2026 NBA Awards Ballot: Victor Wembanyama for MVP, Cooper Flagg for Rookie of the Year

· Yahoo Sports

It's NBA awards time! This is my 10th year as one of the league’s voters, and these were some of the toughest choices I’ve ever had to make. Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year, in particular, were incredibly difficult. Here's my official ballot and the reasons behind every single choice.

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1. Cooper Flagg, Mavericks
2. Kon Knueppel, Hornets
3. VJ Edgecombe, Sixers

Flagg is probably going to be the best player to come out of this draft, probably by a wide margin, and probably will be in the running for an All-NBA team as soon as next season. He dropped 51 in a game, then had 45 two nights later. He led the Mavericks in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. The last rookie to do that was Michael Jordan. 

And he did it under conditions that should have buried him. The Luka Dončić trade fallout was still radiating through the locker room when camp opened. Anthony Davis was in and out of the lineup, and got traded after only 20 games. Kyrie Irving didn’t play at all. By March, the Mavericks were shutting down veterans in the name of tanking for better lottery odds. Every defense Cooper saw was geared to stop him specifically, because there was nobody else on the floor a defense had to respect. Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists despite all the chaos. There's a reason he went No. 1, and that reason was apparent all season long.

But this was an extremely difficult call. For nine-straight years as a voter, I’ve found the Rookie of the Year decision to be quite simple. Usually the gap between one and two is obvious by January. This year it’s not obvious with ballots due today.

(Josh Heim/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

Flagg averaged 2.5 more points, 1.4 more rebounds, and 1.1 more assists than Knueppel. But Knueppel posted a 63.3% true shooting mark to Flagg's 54.8%, which is a massive gap that counting stats don't necessarily close. Knueppel's improved efficiency is fueled by the fact 81% of his attempted baskets were assisted, compared to only 50% for Flagg.

The Mavericks asked Flagg to be their primary creator. Knueppel's job was, on paper, simpler. But "simpler" isn't the same as "smaller," and the assumption that Knueppel is some kind of stand-still shooting specialist falls apart the second you actually watch him play. Knueppel shot 42.5% on 7.9 3-point attempts, with many of his 3s coming with a defender draped all over him. He was one of the league’s best shooters as a rookie. But he also shot 47% out of pick-and-rolls and kept his turnover rate low. He set 738 on-ball screens — the most of any guard, by far; Dyson Daniels was second with 524. Kon either popped into 3s or rolled to the rim and made plays out of the short roll. Charlotte slingshotted him around screens and handoffs, sending him downhill instead of just flaring him to the arc. He set off-ball screens. He cut. He relocated. He sprinted to the corners to open driving lanes for teammates. Basically every winning basketball checkbox you can put on a wing's scouting report, he checked it. As a rookie! At age 20!

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Knueppel’s most memorable moment of the year came in the head-to-head against Flagg. Mavericks-Hornets, their first time matching up, Flagg with the ball late in the game, Knueppel read the play, jumped the passing lane, stole the ball, and got fouled going the other way. He iced the game from the line for his 33rd and 34th points in the game. It's the kind of defensive play his critics swore he couldn't make.

The steal wasn't a fluke either. He's a smart help defender, knows how to funnel his man into traffic, and is active in the passing lanes. That said, Knueppel is not a perfect defender. Of the 100 players to defend the most isolations this season, Knueppel ranked 65th in points allowed per play, in the same neighborhood as Dončić and Brandon Ingram. He's not a stopper, but he’s definitely not a liability either.

Flagg is a different tier entirely. He racks up chasedown blocks, can strongly contest shots on-ball, has the awareness to get in the passing lanes, and has the strength and quickness to switch across positions. Of those same 100 isolation defenders, Flagg ranked 15th — one spot behind first-team All-Defensive candidate Chet Holmgren, and in the same statistical ballpark as Evan Mobley and Derrick White. That's a 50-spot gap between Flagg and Knueppel, and it shows up on tape every night and he's doing it with no defensive help around him.

And then there's the degree-of-difficulty factor. Without Kon’s diverse offensive skill-set and his elite trait as a shooter, there is no chance the Hornets would have climbed up the standings. But he was also the third or fourth, maybe even fifth, most important player on Charlotte. Definitely behind LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, probably behind Miles Bridges because of his two-way impact, and possibly even behind Moussa Diabate because of his at-rim finishing, screening, and switchability on defense. Flagg was unambiguously the best player on his team.

