toughest MVP seasons ever, both SGA and Nikola Jokić are more than deserving. (It feels like we should be able to go back in time, take an MVP away from a less-compelling season, and give both of these guys a trophy. Looking at you, Karl Malone.) Fans from each side can hold up insane stats to the point that you end up drowning in the numbers. From a holy-cow standpoint, let’s call it a wash. They’re both amazing. I ultimately went with SGA because of the tiniest of split hairs: His team dominated in a tough Western Conference, and they were only dominant because of him. Without SGA, the Thunder might still be an OK team. Heck, they might even be in the playoffs. But without his needle-moving, they get stuck in the mud on offense. Gilgeous-Alexander is the difference between the Thunder being one of the most dominant regular-season teams we’ve ever seen, or this season’s Orlando Magic. That’s enough for me to go with Gilgeous-Alexander as my MVP.
Matt Moore: SGA. I loathe that I got here. It is a complete failure of the Nuggets’ organization that this is a question given the season Jokic has had, which might be the greatest offensive season in NBA history.
But Michael Malone got fired. The team was a wreck, chemistry wise. This is Jokic’s worst defensive season since 2018. Can the MVP really come from a team who disappointed so much that they fired their coach, no matter the front office turmoil? The argument will be about the team around Jokic, but I can’t hold it against Shai that he has a better, deeper roster. This is a torturous decision for me because we’re likely to never see a season like Jokic’s again. I just don’t know how to get around the fact that winning is the most important thing in the NBA after money, and the Thunder won the most and by the most with Shai on the floor and the Nuggets barely got to 50 wins. Can we just give Jokic the 2023 MVP he deserved instead and call it even?
Lior Lampert: You're right as long as Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are atop your ballot (in no particular order). Neither of them is the wrong choice. But Jokić's 60-point triple-double sealed the deal for me. It's funny how things work out sometimes. Fans who pounded the table for Russell Westbrook to win MVP during his triple-double season on a sixth-seeded Thunder squad are using that against Joker. SGA definitely has the "best player, best team" argument, and it sucks to knock him for having an excellent supporting cast, but OKC is loaded. Jokić has a slightly higher PIE and EPM ratings than Gilgeous-Alexander on considerably lower usage. The Serbian superstar absurdly finished top-three in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game on insane .576/.417/.800 shooting splits. Voter fatigue is real, and it's why Jokić seems unlikely to win what should be a fifth straight MVP (Sorry, Joel Embiid). Nevertheless, we're splitting hairs here -- what Gilgeous-Alexander has done is equally meritorious.