Biggest Winners and Losers From 2025 NBA Awards Season
Following the announcement of the league's All-NBA and All-Defensive teams, 2025's awards season is in the books.
It's easy to identify the actual winners (those who took home awards) and losers (those who didn't), but there is plenty more on either side of that line.
The way we'll look at various awards going forward could be affected. Some teams' and players' future finances were impacted by these announcements, too.
Those winners, losers and more can be found below.
Complete List of Awards Winners
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In case you missed any, they are:
- MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
- Defensive Player of the Year: Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Most Improved Player: Dyson Daniels (Atlanta Hawks)
- Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks)
- Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard (Boston Celtics)
- Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Executive of the Year: Sam Presti (Oklahoma City Thunder)
All-Rookie
First team: Stephon Castle, Zaccharie Risacher, Jaylen Wells, Zach Edey, Alex Sarr
Second team: Matas Buzelis, Bub Carrington, Donovan Clingan, Kel’el Ware, Yves Missi
All-Defense
First team: Evan Mobley, Draymond Green, Dyson Daniels, Lu Dort, Amen Thompson
Second team: Toumani Camara, Rudy Gobert, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jalen Williams, Ivica Zubac
All-NBA
First team: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell
Second team: Jalen Brunson, Stephen Curry, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Evan Mobley
Third team: Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Haliburton, James Harden, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Williams
Winner: 'Best Player on the Best Team' Acolytes
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For years, NBA MVP debates have been reduced by some, often to an almost comical degree, to one simple question: Who was the best player on the best team?
Forget all other factors. To the acolytes of this philosophy on the league's highest individual honor, nothing else matters.
In plenty of seasons, that doesn't get you to the right answer. In others, it does. And the results of 2024-25's vote could fall into the latter category.
The Oklahoma City Thunder aren't really your typical "best team" in a given NBA season. They broke the all-time records for single-season point differential, double-digit wins in a season and 15-point wins in a season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's individual plus-minus of 918 is the fifth-highest on record, trailing only three Stephen Curry seasons and 2015-16 Draymond Green.
He also led the league in 2024-25 in estimated plus-minus (one of the most trusted catch-all metrics in NBA front offices) and total points (by over 300).
SGA's MVP case is about a lot more than his team's record, but his win will still serve as further evidence, at least to the acolytes, that "best player on the best team" is the right way to approach this award.
Loser: Informed Debate
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Unfortunately, some of the most prominent voices on the MVP debate have repeatedly reduced SGA's case to the above or some version of the following: Nikola Jokić is the best player in the world, but Shai is the most valuable.
There's no further discussion on the difference between "best" and "most valuable." There's no attempt to define "value" in the context of MVP debates. Often, simply stating the talking point is supposed to end the talk.
Of course, not everyone who discusses or votes on MVP is guilty of this, but enough are that it's worth mentioning.
In 2025, when we have a seemingly bottomless trove of information, the MVP debate deserves much deeper analysis than it gets (again, at least from some).
Should it matter that Jokić averaged a triple-double, scored more efficiently than SGA and had a higher net rating swing (the difference between a team's net rating when a given player is on or off the floor)? Is it fair to put voter fatigue or historical precedent on the table? How much credit should the individual MVP candidate get for the roster that's been constructed around him?
These questions (and likely plenty more) are at least worth talking about. In far too many MVP debates, they just aren't.
Winner: 'Divergent' Questions
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Believe it or not, there is an actual term for a question that doesn't truly have a right answer. And this year's NBA awards season featured several of those "divergent questions."
To put a bow on the discussion above, the MVP debate was one. There are very strong and very real cases for both Jokić and SGA. As unsatisfying as it may be, there really isn't a single definitive answer.
And that was true of several categories in 2024-25.
Evan Mobley won Defensive Player of the Year (more on that later), and it's difficult to definitively say that was "wrong." He is, however, far from first place in defensive estimated plus-minus. His team finished eighth in points allowed per 100 possessions.
Dyson Daniels, meanwhile, averaged 3.0 steals (the highest in over 30 years), and Draymond Green's versatility helped the Golden State Warriors have the league's best defense after the trade deadline.