Flagg put up better numbers on a team built to lose. The Hornets weren't supposed to win either, and Knueppel helped them turn their season around. But Flagg carried a heavier offensive load against tougher coverages, and he was the better defender. I would not fault anyone for voting for Knueppel. I almost did it too. But Flagg’s got my vote.

Cooper Flagg, Mavericks
Kon Knueppel, Hornets
VJ Edgecombe, Sixers
Dylan Harper, Spurs
Cedric Coward, Grizzlies

Edgecombe had one hell of a year: 16 points per game plus 5.6 boards, 4.2 assists, on pretty good efficiency, with some explosive performances. Scoring 34 points on opening night still blows my mind. If he keeps improving his on-ball creation (shoots 35% out of pick-and-rolls), he has a chance to be a superstar. 

Harper was one of the best paint penetrators in the entire league even as a rookie, had more than double the assists to turnovers, and was a really hard-nosed defender. Plus, he began to answer the biggest question about his game: Shooting. Harper made 39.6% of catch-and-shoot 3s and 44.7% of pull-up 2s. If his range off the dribble eventually extends behind the arc, it's going to get extra scary in San Antonio. 

Coward averaged 13.6 points and ripped down 5.9 rebounds per game, often looking like one of the best rebounding wings in the league. He's an underrated passer too (2.8 assists to only 1.7 turnovers). After getting picked 11th, the Grizzlies look like they've found a steal. 

Ace Bailey, Jazz
Hugo Gonzalez, Celtics
Collin Murray-Boyles, Raptors
Maxime Raynaud, Kings
Jeremiah Fears, Pelicans

Bailey put up 13.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on a Jazz team that finished tied for the worst record in the West. He began to look like a foundational piece over the second half of the season, averaging 18.3 points on great efficiency.

Gonzalez has the strangest case on either ballot. He averaged 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 14.6 minutes a night, but finished with a +246 raw plus-minus. That’s third in the league behind Knueppel and Harper, which speaks to his defensive impact. He’d defend guards like Cade Cunningham and bigs like Karl-Anthony Towns, and he made constant hustle plays blocking corner 3s and chasing down transition attacks.

Murray-Boyles played the connector role as well as any rookie this year: 8.5 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists on 57.9% shooting, with a defensive motor that showed up on a nightly basis. When Jakob Poeltl went down and Toronto threw him into the starting lineup, he continued to excel despite a lack of size on the roster, which speaks to his blossoming versatility.

Raynaud is the only second rounder on this ballot, which is a credit to the Kings for finding him with the 42nd pick. Raynaud averaged 12.5 points while spacing the floor from 3, making plays off the dribble, and finishing nearly 70% of his shots at the rim. Sacramento has a hit in Raynaud.

Fears closed his rookie year averaging 14.3 points, 3.7 boards, and 3.4 assists with 1.2 steals while playing all 82 games. He averaged 30 points over his final six games to help seal the deal for this 10th and final spot.

All-Rookie honorable mentions: Derik Queen, Tre Johnson, Nique Clifford, Will Riley, Carter Bryant, Mohamed Diawara, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Kobe Sanders, Ryan Nembhard, Egor Dёmin, Yanic Konan Niederhäuser

1. Keldon Johnson, Spurs
2. Tim Hardaway Jr., Nuggets
3. Ayo Dosunmu, Timberwolves

Johnson is my pick, and the case starts with a line on his game log that looks like a typo these days: 82. He played all 82 games. And he was as consistent as any role player in the league. He averaged 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds a night, with a freight-train downhill ability for attacking closeouts, a beautifully soft floater in the paint, and a nose for the offensive glass as sharp as any wing in the league. He is a genuine Swiss Army knife off San Antonio's bench, and he brings the energy every single night.

Hardaway signed for the veteran minimum last summer after two down years in Dallas and Detroit. Then he turned in his best campaign in years: 13.5 points on 40.7% from 3 on 6.9 attempts a night. He was a perfect fit from the jump, flying around screens and handoffs, and relocating with an ease that made him look like a guy that had played in Denver for years.

