{"id":418664,"date":"2026-01-17T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418664\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:06:15","slug":"is-the-mvp-race-already-over-plus-the-anthony-black-poster-dunk-is-a-must-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418664\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the MVP race already over? Plus: The Anthony Black poster dunk is a must-see."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\":basketball:\"\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Toronto wooing Kevin Durant<\/a>. Hollywood Don MacLean, the Bullets legend. Current Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard. And Houston Rockets legend Zhou Qi, the Big Devil! Happy birthday to all!<\/p>\n

Award SZN Starts<\/p>\n

Do the midseason awards odds make sense?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fun fact about me: I hate awards discussion prior to halfway point in the NBA season. It drives me crazy when we\u2019re in November or December, a player is excelling and I hear someone start saying, \u201cThis guy has to be in the conversation for (fill in the blank) award.\u201d So early in the season, we haven\u2019t even weeded out half of the players who won\u2019t be close to this conversation in March and April. It\u2019s a preposterous practice I feel just fills in placeholders for finding things to talk about.<\/p>\n

Okay, that actually wasn\u2019t a fun fact. It\u2019s 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\u2019re in mid-January now, though, and this is the perfect time to figure out where these awards conversations are headed.<\/p>\n

I broke down the awards races<\/a>\u00a0for 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\u2019s betting odds. So it\u2019s not me ranking them yet. That comes next week. I\u2019m a little shocked at some of the placement though. Let\u2019s dive into those odds for the Awards Watch.<\/p>\n

Remember, the 65-game rule is looming for several candidates, including Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Joki\u0107 and Austin Reaves. Anthony Davis is already ineligible.<\/p>\n

You can see the full breakdown of odds and analysis in this week\u2019s Awards Watch, but here are the cliff notes version on each:<\/p>\n

Most Valuable Player:\u00a0Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is running away with this award because of 1) his play and 2) Joki\u0107 projecting to have a tough time qualifying. Luka Don\u010di\u0107 being second in the odds is just name, team and scoring average. He\u2019s been good, but he\u2019s not close to the second most valuable.\u00a0Jaylen Brown should be second on the list.\u00a0I\u2019d also throw Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Maxey into the mix. But there\u2019s so much more season left.<\/p>\n

Defensive Player of the Year:\u00a0My biggest confusion is Wemby being listed here but not on the MVP candidates. You either believe he\u2019s going to qualify by the end of the year, or you don\u2019t. If he is eligible, he\u2019s running away with this award. Chet Holmgren being the favorite for the betting odds feels lazy. Not that he hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s not. Really good but not the best one.<\/p>\n

Rookie of the Year:\u00a0This 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.<\/p>\n

Sixth Man of the Year:\u00a0Keldon Johnson would be my pick right now, and then probably either Anthony Black or Naz Reid. They\u2019d round out my top three for the award.<\/p>\n

Coach of the Year:\u00a0This 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\u2019d probably have Darko Rajakovi\u0107 (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.<\/p>\n

Most Improved Player:\u00a0Where 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\u2019s an All-Star-level player now.<\/p>\n

The Last 24<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0\u00a0NBA Europe.\u00a0The NBA\u2019s new league overseas is definitely gaining traction.\u00a0But it\u2019ll still be a fight<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udeb1\u00a0The Worm.\u00a0NBA basketball is headed to London this weekend.\u00a0Dennis Rodman once played there<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Not ideal. Ja Morant didn\u2019t play in the Berlin game and we don\u2019t know if he\u2019ll play in London.\u00a0Adam Silver is disappointed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude1e\u00a0Argh.\u00a0Adam Silver is disappointed, and our Sam Amick\u00a0explored where things stand with Morant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!<\/a>)\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0League Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poster of the Decade?<\/p>\n

Look at what Anthony Black did<\/p>\n

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 \u2026 or decade.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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 \u201cSpace Jam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s so much fun. Let\u2019s get to the rest of last night\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

Thunder 111, Rockets 91:\u00a0OKC put a 34-16 fourth quarter on Houston\u00a0to get the easy win<\/a>. That\u2019s nine wins in OKC\u2019s last 11 games. They\u2019ve also won five straight by a total of 58 points.<\/p>\n

Celtics 119, Heat 114:\u00a0Anfernee 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.<\/p>\n

Pistons 108, Suns 105:\u00a0Rough 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.<\/p>\n

Spurs 119, Bucks 101:\u00a0San Antonio led by as many as 39 points in this one, and Victor Wembanyama had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Also,\u00a0Wemby and Keldon Johnson shaved their heads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mavs 144, Jazz 122:\u00a0No 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.<\/p>\n

Warriors 126, Knicks 113:\u00a0The Knicks are going in a really bad direction. They\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Blazers 117, Hawks 101:\u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

Hornets 135, Lakers 117:\u00a0Stop me if you\u2019ve heard this before. Luka Don\u010di\u0107 had 39 points, LeBron James had 29 points and the Lakers couldn\u2019t stop anybody. The Hornets lit them up for 20 3-pointers, led by 35 points from LaMelo Ball.<\/p>\n

Trade SZN<\/p>\n

This Kuminga situation sucks<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s a business and the Warriors don\u2019t have to do anything that isn\u2019t in their best interest.
\nYes, 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.
\nYes, Kuminga could just play a better brand of basketball that fits the type of player Steve Kerr is looking for in his system.<\/p>\n

I understand all of that. It still sucks that Kuminga is in this situation with the Warriors. Kerr flat-out doesn\u2019t want to play Kuminga. He either doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s good enough or he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s adaptable enough or he just doesn\u2019t want him on the court. We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

Kerr and the Warriors might not trade Kuminga before the Feb. 5 deadline. They\u2019re in no rush and they want to get a certain level of trade package in return. That market doesn\u2019t appear to be there. Unless the Warriors want to take a lesser deal on the table. That\u2019s not really how they operate.\u00a0Kuminga may end up still on the Warriors next month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then \u2026 what? The Warriors pick up his team option for next season because they won\u2019t let him get away for nothing? So we\u2019re 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\u2019s career. Even with the business side of it and the qualifiers acknowledged above, it\u2019s messed up to do to the 23-year-old.\u00a0Let him play or let him move on.\u00a0This isn\u2019t fun for anyone.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcec Love The Bounce?\u00a0Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s\u00a0other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,590,85],"class_list":["post-418664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}