Clutch Player of the Year is another example. Had voters emphasized playmaking and defense a bit more than scoring, they might've voted Jokić over Jalen Brunson.
Different priorities may have changed the outcome of Most Improved Player or Rookie of the Year, too.
But again, the point is that none of the actual results were truly, demonstrably wrong. And beyond what that says about the subjectivity of these awards, it's an indication of just how deep and talented the NBA is right now.
Every year, it feels like there are several worthy candidates in every category. And the biggest winners of that reality are the fans.
Winner: Evan Mobley
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For several years now, the collective bargaining agreement has tied player compensation to individual honors.
One example is the young player headed to his second NBA contract who wins Defensive Player of the Year or MVP, or is named All-NBA, in the season immediately preceding his new deal (or pulls any of the above off in two of the preceding three years).
And the player who now falls into that category, after winning Defensive Player of the Year, is Evan Mobley.
Had he not won the award or made All-NBA, Mobley's "25 percent of the cap" salary in 2025-26 would've been $38.7 million. After winning the award, he's set to make 30 percent of the cap, or $46.4 million. His salary in each of the subsequent seasons between now and 2029-30 is higher than it would've been, too.
In a real, economic sense, Mobley is undoubtedly one of this year's biggest winners of award season. Over the next half decade, he will make $44.8 million more than he would've without his Defensive Player of the Year.
Loser: Cavaliers
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Of course, all that extra money going to Mobley will make team-building significantly more difficult for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They'd obviously prefer to pay it than lose Mobley, who could be on the way to superstardom, but that difference in 2025-26 salary alone could cost them a role player.
In 2025-26, Pritchard, Kenrich Williams and Kris Dunn are just a few of the helpful players making less than $7.7 million (the difference between Mobley's 30-percent-of-the-cap salary and his 25-percent-of-the-cap salary) on non-rookie deals.
The extra money to Mobley will almost certainly mean bigger luxury tax penalties for Cleveland, too.
Again, for contenders with up-and-coming stars, this is simply the cost of doing business, but it will bring a little economic and team-building pain.
Winner: Cade Cunningham
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Mobley isn't the only player who bumped his upcoming contract from the "25 percent of the cap" to the "30 percent of the cap" variety.
After being named Third Team All-NBA, Cade Cunningham is in that mix, too. And his Detroit Pistons, unlike the Cavs, aren't burdened by multiple other big contracts.
Detroit probably wouldn't have been sweating the raise either way, but it's nice to be a playoff team with only one 2025-26 salary that accounts for more than 20 percent of the cap.
Losers: Jaren Jackson Jr., Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner and Trae Young
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There wasn't much suspense on these, but Jaren Jackson Jr., Scottie Barnes and Franz Wagner all missed out on bigger potential deals by failing to make an All-NBA team. Due to his midseason oblique tear, Wagner didn't even reach the 65-game minimum for individual awards.
But missing out on the extra money still has to be a little painful at the moment it becomes official.
Wagner and Barnes, like Mobley and Cunningham, could've gone to that "30 percent of the cap" deal, but they'll have to settle with 25.
Jaren Jackson Jr. and Trae Young, meanwhile, missing out on All-NBA honors means neither is eligible for a supermax extension. For Young, that means four years and $229 million is as high as the Atlanta Hawks can go for him.
For Jackson, the calculation is a little trickier, since the last contract he signed wasn't quite for his max. According to CBS Sports' Sam Quinn, the workaround could be to create cap space, renegotiate Jackson's current salary and then do an extension on top of that new number.
Winner: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
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We already touched on SGA's MVP earlier, but we didn't talk much about the financial implications.
By securing the league's top regular-season award, Gilgeous-Alexander can sign a gargantuan five-year, $380 million deal next summer.
Over his last five seasons, SGA has played 310 games. So, if that pace continues—well, you get the picture—he'll make over $1 million per appearance.
It may sound bonkers, but that's where we're headed. And Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the stars taking us into this next era of almost unfathomable individual contracts.