Dosunmu is the tricky one because he spent the first half of the season in Chicago having a full-on breakout — 15 points on 51/45/86 splits — before the Bulls blew up their roster. Post-trade in Minnesota, he continued scoring the hell out of the ball — 15 points on 52/41/93 splits — and he was vital in helping Minnesota stay afloat while Anthony Edwards was sidelined with an uptick in playmaking and relentless defense. He started 19 of 69 games this year, so maybe this is stretching the Sixth Man definition. But to me, one of the hallmark qualities of a sixth man is the ability to step up when a starter is injured. And that’s exactly what Dosunmu did in some of the biggest games of the year.

Sixth Man honorable mentions: Sandro Mamukelashvili, Jaime Jaquez, Naz Reid, Mitchell Robinson, Dylan Harper, Reed Sheppard, Isaiah Stewart, Alex Caruso

1. Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
2. Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves
3. Chet Holmgren, Thunder

Wembanyama is only in his third season and already the best defender in the NBA by an extremely wide margin. The Spurs posted a 103.2 defensive rating with him on the floor and 113.4 without him — the largest on/off swing in the league. He led everyone with 3.1 blocks per game. Opponents shot 8.7% worse with him as the closest defender. And they didn't just shoot worse against him. Teams stopped trying to get to the rim at all.

Opponents took 40.1% of their shots in the paint with Wemby on the floor. With him off? That rose to 48.4%. It doesn't take stats to understand what the eyes can already see, when ball-handlers drive toward the paint and then turn away the second Wemby is lurking. But this 8.3% differential is an extreme outlier compared to his DPOY peers. In Rudy Gobert's four DPOY years combined, his differential was 3.5%. Evan Mobley: 3.1%. Jaren Jackson Jr.: 0.8%. Giannis Antetokounmpo: 1.4%. All four of those guys had seasons worthy of winning the award. None of them were within shouting distance of what Wembanyama is doing at the rim.

He guards two players at once. He contests shots at the rim using his 8-foot wingspan with his feet still planted in a help position. He closes 15 feet of ground in two steps. He baits drivers into thinking the lane is open, lets them commit, and arrives at the rim a half-second before the ball does. He is the most disruptive defender the league has produced in a generation, and the terrifying part is that he isn't at his peak yet. If Wembanyama is not the NBA's first-ever unanimous DPOY this year, he will be someday.

Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves
Chet Holmgren, Thunder
Derrick White, Celtics
Ausar Thompson, Pistons

Wemby is the only thing standing between Gobert and a fifth DPOY trophy that would put him alone atop the all-time list. The Timberwolves are 7.9 points per 100 possessions better on defense with Gobert out there. And he’s not just a rim protector. Gobert has held opponents to 0.77 points per isolation, the best mark of any player to defend at least 200 isolations.

Holmgren is the defensive backbone of the best team in basketball; the Thunder had their best defensive rating (102.3) with him on the floor. Opponents struggle to score near him at the basket, and he’s a stopper out on a switch too. 

White takes the toughest perimeter assignment on most nights, led all guards in blocks this season with 98, and sets the tone every night with his hustle. He made one of the plays of the season, sprinting full court with 1.5 seconds left in the first half to block a shot in transition. While the Celtics were up 23. Because White never stops bringing it.

Thompson led the NBA in steals per game, guarded point guards, centers, chased shooters off screens, teleported for chasedown blocks, and did just about everything you could ask for from a 6-foot-7 defender.

Cason Wallace, Thunder
Scottie Barnes, Raptors
Amen Thompson, Rockets
Dyson Daniels, Hawks
OG Anunoby, Knicks

Wallace stands at only 6-foot-3 but plays bigger than his body as an on-ball defender. He mirrors guards and bigger wings, and served as Mark Daigneault’s weapon any time the Thunder needed a stop. He also led the NBA in deflections.

Barnes led the league in stocks behind only Wemby. He can defend across positions, made clutch defensive stops throughout the season, and was the anchor of a Raptors defense that ranked fifth.

Thompson got my vote for Defensive Player of the Year last season. He wasn’t quite the same this year, in part due to injury. But he remains a positionless defender who can erase an opponent's offensive actions and harass their stars.

Daniels set the tone for the Hawks defense with his feisty point-of-attack defense, and he was a constant menace in the passing lanes while tallying 4.1 deflections and two steals per game.

