Cavaliers Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the Cleveland Cavaliers batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Cavs' MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
1 of 10
Winner: Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell won this running away, with 93 percent of the vote. He has effectively toggled between the offensive all-everything and the tip of a larger spear essentially since arriving in Cleveland.
Not all superstars can be so scalable. Even fewer can adapt midstream as effectively. Mitchell went from the unchallenged lifeline of the Cavs pre-trade deadline to co-piloting an offense with one of the most ball dominant guards of all time. That's a two-syllable fuh-eat. And it's made all the more impressive knowing he's also helped James Harden embrace more off-ball duty himself.
Who Is Most Underrated?
2 of 10
Winner: Jaylon Tyson
Cleveland's rotation is teeming with non-stars who do more than many realize. That makes Jaylon Tyson ensnaring more than half of voters' attention all the more impressive. (Ditto, quite frankly, for Sam "Does More Than You Think" Merrill" bagging 39 percent of selections.)
The sophomore's defensive workload is heavier than credited. He and Dean Wade, who shockingly received just 5 percent of the vote, loom as Cleveland's perimeter defensive linchpins entering the postseason.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
3 of 10
Winner: Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell didn't win the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest by accident. (Fun fact: He edged out current teammate Larry Nance Jr.) Nearly a decade later, he still has the hops required to detonate above the rim. Receiving 68 percent of the vote tracks—and might also be a tad low.
Both Jarrett Allen (5 percent) and Evan Mobley (13 percent) have above-board athleticism for bigs. Mobley plays in a way that can make you forget as much, but another reminder—like an eight-jam fest against the Utah Jazz—is always just around the corner.
Good job to the 13 percent of Cavs (seriously) who already recognize Keon Ellis' springiness.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
4 of 10
Winner: Jaylon Tyson
Jarrett Allen, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley all have at least one All-star appearance under their belts. This left Jaylon Tyson as the only feasible answer. He received 89 percent of the votes as a result.
Pre-draft comparisons to Caleb Martin and Josh Hart missed the mark for 23-year-old. His positional malleability on defense may be similar, but he has more to offer as a scorer and shooter.
The last player to clear 20 points and four assists per 100 possessions through their first two seasons, in as much playing time, while downing at least 50 percent of their twos and 40 percent of their threes was Tyrese Haliburton. Just saying.
Who Has the Best Contract?
5 of 10
Winner: Jaylon Tyson
Squeaking past rotation players on rookie scales who were drafted outside the lottery is tough work. Relatedly, nobody was up to the task of leapfrogging Jaylon Tyson, who bagged 57 percent of the vote.
What a find he was at No. 20 in the 2024 draft. Rookie contracts always repress salaries, but Cleveland is shelling out, on average, under 3 percent of the cap for someone who's already a starting-caliber wing.
Sam Merrill has morphed into one of the league's most lethal shooters and turned in surprisingly scrappy defensive stands while soaking up reps at the 2, 3 and sometimes 4 spots. Paying him under 6 percent of the salary cap through 2028-29 is a bargain as well.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
6 of 10
Winner: Evan Mobley
Evan Mobley receiving 45 percent is understandable, somewhat predictable and potentially all kinds of problematic.
At 24, Evan Mobley is a Defensive Player of the Year and able to get better. Yet, if he can't be the second-best offensive player on a title contender, the four years and $222.7 million remaining on his pact look a lot steeper.
For those who care, yours truly would have still gone with Dennis Schröder. But given the number of fans who recently railed against my "I wouldn't trade Mobley for Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer" take on a Cleveland radio station, I'm not surprised to learn I'm in the minority.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
7 of 10
Winner: Thomas Bryant
Thomas Bryant warranted an auto-vote for too-smalling Kon Knueppel, who is just two or three inches shorter. That was no doubt the basis for him getting 43 percent of the first-place ballots
Larry Nance Jr. (16 percent) trash-talks his own teammates on TikTok, without a nanosecond's hesitation. A quick search of "James Harden trash talk" reveals a bunch of on- and off-court instances. Whether that number is a metric for clever banter we'll leave up to you. Twenty-five percent of you believe it is.
Jaylon Tyson (13 percent) has already trash-talked LeBron James…unprompted. Enough said.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
8 of 10
Winner: Dennis Schröder
If you're like me, you thought Dennis Schröder earning 39 percent of the vote was excessive. And in that case, I implore you to watch this. It contains enough burner-account behavior for any skeptics to reconsider.
Elsewhere, Jarrett Allen (15 percent) totally has a burner dedicated to authoring High School Musical fanfic. Larry Nance Jr. (33 percent) feels like someone who says whatever he wants and is willing to put his name to it. He also seems like someone who'd have a secret social media identity to view all of his mortal enemies' posts.
If there's an avatar-less account out there claiming Kenny Atkinson's resting heart rate is 150-plus beats per minute, it probably belongs to Craig Porter Jr. (8 percent).
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
9 of 10
Winner: Jarrett Allen
Original suspicions have officially been confirmed by 48 percent of you. If there's a list of NBA players most likely to befriend the zombies and earn himself and his friends immunity by default, Jarrett Allen is on it.
Beyond him, as someone who lacks raw strength, I appreciate the idea of Thomas Bryant (27 percent) using his 250-poundish frame to ward off the undead.
James Harden (12 percent) knows enough about the underground club scene, in any city, to ensure we'll have a good place to hide. Dean Wade's beard (10 percent) suggests he knows how to survive in the wilderness, far away from densely populated areas overrun with the undead.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
10 of 10
Winner: Olivier Sarr
As is the case, it's safest to favor a non-rotation player in this category. It is notable, though, that Olivier Sarr (34 percent) just barely nudged past Dennis Schröder (25 percent).
Schröder has two years left on his current contract, but only one is fully guaranteed. The 2027-28 campaign will be his age-34 season, at which point he might contemplate securing himself a more prominent role overseas, perhaps in Germany's BBL.
.png?w=600 "Predicting Every 2nd-Round Series 🔮")