Nothing matters as much as health for Porziņģis, who logged at least 66 games this season for the first time since 2016-17. Staying on the floor triggered a career year for the 7’3″ sniper, even if it didn’t produce an All-Star nod and probably won’t quite be good enough for All-NBA consideration. Still, Porziņģis led all Wizards by a mile in EPM and, more importantly, Dunks and Threes’ cumulative stat, Estimated Wins.
Porziņģis will wrap the season as one of five players to average at least 23.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while also hitting over 130 triples. No slouch as an interior defender either, KP ran away with the team lead in positive on-off net rating swing.
DPOY: Delon Wright
An extremely low-usage connector who can disappear offensively, Wright makes his money on the other end, where he always lands among the top tier of ball-hawking thieves. It’s remarkable that Wright—with his 3.4 percent steal rate (100th percentile among combo guards)—manages to wreak so much havoc without making mistakes. Barring an uncharacteristic late-season hack-fest, he’ll finish in the bottom 10 percent in foul rate for the third year in a row.
With a handful of games to go, Wright has more than doubled his next closest teammate’s Defensive RAPTOR score.
Best Newcomer: Monte Morris
Morris is a quintessential good-not-great starting point guard, but his impact on Washington’s offense was spectacular. That probably speaks to the lack of quality backups on the roster, but Morris’ boosts to the Wizards’ offensive rating, effective field goal percentage and ball security all rated in the top 10 percent.
Sometimes, “good enough” is all you need.
Don’t Hold It Against Him Award: Bradley Beal
Beal is a really good player who isn’t worth his contract. We should spend more time focusing on the first part of that sentence than the second, but a deal worth a quarter-billion dollars has a way of taking over the conversation.
Porziņģis provided more overall value this season, but Beal is the easy runner-up for team MVP and might have seized the award if he’d avoided so many multi-game absences because of injuries. Porziņģis will best him by close to 500 minutes on the year, which makes Beal’s 23.2 points on 50.6 percent shooting count for a little less.
Still, let’s acknowledge that Beal remains a terrific (if frequently unavailable and overpaid) lead guard.
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The full list for all teams is [here](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10070282-handing-out-awards-for-every-nba-team-this-season?share=other)
MVP: Kristaps Porziņģis
Nothing matters as much as health for Porziņģis, who logged at least 66 games this season for the first time since 2016-17. Staying on the floor triggered a career year for the 7’3″ sniper, even if it didn’t produce an All-Star nod and probably won’t quite be good enough for All-NBA consideration. Still, Porziņģis led all Wizards by a mile in EPM and, more importantly, Dunks and Threes’ cumulative stat, Estimated Wins.
Porziņģis will wrap the season as one of five players to average at least 23.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while also hitting over 130 triples. No slouch as an interior defender either, KP ran away with the team lead in positive on-off net rating swing.
DPOY: Delon Wright
An extremely low-usage connector who can disappear offensively, Wright makes his money on the other end, where he always lands among the top tier of ball-hawking thieves. It’s remarkable that Wright—with his 3.4 percent steal rate (100th percentile among combo guards)—manages to wreak so much havoc without making mistakes. Barring an uncharacteristic late-season hack-fest, he’ll finish in the bottom 10 percent in foul rate for the third year in a row.
With a handful of games to go, Wright has more than doubled his next closest teammate’s Defensive RAPTOR score.
Best Newcomer: Monte Morris
Morris is a quintessential good-not-great starting point guard, but his impact on Washington’s offense was spectacular. That probably speaks to the lack of quality backups on the roster, but Morris’ boosts to the Wizards’ offensive rating, effective field goal percentage and ball security all rated in the top 10 percent.
Sometimes, “good enough” is all you need.
Don’t Hold It Against Him Award: Bradley Beal
Beal is a really good player who isn’t worth his contract. We should spend more time focusing on the first part of that sentence than the second, but a deal worth a quarter-billion dollars has a way of taking over the conversation.
Porziņģis provided more overall value this season, but Beal is the easy runner-up for team MVP and might have seized the award if he’d avoided so many multi-game absences because of injuries. Porziņģis will best him by close to 500 minutes on the year, which makes Beal’s 23.2 points on 50.6 percent shooting count for a little less.
Still, let’s acknowledge that Beal remains a terrific (if frequently unavailable and overpaid) lead guard.