Anunoby somehow has only one All-Defensive honors in his eight NBA seasons, but this year should be his second. Against a sampling of All-Stars, here’s the field goal percentage he held them to: Mitchell: 37.5%. Avdija: 30.8%. Cade: 41.7%. Luka: 36.4%. Paolo: 27.3%. What’s impressive is the range of player styles there. Small, quick guards like Mitchell. Big, bruising forwards like Banchero. And elite talents like Doncic. OG can slow anyone down.

All-Defense honorable mentions: Stephon Castle, Bam Adebayo, Moussa Diabate, Ron Holland, Draymond Green, Kawhi Leonard, Kris Dunn, Jordan Goodwin, Toumani Camara, Donovan Clingan

1. Joe Mazzulla, Celtics
2. Mitch Johnson, Spurs
3. JB Bickerstaff, Pistons

Look at what Mazzulla lost. Jayson Tatum to a torn Achilles. Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis shipped out in cap-driven moves before the season started. Al Horford left in free agency. The Celtics were supposed to drift into the play-in tier and wait for Tatum to heal. Derrick White said before the season Mazzulla called him and said: “Everybody thinks we're going to suck. I love it.”

They did not suck. The Celtics are the second seed in the East. Mazzulla rebuilt the offense around Jaylen Brown, and gave real minutes to guys like Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza, and Ron Harper Jr.

If you want one possession that captures it, go to Brooklyn on January 23. Celtics were down three in overtime with 2.5 seconds left, and Amari Williams — a two-way center — was on the floor. Mazzulla read Brooklyn's coverage, didn’t like the matchup, and called a timeout to pull Williams for 19-year-old rookie wing Hugo Gonzalez. Scheierman threw a pass to the corner, Gonzalez drilled it, and the Celtics won in double overtime. 

And now the Celtics are in a position to win a championship. This is one of the easiest choices on the entire ballot.

None of this is to say it's a weak field. Just the opposite. Bickerstaff positioned the Pistons to win the No. 1 seed in the East, and Johnson perfectly built a system around Wemby’s current skill-set and helped guide the Spurs to a massive increase in wins — just like Bickerstaff did one year ago. Both of them are also deserving. But Mazzulla was the best of the bunch.

Coach of the Year honorable mentions: Quin Snyder, Mark Daigneault, Jordan Ott

1. Jalen Duren, Pistons
2. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Hawks
3. Deni Avdija, Blazers

This is incredibly difficult. There are players who went from nobodies to key players on playoff teams. There are young guys who have made improvements. And then there are the three names I put in my top three: veterans who took a huge step forward. I believe going from good to great is a lot more impressive of a step in the best basketball league in the world, so that’s why these three got the edge.

Choosing between them is a coin flip. I put Avdija third because his leap actually began to happen during the second half of last season when the Blazers began to feature him on offense. Still, he truly became the guy this year in Portland. Duren gets the tiny edge over NAW because he not only took a more significant role offensively, showing an ability to handle a larger workload, but he also became a dominant defender and the anchor of an elite Pistons defense.

Most Improved honorable mentions: Neemias Queta, Jaime Jaquez, Collin Gillespie, Reed Sheppard, Ryan Rollins, Matas Buzelis

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
2. Jamal Murray, Nuggets
3. Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves

SGA was a more midrange-reliant player last season, but his trademark game-winner this year came behind the line when he drilled a step-back triple at the buzzer to sink the Nuggets on March 9. Whether it is that lethal efficiency or the poise to hit clutch go-ahead jumpers like the ones he used to dismantle the Celtics the next game after his game-winner, he has reached a level of late-game inevitability.

1. Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
3. Nikola Jokić, Nuggets
4. Luka Dončić, Lakers
5. Cade Cunningham, Pistons

This year’s MVP was the hardest choice I’ve ever had to make in my 10 years as a voter. It’s the first time with four MVP-worthy candidates. SGA averaged 31.6 points on a 66.5% true shooting mark, the second-most efficient season any 30-point scorer has ever had, trailing only the 2015-16 Steph Curry year that broke people's brains. Jokić had 28/13/11 and made the game look easy again. And Luka put up 33.5 points while playing the best defense of his life. Wemby should be the first ever consensus Defensive Player of the Year and he put up 25 points per game on offense.

