The NBA's 2025-26 awards race produced one shock and a clutch of foregone conclusions on Friday night, when Inside The NBA revealed the official finalists for the regular season's marquee trophies in a segment broadcast from TNT's Atlanta studio.
Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Charles Barkley and the rest of the Inside crew passed cards across the desk to read out the three-man fields, and one envelope drew an audible "Wow."
Defensive Player of the Year finalists: San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, Detroit's Ausar Thompson, and Oklahoma City's Chet Holmgren. Wembanyama is widely expected to take it home in his first eligible season since returning from the deep vein thrombosis that wiped out half of his sophomore year, but the omission of long-presumed contenders surprised the panel. "That was a surprise," one host said as Carter read the names. "It is a surprise."
The MVP slate landed without drama. Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver's Nikola Jokic, and Wembanyama himself comprise the field — a three-man race the panel said it expects to define the next half decade.
"That MVP list is going to look like that for the next how many years?" Barkley said. The room settled on a number. "I'm going to give it five. At least five years. These are going to be our finalists. SGA, the Joker, and Wemby."
Coach of the Year produced a Detroit-Spurs-Boston board: JB Bickerstaff (Pistons), Mitch Johnson (Spurs), and Joe Mazzulla (Celtics). Inside's hosts said Bickerstaff's case had been telegraphed in their pregame discussions all week, with the Pistons claiming the Eastern Conference's number one seed in his first year.
"We kind of knew that was coming," McGrady noted on air. "Y'all all talked about JB Bickerstaff before the show."
Rookie of the Year saw Philadelphia's V.J. Edgecombe, Dallas' Cooper Flagg, and Charlotte's Kon Knueppel make the cut — a three-man field the Inside panel admitted they had down to two before the names were called. "We know two who," one host said. The presenters then revealed that Flagg and Knueppel had to share the spotlight with Edgecombe, who has been the Sixers' bench spark all season.
The Most Improved Player envelope produced the field many had picked weeks ago. Atlanta's Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Portland's Deni Avdija, and Detroit's Jalen Duren — Cunningham's frontcourt partner — are the finalists. Tracy McGrady, who won the award himself in 1999-2000, did the honours. "I won it. 1999 to 2000," McGrady reminded the room as he handed the card back.
Clutch Player of the Year went to a slate dominated by Western Conference scorers: Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Denver's Jamal Murray. The Inside team registered mild surprise that Murray had survived the cut after Denver's tighter regular season, but the consensus was that the late-game numbers backed it up.
Sixth Man of the Year had already been announced earlier in the broadcast — San Antonio's Keldon Johnson took it from Hamidou Diallo and Tim Hardaway Jr. — and it was the only category where the trophy was actually presented on Friday.
For the rest, the league announced winners will be revealed across the broadcasts of the conference semifinals, with Kia NBA Performance Awards distributed throughout next week.
The slates carry obvious storylines into the rest of the postseason. Wembanyama is now in the running for MVP and DPOY in the same year — a feat last achieved by Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94 and Michael Jordan in 1987-88. Gilgeous-Alexander is favoured to repeat as MVP with the Thunder fresh off another 60-plus-win regular season. Jokic, despite the panel's nod, is widely seen as the third favourite this year for the first time since 2020.
Inside's panel did not predict winners on air, instead nodding to the difficulty of separating the three. The Joker may not be on there for five years," Barkley conceded when pressed on his own prediction. The final results will roll out across the next two weeks of the playoffs, but Friday's reveal made one thing clear: the NBA's individual awards race is now a closed shop, and a 22-year-old Frenchman is on three of the cards.
Inside The NBA returns Monday night for Game 4 coverage across the league's eight first-round series.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/nba-awards-finalists-2026-mvp-sga-jokic-wembanyama-coy-roy-revealed). Visit for full coverage.*
