The NBA on Wednesday, May 16 announced the finalists for six awards that honor top performers from the 2017-18 regular season: Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, Kia NBA Sixth Man Award, Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Kia NBA Most Improved Player and NBA Coach of the Year.
Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis is a finalist for the MVP award and the Defensive Player of the Year award. His competition for MVP: LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and James Harden of the Houston Rockets. Davis' competition for Defensive Player of the Year: Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz. Davis averaged 28.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.6 blocks and 1.5 steals a game.
The winners of these awards will be revealed at the 2018 NBA Awards presented by Kia on Monday, June 25 at 8 p.m. CT on TNT. The second annual NBA Awards will take place at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.
Complete voting results for each award will be posted on pr.nba.com the night of the 2018 NBA Awards presented by Kia.
The NBA Awards presented by Kia will also include the announcement of the winners for NBA Basketball Executive of the Year, Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, NBA Sportsmanship Award, the Season long NBA Cares Community Assist Award and the fan-voted Play of the Year. Pelicans All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins is a finalist for the Community Assist Award.