Awards that Don't Exist

10 Made Up Accolades for the 2026 NBA Season

There are still a few real trophies the NBA will hand out in the coming days - All NBA teams are announced tomorrow, then Coach of the Year on Tuesday - but all of the individual player awards have now been announced. Here’s who won:

This season’s ballots featured

• A runaway MVP (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander),¹ who is also the Clutchest player in the league and has an up-and-coming cousin winning Most Improved (Nikeil Alexander-Walker)

• A unanimous Defensive Player of the Year (Victor Wembanyama)

• One of the closest Rookie of the Year races in recent history, between two former roommates (Cooper Flagg over Kon Knueppel), and

• Three different Spurs finishing top four in five of the six major award categories (Wemby, Dylan Harper, and Keldon Johnson).

Despite the inevitable debates around what are ultimately subjective honors, it’s fun and important to give people their flowers. So why stop at these six trophies? Like I did for the WNBA last season, I’m going to give out 10 more awards for the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season. Some will be serious, others silly. Let’s begin!

Sophomore of the Year

The NBA not only votes for Rookie of the Year, but also names two entire All Rookie teams. Then it forgets about them as Sophomores. Here are the candidates if there were a little more love for second year players.

Ok, maybe we don’t need Sophomore of the Year this season after all. Basically every draft of the 2020s has been stacked,² with the glaring exception of this 2024 class. If Rookie of the Year was actually Underclassman of the Year, I don’t think the results would have been too different this season. Anyway, here are the finalists.

Finalists for Sophomore of the Year

• Stephon Castle (SAS)

• Donovan Clingan (POR)

• Reed Sheppard (HOU)

Castle won Rookie of the Year, and in my mind, he defended his claim as best in his class pretty easily this season (with apologies to Donovan Clingan, whom the advanced stats actually like quite a bit more than anyone else, thanks to his offensive rebounding, Reed Sheppard,³ and the Hawks and Wizards fan bases who each ended up with a French big man, just not the right one).

To be fair, Stephon Castle is not only the best of a below-average class; he has been objectively excellent for the Spurs all year. He improved across the board from his Rookie campaign, averaging more points on better efficiency, more rebounds on both sides of the ball, and nearly twice as many assists as he’s developed better lob-chemistry with Wemby.⁴ After drafting Castle, the Spurs brought in De’Aaron Fox and drafted Dylan Harper not really knowing what Castle would develop into. He’s exceeded expectations in year two, becoming the best of a very talented backcourt in San Antonio.

Winner: Stephon Castle

Junior of the Year

There’s a real case to be made for Amen Thompson or Brandon Mill… JK it’s obviously Wemby.

Winner: Victor Wembanyama

Best Family Moment

The tightest sports locker rooms can feel like families, and sometimes the NBA is literally a family affair. There were 18 sets of brothers playing in the NBA this season, a few sets of cousins,⁵ and a handful of “juniors” whose dad’s played in the league. So it makes sense to celebrate the best family moments of the season.

Finalists for Best Family Moment

• Nikeil-Alexander Walker (ATL)

• Pat (GSW) and Cam (MEM) Spencer

• LeBron and Bronny James (LAL)

In September, Converse released Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s first signature shoe. It sold out immediately, so only the most dedicated fans were able to cop a pair in retail stores. Nikeil-Alexander Walker, Shai’s cousin, was one of those fans. He reportedly waited in line for 12 hours to get a pair of his cousin’s shoes. Of course, Shai had already gifted him a pair, and as a Hawks fan I’d be a little concerned about what sleeping outside in a foldout chair does to the back health of a $60 million athlete, but still a feel good story.

Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker slept on a lawn chair with a friend awaiting the release of his cousin Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Converse shoe.

Pat and Cam Spencer were unheralded most of their basketball careers. Pat actually gave up basketball for four years while he went and won the Tewaaraton Award as the best player in men’s college lacrosse. He found his way back to the hardwood in a grad year at Northwestern then earned his way into a roster spot in Golden State. His younger brother Cam was lightly recruited out of high school, started his college career at Loyola Maryland, and eventually made it to the Memphis Grizzlies as the 53rd pick. That’s all to say that this moment was unexpected, and awesome.

LeBron James threw an alley-oop to his son in the NBA Playoffs. That sentence is absurd. As GoldenKnight tweeted, “LEBRON JAMES LITERALLY CREATED A TEAMMATE TO THROW AN OOP TO IN THE PLAYOFFS MAN STOP ALL THE DEBATES”

Winner: LeBron & Bronny James

Second-Most Valuable Player

This award that doesn’t exist goes to the best second-best player on a team. The easy answer in the WNBA was Jackie Young, clearly an all-league talent who could be option 1A on her own team, but who just so happens to play with one of the greatest players of all time in A’ja Wilson.

