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This intro is purely for the nostalgia of the NBA players born on this day. Jeff Foster, the Pacers legend. Marc Jackson, the Warriors big man who finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in the 2001 season. Three-time NBA champion and legendary Celtics role player Gerald Henderson. Greivis Vasquez, the key to Toronto wooing Kevin Durant. Hollywood Don MacLean, the Bullets legend. Current Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard. And Houston Rockets legend Zhou Qi, the Big Devil! Happy birthday to all!
Award SZN Starts
Do the midseason awards odds make sense?
Fun fact about me: I hate awards discussion prior to halfway point in the NBA season. It drives me crazy when we’re in November or December, a player is excelling and I hear someone start saying, “This guy has to be in the conversation for (fill in the blank) award.” So early in the season, we haven’t even weeded out half of the players who won’t be close to this conversation in March and April. It’s a preposterous practice I feel just fills in placeholders for finding things to talk about.
Okay, that actually wasn’t a fun fact. It’s just a curmudgeonly opinion I have about basketball discourse. On a national broadcast in December, I swear there were 12 different players mentioned for MVP-type seasons. As you can imagine, I was insufferable in several group chats about this. We’re in mid-January now, though, and this is the perfect time to figure out where these awards conversations are headed.
I broke down the awards races for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Coach of the Year and Most Improved Player. The order of players in the column is based on BetMGM’s betting odds. So it’s not me ranking them yet. That comes next week. I’m a little shocked at some of the placement though. Let’s dive into those odds for the Awards Watch.
Remember, the 65-game rule is looming for several candidates, including Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokić and Austin Reaves. Anthony Davis is already ineligible.
You can see the full breakdown of odds and analysis in this week’s Awards Watch, but here are the cliff notes version on each:
Most Valuable Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is running away with this award because of 1) his play and 2) Jokić projecting to have a tough time qualifying. Luka Dončić being second in the odds is just name, team and scoring average. He’s been good, but he’s not close to the second most valuable. Jaylen Brown should be second on the list. I’d also throw Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Maxey into the mix. But there’s so much more season left.
Defensive Player of the Year: My biggest confusion is Wemby being listed here but not on the MVP candidates. You either believe he’s going to qualify by the end of the year, or you don’t. If he is eligible, he’s running away with this award. Chet Holmgren being the favorite for the betting odds feels lazy. Not that he hasn’t been good. He has. You just looked at the top defense in the league and decided the shot blocker on it must be the best one. He’s not. Really good but not the best one.
Rookie of the Year: This actually all seems pretty straightforward. If you think Kon Knueppel should be the Rookie of the Year because of a bit more consistency at this point in the season, I understand the logic. But the order of Cooper Flagg as the favorite, followed by Knueppel and VJ Edgecombe makes a lot of sense.
Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson would be my pick right now, and then probably either Anthony Black or Naz Reid. They’d round out my top three for the award.
Coach of the Year: This is one of the tougher awards to judge at a halfway point in the season because you usually have 10-12 candidates all with decent cases. Personally, I’d probably have Darko Rajaković (Raptors), Jordan Ott (Suns) and Joe Mazzulla (Celtics) in my top three. Mitch Johnson also has an amazing case. Too close and too early to parse out.
Most Improved Player: Where is Ryan Rollins in the top three? He and Keyonte George and Deni Avdija should be in a dead heat for this trophy. Jalen Johnson made the majority of this leap last season, but then got hurt. I think Rollins or George would be my favorites, but Avdija has a great case too. Nobody saw him becoming this. He’s an All-Star-level player now.
The Last 24
🏀 NBA Europe. The NBA’s new league overseas is definitely gaining traction. But it’ll still be a fight.
🪱 The Worm. NBA basketball is headed to London this weekend. Dennis Rodman once played there.
🏀 Not ideal. Ja Morant didn’t play in the Berlin game and we don’t know if he’ll play in London. Adam Silver is disappointed.
😞 Argh. Adam Silver is disappointed, and our Sam Amick explored where things stand with Morant.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Poster of the Decade?
