Sports analyst Colin Cowherd revealed his pics for the NBA awards. First he chose the Rookie of the Year. Contrary to the popular opinion, he went with Zion Williamson and not Ja Morant. “Zion. Now, Ja Morant’s second. He never scored 30 or more in a game. Zion did three times in his last 11 games. I’m going with Zion Williamson who simply had better numbers,” Cowherd explained his choice.
For the Most Improved Player he picked Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. “This is not as easy a pick for me. I’m gonna go Jayson Tatum. He’s averaging 8 points more a game than he was last year. And again, he’s already got a fairly established game. So he added almost a third to his game,” he said.
While many analysts chose Anthony Davis for the Defensive Player of the Year, Cowherd was of a different opinion. The analyst picked the Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. “I don’t think this one’s terribly close. This is a slam dunk for Giannis and I do love Rudy Gobert of the Jazz. People guarded by Giannis shoot 36% from the field that is best in the NBA. So if Giannis guards you up, you become a poor basketball player. And he also leads the NBA in defensive rating.”
Cowherd had a surprise choice for Coach of the Year. “I’ll go with a surprise here. Billy Donovan. We though they had a chance, Joy, to be the first or second worst team in the NBA. They were rebuilding, right? Westbrook left. They’ve only got two players over 26. One is Chris Paul coming off a rough injury. Instead, they’re 40 and 24. That is the best win percentage since they’ve had KD.”
For the Sixth Man of the Year he picked Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers. “I’ll pick Lou Williams. To come off the bench he scored 20 points or more in 25 games. And why this is impressive is it is a deep team. This isn’t a team that needed Lou Williams. to drop 24 points a game. They’ve got multiple scorers. But a veteran player off the bench on a deep team in the West average 19 points a game this year which off the bench in the NBA is a ton of points,” Cowherd said.
Finally, he revealed his MVP choice. It was the Los Angeles Lakers superstar. “Luka’s a great player he’s not there yet. LeBron James. So the Lakers have a new free agent teammate in Anthony Davis, a new roster, a new coach, a new assistant coach, a new offensive system and they finished as the number one seed in the West, he’s also playing a new position. And LeBron James leads the NBA in assists per game!”
