Third-year San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is a first-time NBA Most Valuable Player candidate along with Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the league announced Sunday.
The league announced the MVP finalists, along with the finalists for the rest of its 2025-26 season awards, during the broadcast of the opening game of the Orlando Magic versus Detroit Pistons playoff series on NBC.
Wembanyama, who is also a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, averaged a career-best 25.0 points and 11.5 rebounds and led the league with 3.1 blocks per game. He would be the youngest MVP in league history at 22 years old, a few months younger than Derrick Rose was in 2010-11.
To do so, he’ll have to beat out the last two league MVPs in Gilgeous-Alexander (31.1 ppg, 6.6 assists per game, 4.3 rpg), who won his first MVP last season, and Jokic (27.7 ppg, 12.9 rpg, 10.7 apg), who won his third in 2023-24.
Detroit’s Ausar Thompson and Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren are the other two finalists for DPOY, which Wembanyama is heavily favored to win.
Three of the first four picks in last year’s draft are the finalists for Rookie of the Year. No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg of Dallas (21.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 4.5 apg, 1.2 steals per game), No. 3 pick VJ Edgecombe of Philadelphia (16.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.4 spg) and No. 4 pick Kon Knueppel of Charlotte (18.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, league-high 273 made 3-pointers) earned the recognition.
Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Portland’s Deni Avdija and Detroit’s Jalen Duren are the three finalists for Most Improved Player. In his first season in Atlanta, Alexander-Walker averaged 20.8 points — 9.8 more than in any of his first six seasons. Avdija averaged a career-high 24.2 points, and Duren — like Avdija a first-time All-Star — averaged 19.5 points, far exceeding the 11.8 he averaged last season.
The Nuggets’ Tim Hardaway Jr., Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. and San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson are the finalists for Sixth Man of the Year.
Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Denver’s Jamal Murray and Gilgeous-Alexander are finalists for Clutch Player of the Year. Any of them would be a first-time winner of the award, which will be given out for the fourth time this year.
Three coaches of top-two seeded teams were named finalists for Coach of the Year in Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson and Boston’s Joe Mazzulla. Whoever wins will be a first-time COTY.
The award winners will start being announced this coming week during playoff broadcasts, starting Monday with Defensive Player of the Year, Clutch Player on Tuesday, Sixth Man on Wednesday and Most Improved Player on Friday.
NBA award finalists
Most Valuable Player
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City)
Nikola Jokic (Denver)
Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio)
Rookie of the Year
VJ Edgecombe (Philadelphia)
Cooper Flagg (Dallas)
Kon Knueppel (Charlotte)
Defensive Player of the Year
Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City)
Ausar Thompson (Detroit)
Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio)
Most Improved Player
Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Atlanta)
Deni Avdija (Portland)
Jalen Duren (Detroit)
Sixth Man of the Year
Tim Hardaway Jr. (Denver)
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami)
Keldon Johnson (San Antonio)
Clutch Player of the Year
Anthony Edwards (Minnesota)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City)
Jamal Murray (Denver)
Coach of the Year
J.B. Bickerstaff (Detroit)
Mitch Johnson (San Antonio)
Joe Mazzulla (Boston)
–Field Level Media
