JJ Redick Reveals His 2023-24 NBA Awards Votes

JJ Redick shares who he voted for on his NBA Awards ballot for the 2023-24 season, including MVP, All-NBA teams, All-Defense teams, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, All-Rookie teams, Coach of the Year, Most Improved Player, Clutch Player of the Year, and Sixth Man of the Year.

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welcome to the old men of the three
things with JJ reck today no guest today
I’m going to run through my end of
season awards and look uh I know there
are a lot of uh my colleagues that have
opted out of voting on the awards for
different reasons totally understand it
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um I did this last year in an uh effort
of being transparent about all of my end
of season awards and and I think too
that our votes are public like you can
actually see what I voted for so these
are going to come out anyways I might as
well just make a show about it uh this
is not a fun exercise by the way I just
want to be clear on that it’s not a fun
exercise even with the financial
incentives attached even if you take
that out uh some of these supermax
extensions based on
NBA even if you take that out of it it’s
still not a fun exercise uh and I’m not
trying to make anyone feel bad for the
voters I I think if you approach this in
a pragmatic way uh you’re often times
left with very difficult decisions and I
would describe a number of these
exercises as splitting hairs
particularly this season where there’s
some maybe all NBA teams or some all
defensive teams where I’m like I feel
pretty confident about this then there’s
other things where you can argue for one
player over another player or one player
for the you know over the other player
and it’s splitting hairs so this is very
difficult let’s get right into it um I
actually want to start with most
improved player and this is an award
where uh you know I’ve argued against
this the last couple years where you
have an All-Star uh John Morant in one
case uh Shay gild Alexander in another
case you have Allstars who for much of
the season are talked about being the
most improved player often times you you
you do have Allstars like ja or like
Shay that take another jump um I think
the the most improved player how I look
at it is uh not necessarily a star then
becoming a superar right and and
certainly certain years you can make
that case uh so Maxi has been Far and
Away uh the leader in this sort of award
for much of the Season Kobe white of
course from the Chicago Bulls it really
came down to those two guys um I
ultimately have Maxi as the most
improved player Kobe white as second and
then a number of guys I thought were
worthy of the third spot uh I have D
venzo from the New York Knicks in that
third spot uh Duncan Robinson and
Jonathan kaminga also gave them some
consideration uh Maxi for me look this
was a guy who increased his usage
increased his role his free throw rate
went up his assist percentage went way
up his turnover percent percentage
actually went down um you can certainly
point to the shooting numbers
particularly from three taking a drop uh
relative to last season uh and look he
played a lot of this season without Joel
embiid and I think Joel embiid of course
that partnership I lived through it that
two-man game like it makes you a better
player and I think Tyrese Maxi is the
most improved player but I want to give
a shout out of course to Kobe white who
had second for this award Kobe uh
certainly improved a lot and you know
you can point to his pull-up jump
shooting uh which took a huge leap this
year just in terms of percentages
relative to the rest of his career his
playmaking outstanding and you know when
this team was uh you know really
floundering early in the season he
helped write the ship he helped give
them stability and he deserves a lot of
credit uh ultimately I had Maxi Kobe
white dvan chenzo for most improved
player uh Sixth Man
I know Malik monk had a outstanding
season um I’ve actually got him second
in six-man Nas Reed was my six man of
the year and I gave a lot of
consideration to Norman Powell
bogdanovich from Atlanta and TJ
McConnell from the Indiana Pacers for
the third spot but ultimately I went
with Bobby poris for the third spot so
for six man I’ve got Nas Reed Malik Monk
and second Bobby poris um and I think
Nas Reed Off the Bench and whether he’s
you know had to start some games because
of cat’s injury uh just a phenomenal
season for him um and with all this
stuff again you could make an argument
for Malik Mona you could make an AR
argument for Bobby poris I think you’re
factoring in a ton of different stuff
for all these Awards uh certainly the
Minnesota Timberwolves having the season
that they did ultimately ending up uh
third place in the Western Conference uh
that gives a little bit of a boost to me
for Nas Reed and his importance on that
team all right Defensive Player of the
Year this was one of the hardest ones to