Jimmy Butler is the self-proclaimed Robin of the NBA (to Steph Curry’s Batman) but he suffered a knee injury in January, sidelining him for half the season and opening up the Robin race to other contenders. Unfortunately, injuries also took out a number of other would-be candidates like Jalen Williams (second to SGA), Jaylen Brown (normally second to Jayson Tatum, but first this season with Tatum rehabbing his Achilles), and Austin Reaves and LeBron James, whoever you consider to be second in the pecking order behind Luka.

Speaking of which, to be considered for this award a player has to be the clear second best player on the team. This criterion eliminates Reaves and LeBron, as well as guys like Evan Mobley (is he the second best Cav over Darius Garland/James Harden?) and Franz Wagner (is he just better than Paolo Banchero?).

Finalists for Second-Most Valuable Player⁶

• Jalen Duren (DET)

• Karl-Anthony Towns (NYK)

• Jamal Murray (DEN)

Fortunately for Jalen Duren, this is a Regular Season award.

Unfortunately for Karl-Anthony Towns, this is a Regular Season award.

Unfortunately for both of them, this is Jamal Murray’s award.

Murray averaged the most points per game (25.6) and the most assists per game (7.1) among guys who didn’t lead their team in these stats, and he was also the best shooter on the Nuggets, and arguably in the entire association.

Murray had the best Regular Season of his nine-year NBA career, averaging highs in points, rebounds, assists, and shooting percentages, most by a wide margin. He suited up 75 times for the Nuggets and carried the team for an extended period while Jokić was rehabbing his knee. The Nuggets went 11-6 without their big man, largely thanks to Murray, who averaged 28 and 8 in those games over 36 minutes. He was clutch all season, finishing second only to SGA in Clutch Player of the Year voting.

Murray had been a borderline All Star for years, and finally got his first nod this season, ending Jokić’s drought of All Star teammates. He’ll probably be named to an All-NBA team tomorrow.

Like Jackie Young, Murray could be option 1A on a good team, he just so happens to play with one of the greatest players of all time in Nikola Jokić.

Winner: Jamal Murray

Garbage Time Player of the Year

We have Clutch Player of the Year, to recognize the players who rise to the challenge in the final minutes of close games. But what about the guys who rise to the challenge of keeping fans from leaving early in the final minutes of blowouts? Let’s recognize some of these garbage time heroes.

Finalists for Garbage Time Player of the Year

• Will Riley (WAS): 862 low leverage possessions, 213 points on 56% true shooting, 67 rebounds, 41 assists, -2 plus-minus

• Maxime Raynaud (SAC): 642 low leverage possessions, 178 points on 65% true shooting, 79 rebounds, 12 assists, -79 plus-minus

• Walter Clayton Jr. (MEM/UTA), 634 low leverage possessions, 132 points on 62% true shooting, 28 rebounds, 62 assists, -31 plus-minus

Data courtesy of pbpstats

All of these guys are very, very good at basketball. They may even be very good NBA players someday, but this season they were put in, let’s say, less than ideal situations.

Will Riley had to play 862 possessions of basketball that wouldn’t affect the outcome of the game. That’s 25% of all of his plays, 423 minutes, or 7 hours, of meaningless running around. And for some of those minutes he was forced to abandon all pretense of playing basketball, as he and his Wizards collectively decided to foul Bam Adebayo as much as possible in an attempt to help stop him from passing Kobe Bryant’s 81-point mark. Outside of giving up the second most points of all time as a primary defender, he had himself a solid Rookie year and next season he should be a key piece in what should be a much better time in Washington D.C.

Maxime Raynaud also had a solid individual first NBA campaign, making Second Team All-Rookie as the 42nd pick. Unfortunately, he’s in Sacramento and his situation isn’t looking any brighter next year. Raynaud averaged 28 points and 6 rebounds per 100 possessions in garbage time, about what Alex Sarr, the Wizards former #2 pick, does in all his minutes. Raynaud was outscored by 79 points in those possessions. Brutal.

A lot of players changed teams at the trade deadline. Some stars moved to tanking teams, stashed for brighter days. Some role players were elevated to contenders and had the chance to show off in these Playoffs. Walter Clayton Jr. was a rare case, going from bad tanking team to bad tanking team as a piece in the Jaren Jackson Jr. Memphis-Utah trade. This being his first year in the league, he had only played 45 games for the Grizzlies before having to switch loyalties and expend effort trying to lose games for the Jazz. At least he was spared the generational tank-off between his two franchises in April.⁷

Winner (Loser?): Maxime Raynaud

Funniest “What If”

At one point in the season this was a real possibility:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Dončić, and Cade Cunningham all miss the 65-game threshold for post-season awards.

• Jaylen Brown’s negative on-off tanks his stock among MVP voters.

• Kawhi Leonard continues his mid-season dominance and gets the Clippers, who started the season with 11 losses in their first 15 games, including a 2-10 stint without Kawhi, into the Playoffs.

• Kawhi reaches the 65-game threshold (this did happen).