All are worthy candidates. But Jokić and Luka weren’t on the same defensive level as SGA and Wemby, so I narrowed it down to them. I wrote super in-depth about my decision to choose Wembanyama over SGA. But in summary: 

SGA carries his team in the most visible way the sport allows. The ball is in his hands. The points are on his line. The clutch buckets go viral before he’s back in the locker room. Wemby carries his in ways that sometimes don’t show up anywhere. The sprints into the paint. The gravity of his shooting. The threat of his verticality. That’s the whole debate.

Wemby just bent the entire geometry of an NBA floor in both directions. When he’s defending the paint, opponents avoid him. When he’s lurking in the paint on offense, opponents flock to him. Wembanyama was by far the league’s best defender, put up overwhelming raw offensive numbers on top of that, and somehow his most valuable contributions are still the ones the box score refuses to acknowledge. In a race this close, that’s the difference.

For more on how Wemby earned my vote, read my MVP column.

Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
Nikola Jokić, Nuggets
Luka Dončić, Lakers
Cade Cunningham, Pistons

Wemby, SGA, Jokic, and Luka are all on a tier of their own, as I said above. There was no question that Dončić would make it once the NBA approved his “extraordinary circumstances” contest on the 65-game rule. I suppose the birth of a child is a miracle. Cade got approved because of a lung issue … I guess? That ruling is a bit more strange. But since he did get it, he received the nod over Brown for first team because he was the engine of the Pistons, while also operating as a highly effective defender.

Jaylen Brown, Celtics
Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
Jamal Murray, Nuggets
Jalen Duren, Pistons

The Tatum Achilles tear turned Boston’s season into a year-long referendum on Brown. And after all the skepticism that he could be a first option, he answered by averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 boards, and 5.1 assists while playing great defense over 71 games. It was a remarkable season for Brown, and if it weren’t for a dip in scoring efficiency midway through the year he likely would’ve gotten the first team nod over Cade, who carried a much heavier playmaking load.

Kawhi similarly had an outstanding two-way season. Somehow, at age 34, it was the best regular season of his career with 27.9 points on 62.9% true shooting. And all it came with the controversy of the Aspiration scandal, which in no way negatively impacted his performance on the court. The only thing holding back his spot on the first team is a lack of responsibility as a passer.

Mitchell had the best season of his career. He’s always put up big-time offensive numbers and this year he took on an even greater importance with Darius Garland missing for large portions of the season. The Cavaliers had a 122.4 offensive rating with Mitchell on the floor to 114.9 without him. Even after the addition of James Harden, Cleveland posted only a 116.2 offensive rating in his minutes without Mitchell, which speaks to how vital Mitchell is to Cleveland’s offense.

Murray was great enough this season to earn his first nod as an All-Star, and he should be a lock for All-NBA too because he never slowed down. Murray averaged 24.4 points on a career-high 62.2% true shooting. He also tacked on 7.1 assists while carrying a massive load in late-game scenarios.

Duren is my Most Improved Player of the Year after going from a solid role player to an All-NBA player for the Pistons. He was indispensable on both ends of the floor this season, operating as the primary screener for Cunningham while also absorbing a heavier offensive load than ever before. When Cade got sidelined late in the year, the Pistons could have collapsed. But Duren helped them keep winning games by averaging 22.8 points down the stretch.

Chet Holmgren, Thunder
Jalen Johnson, Hawks
Kevin Durant, Rockets
Deni Avdija, Blazers
Tyrese Maxey, Sixers

Holmgren was a dominant rim protector and switch defender, while also turning in the most complete offensive season of his career, scoring a career-high 17.1 points on a career-high 65.3% true shooting. 

The Trae Young trade could have derailed the Hawks. But Johnson kept them alive by averaging 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 7.9 assists — all career highs. He also made so many winning plays on offense that go beyond the box score with screens, cuts, tip-out offensive boards, and extra passes. 

Durant is age 37, played 78 games, and logged the second-most minutes in the league. It’s amazing how he just keeps on going with another 26/5/5 season.

Avdija took another leap this season after showing flashes of stardom to end last year. He had five games with 35 or more points and 12 games with 10 or more assists, while averaging 24/7/7. 

The Sixers would’ve been in the lottery if it weren’t for Maxey’s efforts, averaging 28.3 points and 6.6 assists. He’s a sparkplug shot creator, but he’s also a super active defender despite his lack of size. 

All-NBA honorable mentions: Scottie Barnes, Jalen Brunson, LaMelo Ball, Alperen Şengün, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, Derrick White, Stephon Castle, Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

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