figure out I’ll be honest with you um
you know Minnesota had the best defense
in the League this season
and Rudy goar is a would be a deserving
winner of this award I want to
acknowledge
that you know when he’s off the floor
the team doesn’t perform that much worse
defensively they have a number
of candidates and we’ll talk about this
in a second on all defense but they have
a number of candidates Jaden McDaniels
Anthony Edwards Mike Conley nikil
Alexander Walker um on the defensive end
that have been really really good so
they have a foundation with Rudy Gober
and then they
have just a perfect Personnel mix around
him Cal Anderson again a really uh smart
impactful Defender so that this was hard
because I think Victor wanyama has a
legitimate case for defensive player of
the year and I think bam adabo had has a
legitimate case for Defensive Player of
the Year ultimately where I ended up I
have Rudy goar as the defensive player
of the year Victor wanyama second uh in
in my list and Bam atabo third on my
list and I’ll give a lot of credit I
talked to Bam about this uh when I had
their game last week against the Dallas
Mavericks bam for a lot of his career
has been heavy a heavy switch defender
in pick and rooll uh this year Eric
spoler asked him to play more drop
coverage he did they played less Zone
this year um he was asked to do a lot on
that backline I asked bam why why did
you guys make the switch what did SPO
tell you because SPO wants me near the
basket he wants me protecting the rim
and not only is he a really valuable
switching Defender he’s a really
valuable rim protector uh so I had him
third again I feel like I’m splitting
hairs with all these guys um ultimately
Minnesota having the best defense um
Beyond just the counting stats Rudy’s
impact on field goal percentage around
the rim even field goal attempts around
the rim uh defensive rebounding all of
that stuff Rudy goar my Defensive Player
of the Year all defense ah man this was
tough
um so my first team all defense again
this is positionist this year uh I got
Alex Caruso herb Jones Rudy goar Victor
wanyama and Bam atabo uh with very hard
to leave Derrick White off my first team
but I have him second team along with
cavius calwell Pope Jared Allen jayen
Suggs and for my 10th spot I felt like I
really had to put someone from OKC on
this list they were uh number four
defensively this year mark dagnal
phenomenal job uh and and I really could
have chose between Shay uh Lou Dort uh
Chad holgren certainly Jay Jaylen
Williams also a really good Defender um
I went with Shay for my 10th spot on all
defense um you know in terms of
deflection steals uh blocks from the
guard position um just really disruptive
uh gave a lot of thought to L Dort as
well who is tasked of course with
guarding all the big Wing perimeter
players uh and spent a lot of time
guarding Allstars this year uh but I
ultimately ended up with Shay in that
10th spot I could have probably named 10
more guys for all defense just really
tough this year um so that’s uh six-man
most improved all defense defensive
player of the year uh rookie of the year
uh I know we had a a lot of discourse
around this at the beginning of the new
year my rookie of the year is Victor
wanyama Chad holgren is second Brandon
Miller is
third again Chad had an outstanding
rookie year Brandon Miller um you know
particular after lamelo ball went down
just really impressed me with his shot
making and his ability to play both
catch and shoot and off the dribble and
pick and roll um but Vic had a historic
rookie of the year I I I think it
completely offsets the team success
portion and even going back to defensive
player of the year uh look when vikor
wiama was not on the floor for the Spurs
uh they were the worst defense and when
he was on the floor uh they were the
equivalent of a top five defense in the
NBA you know he logged significantly
less minutes than let’s say bam atab bio
but overall his onc Court impact uh on
both sides of the basketball and uh just
you there’s a million different one of
these stats but the first player ever to
have X amount of blocks and
three-pointers in a season uh the first
player since Shaq’s MVP year to average
2010 three and three you know he he was
the Rookie of the Year this year and he
in some ways probably exceeded the
amount of hype uh that that he had going
back to last year at the end of last
year leading up to the draft and of
course the draft summer league all that
stuff he exceeded all of it and uh
credit to him a credit to the Spurs
Victor wanyama is my Rookie of the Year
all rookie um first team uh first four
spots um were were I was pretty
confident with Victor wanyama Chad
holgren Brandon Miller and haime hakz Jr
fifth spot I went back and forth on uh
ultimately landed on Brandon paj jimsky
uh kind of a jack of all trades player
does a number of things as well shoots
the three really well well off the
dribble you know the the shot off
efficiency like most rookies wasn’t
great but I I just thought overall his