• Kawhi Leonard is named the NBA’s 2025-26 MVP.

This would have been hilarious on a few fronts.

• First, it would have highlighted how silly the 65-game rule is, by handing the MVP award, the league’s highest individual honor, to maybe the sixth most valuable player in the league simply because he played in one or two more games than the actual most valuable players.

• Second, the 65-game rule was essentially put in place because of Kawhi! It was included in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement to curb load management, a strategy to rest healthy stars whose worst offender was none other than Kawhi Leonard.

• Third, the league would have had to bestow its highest honor on a player who is actively under investigation by the league and may face punishment soon. It’s fallen almost completely out of the media cycle, but Kawhi Leonard played this entire season while the NBA’s legal council was investigating him, his uncle, Steve Ballmer, and the Clippers for salary cap circumvention.

Giving a player an MVP because of a silly rule originally instituted to target him and then banning that player a month or two later would have been such an amazing plot. Alas.

Winner: Kawhi Leonard

Comeback Player of the Year

The NFL and MLB each hand out a Comeback Player of the Year award to guys who overcome adversity to return to play even a single snap or who have, in MLB’s official language “re-emerged on the baseball field during a given season.”⁸ The NBA doesn’t have this award, but if they did, 2025-26’s winner would obviously be Jayson Tatum.

The guy ruptured his Achilles tendon in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last year, and was back on the court, facing NBA competition, 10 months later. Above the Break did a great piece diving into Tatum’s form upon his return, but regardless of the stats,⁹ his return was inspirational (and heavily documented in a heavily publicized show ironically called The Quiet Work).

Winner: Jayson Tatum

Side note: It would be amazing if Kawhi Leonard gets banned then comes back and wins this in the 2027-28 season. Stay tuned.

Pettiest Decision

Finalists for Pettiest Decision

• Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks front office

• The Los Angeles Clippers and Chris Paul

• The New York Knicks

This award is mostly just a reminder of some things that happened this year. Not that you forgot any of the unending Giannis drama, but did you remember that Chris Paul was in the league this year? He returned to the Clippers last offseason for his retirement tour, only for it to be interrupted halfway through when the team got sick of him. He is the best player in franchise history, and they shipped him off unceremoniously, essentially ending his Hall of Fame career.

Or remember the NBA Cup that the Knicks won? They beat the Spurs, won a banner, then refused to hang said banner in Madison Square Garden because they instead want to win and hang a different, more valued banner (and they may need to beat the Spurs again to get that one).

Winner: New York Knicks

Best Court Design

The courts are getting crazy, with seemingly a different design every game in these Playoffs. According to Basketball Jersey Archive there were 88 unique designs across the league’s 30 teams this season. These were my four favorites:

Finalists for Best Court Design:

I love when teams subtly bring in elements of their identity to the court, the way the Hornets do with the beehive¹⁰ and the Jazz do with the mountains. I’m also a sucker for a cool blacktop court, and I may be biased as the only NBA game I attended in person this season was played on the Denver Nuggets City Edition court.

That said, while there are some nits to pick with the Rockets design (why is the baseline text vertical?) it’s gotta be the Astronaut court for me.

Winner: Houston Rockets

Best Throwback Jersey

I don’t know if there was a cross-team design meeting last offseason, but several NBA teams went old-school with their alternate jerseys this year, and I loved it.

Finalists for Best Throwback Jersey:

Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers

This is my petition to Koby Altman to get LeBron back in Cleveland this offseason. I would love to see him playing in this jersey like old times.

LeBron James on the Cavs in the 2006 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Bonus: Chart of the Year

I made a lot of charts this season, spelling out the letters on jerseys, visualizing happiness, ranking All Stars, but I think my favorite, visually, is this one showing when teams call timeouts. The main takeaway is that all of the bad teams use their timeouts early on to stop opponent runs, except the Jazz. But really I like it because it’s as soothing to look at as jazz is to listen to.

Let me know in the comments who else you want to recognize this year!

1. Despite a fourth place vote from a contrarian voter.

2. Current and future All NBA Players from these draft classes include:
2021: Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, Alperen Şengün, Jalen Johnson
2022: Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams
2023: Victor Wembanyama, Amen Thompson, Ausar Thompson
2024: uh… Stephon Castle?
2025: Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel
2026: (yes already) AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer, Caleb Wilson

3. I’m told he played good games but all I saw was flustered turnovers.

4. “Lob chemistry with Wemby” generally just means “throw the ball 12 feet into the air somewhere near the rim”. Wemby can make most Point Guards look good.

5. But not Demarcus Cousins anymore.

6. Other considerations included Kon Knueppel, VJ Edgecombe, Alperen Şengün, Julius Randle, and Dillon Brooks.

7. Only 13 guys total played in that game.

8. Seems like a very basic criterion.

9. 22, 10, and 5 if you do want to regard the stats.

10. Even though technically hornets live in nests not hives.