With the NBA Awards coming up soon, there's a lot of chatter among the fans and experts about who this year's winners may be. Some of these predictions are based on stats, and others are more of a gut feeling, which often means a lot.

Rookie of the Year — Stephon Castle

Historically, the best way to predict who will win Rookie of the Year is to look at the points per game among the rookies. At this point, this means Stephon Castle is the best pick for the spot after Jared McCain went down for the season.

However, Castle's performance shouldn't be boiled down to stats alone. He's a great ball-handler, and his defense has been improving throughout the season. His 6'9" wingspan brings a lot to the table.

Alternative pick: Zaccharie Risacher. He was the first pick of last summer, and the only reason he may not be able to truly challenge Castle is that he came in late.

Defensive Player of the Year — Draymond Green

Some of the best crypto sports betting sites have come up with odds on these, and there are some pretty lucrative bets to be made. In this article, we'll come up with our picks for the 2025 NBA Awards, and we'll try to elaborate on and justify each one.

Draymond Green has caused a little bit of a controversy with his campaign to be named the best defensive player of the year. The campaign was a bit too on the nose, and some were uncomfortable with the players declaring that they were after the NBA award. However, there's a good case for his claim.

Green is in the 98th percentile in defensive estimated plus-minus and is averaging 5.0 defensive rebounds, 1.4 steals, and 1.0 blocks in under 30 minutes per game.

Alternative pick: Dyson Daniels. Daniels averages 3.0 steals, which is the best score since 1989.

Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard

As is the case with the Rookie of the Year, history tells us that the player with the most points scored will usually get the Sixth Man of the Year title as well. Prichard is behind five players in this regard, but those players who have started in fewer than half of the games they played.

He leads that group in terms of assists, and he's one of the best players in the league when it comes to three-point scoring. He's averaging 3.2 triples and shooting 40.6 percent from deep.

The alternative pick is Malik Beasley. He and Pritchard are neck and neck in many statistics, including threes per game, three-point percentage, and net rating swing. It will be one or the other.

Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels

Daniel's has had a boom in pretty much every measurable way when compared to the start of the season. He scored 12.9 points per game, and now he's at 19. He also improved in terms of steel, both rates and averages.

All of this has led to Daniels becoming a full-time starter for Atlanta, and many are predicting that the team will continue to grow and nurture him as a scorer and a secondary playmaker in the years to come.

Alternative pick: Cade Cunningham. For most of the season, Cunningham was the favorite for this NBA Award, as he also improved in terms of points, assists, and rebounds. However, he was a top pick in the draft, so his improvement is to be expected, unlike that of Daniels.

Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson

For the past couple of years, the Coach of the Year Award has been the most difficult to predict. Every year, there are great coaches to choose from, and this is the case in 2025, as well. Our pick is Kenny Atkinson. Before he came to run the Cavaliers, their over-under was 45, which is no joke on its own, and Atkinson brought it up to 60.

The biggest challenge for Atkinson was managing players with overlapping skills, such as Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland as guards and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen inside. And he managed to do that brilliantly.

Alternative pick: There are a lot of coaches to choose from. J.B. Bickerstaff, Mark Daigneault, Ime Udoka, Tyronn Lue, J.J. Redick, and Chauncey Billups are all great picks.

Clutch Player of the Year: Nikola Jokic

There are many reasons to choose Nikola Jokic as the MVP, but we've decided on the Clutch Player of the Year. For statistical purposes, "the clutch" is defined as the last five minutes of any given game (in some cases, that includes overtime).

Jokic is fourth in the league in total points scored in the clutch and second when it comes to assists. With 75 possessions, he puts in 35.6 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 8.7 assists in those situations. It's also important to note that the Nuggets are in the top spots for games won during clutch time.

Alternative pick: Jalen Brunson. He's at the number two spot for players with the most points during clutch time, but other statistics put him over the top.

MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads in the category of points per game with 32.7. He's also at 6.4 assists per game, five rebounds, and an effective field goal percentage of 56.9 percent. However, Gilgeous-Alexander only manages 1.7 steals per game.

In a standout game on April 5th, he scored 42 points (and six rebounds and six assists), leading the Thunders to a difficult victory. The win also broke a record for most wins per season—at 65.

He has the ability to score from almost any position in the field, draw fouls easily, and get to paint under any circumstances.

Alternative pick: Nikola Jokic. It will be one or the other.