impact on that team particularly when he
moved into the starting lineup uh his
rebounding his toughness uh I believe he
led the NBA in charges this season so I
I give the fifth spot to Brandon bimy
from the Golden State Warriors my second
Team all rookie uh case Wallace uh both
the Thompsons uh amen Thompson from
Houston assur Thompson from Detroit uh
Derek Lively from the Dallas Mavericks
and the 10th spot again split and hairs
here for this one Kean George I I know
the shot efficiency wasn’t great but
playing point guard in the NBA as a
rookie is a really tough thing I had him
ahead of scoot Henderson in terms of
that position uh for what he did this
year uh with the Utah Jazz so I’ve got
keontay George in my 10th spot for
rookie all right coach of the year uh so
many good coaches I I I whittel it down
to Five Guys that I really was uh felt
strongly about for coach of the year uh
mark dagnal from OKC Chris Finch from
Minnesota uh Tom tiido from the New York
Knicks Jamal Mosley from the Orlando
Magic and Joe Missoula from the Boston
Celtics um ultimately I have Mark dagnal
as the coach of the year uh OKC look we
talked about expectations early in the
year uh we talked about it with Jaylen
on the podcast uh we talked about it
with the dunker spot guys on this show
The Old Man of the three things and
again a lot of this Coach of the Year
stuff is relative to expectations and I
I that’s why I have to give Mark dagnal
the coach of the year number three
offense this year number four defense
number two net rating to the Boston
Celtics number one seed in the Western
Conference a loaded conference mark
dagnal is my coach of the year second I
had Joe moula I’m not going
to I’m not going to just uh not give
credit to Joe moula for having a loaded
roster and a roster full of really good
basketball players and the reason is
because I’ve been around the league
enough to know uh that oftentimes a
coach can get in way at that and teams
can struggle and I I thought Joe
Missoula getting his guys to buy in on
sacrifice across the board uh getting
his guys to buy in on roles uh getting
his guys to approach the regular season
with a level of ser seriousness worthy
of a champion uh Joe Missoula
outstanding coaching job uh second for
me um and then again for that third spot
kind of splitting
hairs ultimately I went with Chris Finch
number one defense in the league uh we
spoke with him on the old man of the
three last summer about um the the uh
the the challenges of of playing two
bigs uh the challenges of of figuring
out spacing and look their offense at
times was clunky but when you build the
number one defense and you win 56 games
and you get the three seed in the west
uh that deserves some strong
consideration for Coach of the Year
Jamal Mosley of course Orlando Magic
Number Three defense I have to give him
a lot of credit um this was a team that
didn’t have a ton of expectations coming
into the year end up with the five SE
in the Eastern
Conference their team has an identity
man it it’s it’s a beautiful thing uh
really excited to see him first time as
a head coach in the playoffs and then of
course tibs I got to give a ton of
credit for with all the injuries
midseason trades um and and having to
play guys 40 some minutes a game uh
because of injuries and rotations uh
ended up with the second seed in the
East come on man tibs had a had a great
coaching year those are my five uh you
know top five coaches this year and um
in terms of the job they did and
ultimately I went with uh Mark dagnal
for Coach of the Year all right uh
clutch player man this was
tough I I whittel it down to four guys
for this award demard de rosan Nicole
yic Shay gildas Alexander and Steph um
uh ultimately I went with Steph even
though they had a 23 and 20 record uh
he’s got the most clutch time points
he’s shooting 50% from the field and 46%
from three in clutch time more threes
than anyone else in clutch time um just
a phenomenal clutch time performer as
always from Steph Curry and and even
better this year um for the second third
spot look Shay and and joic are the only
two players uh in the NBA to score more
than 100 points in clutch time and shoot
over 55% from the field uh jic was 23
and 13 in clutch time Shay was 23 and 11
I’m going to give this light nod to Shay
for the second spot nicoa yic in that
third spot and dear who also had an
outstanding season in the clutch Bulls
24 and 1640 clutch games that he played
in uh and of course operated at an
all-time level I I feel like for all
these Awards there’s so many worthy
candidates it’s really hard to eliminate
a guy off the official ballot um but
dear for me ended up being the fourth
place guy um all right now the fun part
MVP in all NBA God this
sucks oh man I want to explain one thing
I want to explain one thing because I
really really struggled with one
particular aspect of this part of the
vote and that is First Team all NBA and
MVP and I was thinking about how I
weight all of these and some of these I