Look at what Anthony Black did
The NBA sure knows how to put on a show. The Magic beat the Grizzlies 118-111 in Berlin as the NBA continued to plant more seeds in the international landscape. It was a fun game and a great celebration of the NBA in Germany, as the Wagner brothers got to shine in their hometown. But late in the fourth quarter, we had the moment of 2026 and quite possibly the best poster of the season … or decade.
Anthony Black got the ball and hurried up the floor. He Euro-stepped around a defender (there they just call it stepped) and went in for the one-handed dunk as Grizzlies defenders converged. Take a look at the dunk and the Moe Wagner reaction.
Pretty cool, right? The dunk itself is fun, but Black basically dunked with four defenders right on him. It led to a pretty tremendous freeze frame of the four Grizzlies defenders reaching out like the Monstars tried to stop Michael Jordan in “Space Jam.”
That’s so much fun. Let’s get to the rest of last night’s action.
Thunder 111, Rockets 91: OKC put a 34-16 fourth quarter on Houston to get the easy win. That’s nine wins in OKC’s last 11 games. They’ve also won five straight by a total of 58 points.
Celtics 119, Heat 114: Anfernee Simons had 18 of his 39 points off the bench in the fourth quarter, and the Celtics (25-15) moved back into the 2-seed.
Pistons 108, Suns 105: Rough one for Cade Cunningham with 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting and five turnovers. But he did have 11 assists, and the Pistons were able to outlast a Suns team without Devin Booker.
Spurs 119, Bucks 101: San Antonio led by as many as 39 points in this one, and Victor Wembanyama had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Also, Wemby and Keldon Johnson shaved their heads.
Mavs 144, Jazz 122: No Cooper Flagg. No Anthony Davis. No problem at all against the Jazz. Klay Thompson had 25 off the bench and the Mavs led by 38 at one point. The Jazz have had a weird week with the 55-point loss, then beating the Cavs in Cleveland and now getting smacked by a battered Mavs team.
Warriors 126, Knicks 113: The Knicks are going in a really bad direction. They’ve lost seven of their last nine games. Jimmy Butler balled out with 32 points and Steph Curry had 27 to help bury New York in this one.
Blazers 117, Hawks 101: The Blazers have won eight of their last 11 games, thanks to Shaedon Sharpe scoring 24 points. Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III combined for 23 boards as Portland dominated on the glass.
Hornets 135, Lakers 117: Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Luka Dončić had 39 points, LeBron James had 29 points and the Lakers couldn’t stop anybody. The Hornets lit them up for 20 3-pointers, led by 35 points from LaMelo Ball.
Trade SZN
This Kuminga situation sucks
Let me get the qualifiers out of the way before we get into the meat and potatoes of what I want to talk about with this Jonathan Kuminga-Warriors situation.
Yes, it’s a business and the Warriors don’t have to do anything that isn’t in their best interest.
Yes, Kuminga signed a contract this summer that gives the Warriors (or any franchise) a team option for next season. He could have signed the one-year qualifying offer for less money but more freedom.
Yes, Kuminga could just play a better brand of basketball that fits the type of player Steve Kerr is looking for in his system.
I understand all of that. It still sucks that Kuminga is in this situation with the Warriors. Kerr flat-out doesn’t want to play Kuminga. He either doesn’t think he’s good enough or he doesn’t think he’s adaptable enough or he just doesn’t want him on the court. We’re seeing a lot of tension around the team, as this Kuminga situation has grown to 17 of his last 18 games being left out by the coach.
Kerr and the Warriors might not trade Kuminga before the Feb. 5 deadline. They’re in no rush and they want to get a certain level of trade package in return. That market doesn’t appear to be there. Unless the Warriors want to take a lesser deal on the table. That’s not really how they operate. Kuminga may end up still on the Warriors next month.
Then … what? The Warriors pick up his team option for next season because they won’t let him get away for nothing? So we’re going through this all over again leading up to February next year? That sucks! The Warriors would essentially be messing up nearly three years of Kuminga’s career. Even with the business side of it and the qualifiers acknowledged above, it’s messed up to do to the 23-year-old. Let him play or let him move on. This isn’t fun for anyone.
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