probably maybe in terms of a scale and
balance somebody some of these Awards I
I maybe wait individual performance
slightly higher uh all NBA certainly
that gets weighted at let’s say 55 to
60% versus Team success which is gets
weighted at 40 to 45% MVP right the
scales tip a little bit on that the the
it’s probably 60% uh team performance
40% individual performance I want to be
consistent on this and unfortunately I
have one discrepancy between my top five
MVP votes and my first team all NBA and
I apologize for that and I went back and
forth I wanted to be consistent but how
I view the definition of MVP and how I
view the definition of First Team all
NBA and all the lnba teams is a little
different and I I I wish I could have
been down the board same Five Guys in
both votes but unfortunately I didn’t
land there um so MVP for me again uh it
came down to three guys it came down to
Nicole yic Luca donic and Shay guildas
Alexander uh ultimately I gave H by the
the the slightest of margins I gave uh
my vote uh to Nicole yic for MVP Luca
donic in second Shay gild Alexander in
third um I had Jason Tatum fourth in MVP
and Jaylen Brunson fifth in MVP Giannis
was the other guy I gave consideration
to just outside the top
five and again I think particularly with
Shay jic and Luca similar to last year
where I had a vote there’s three guys
that are deserving MVPs um in terms of
the
why again I’m I’m factoring in a ton of
stuff uh I think joic uh was the best
basketball player in the NBA this season
I think Luca was the second best
basketball player in the NBA this season
uh you you certainly have to factor in
uh the amount of injuries that that the
Dallas Mavericks have the trades
mid-season trying to integrate a rookie
Center and I get all of that and it’s
probably why I weighed him slightly
ahead of Shay who led by by onc Court
play the the second youngest team in the
NBA
to the first place in the Western
Conference uh Shay’s deserving Luca’s
deserving yic is deserving I think
Denver ended up you know approaching
this regular season particularly after
the All-Star break with a level of uh
seriousness and professionalism and he
was the driving force behind that 57
wins for them tied with OKC for the best
record in the Western Conference of
course OKC gets the head-to-head nod uh
tiebreaker um but yeah that’s it joic
LCA Shay in terms of the fourth Five
Spot uh
Tatum again I’m not gonna because they
had a loaded team similar to Joe
Missoula I’m not going to just totally
discredit him for an award um because of
their topend depth and how they played
this year Tatum deserves strong
consideration for MVP and Jaylen Brunson
and Giannis it this is I’m being serious
the fact that Jaylen Brunson took the
next to the second seed was like the
Tipping Point for me Giannis had an
incredible individual season um again
relative to expectations I believe the
Knicks outperformed those particularly
once Julius Randall was hurt and the
Milwaukee Bucks probably underperformed
relative to expectations uh all right
let’s get to the first team this is
where I have a discrepancy again I’m
weighing individual slightly ahead of
Team uh Giannis to me you know 30 10 and
five on over 60% shooting nobody’s ever
done that uh in NBA history uh Giannis
gets a nod on first team of course Luca
Shay Jason Tatum First Team all NBA for
me second team um this I had 25 guys
written down for all NBA and I probably
could have added five more um this was
really hard so Jaylen Brunson uh second
Team all NBA Anthony Edwards second Team
all NBA Kevin Durant second Team all NBA
Kawhi Leonard second Team all NBA I had
a lot of back and forth internally for
that fifth spot on second Team all NBA
ultimately I went with a guy uh that to
me was like the driving force of his
team um led the NBA in double doubles
had an incredible I think it was 61 game
streak uh that’s Damon sabonis for
second Team all
NBA uh third team Tyrese halberton
Jaylen Brown Steph Curry
I really struggled with whether or not
to add two Lakers to this ultimately I
went with uh Lebron James uh for third
team and then it came down to Anthony
Davis or vikor wanyama for me for the
final spot and ah man I know I
know that the Lakers are in the playin I
can’t deny that Anthony Davis had an
outstanding individual season the
defensive numbers for the Lakers as a
team are not great uh they’ve been
basically right around League average
all year um but his impact defensively
uh particularly protecting the paint at
The Rim all of the metrics say he’s been
a top 10 Defender uh at that position
you factor in that with 25 and 12 uh you
know a boost and assist this year um
Anthony Davis gets the final spot on my
third Team all NBA U I’m I’m sure you
guys will have a lot to say about this
and that’s okay uh again I I welcome the
discourse around this and Dallas
Mavericks fans I’m sorry I’m sorry that
I couldn’t carry the torch for you but
Nicole yic is my MVP this year
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