Chris Pizzello/Associated Press The NBA released full voting results for every major award Tuesday on the heels of Monday night's NBA Awards show. Most notably, Houston Rockets guard James Harden garnered 86 of the 101 first-place votes for MVP, and finished with 965 points. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James received the other 15 first-place votes and finished second with 738 points, while New Orleans Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis was third with 445 points. The only other player to hit triple-digits in points for MVP voting was Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who finished fourth with 207. The closest vote among player awards was Rookie of the Year, which resulted in Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers winning with 481 points and 90 first-place votes. Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell was second with 11 first-place votes and 323 points, while Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum came in third with 101 points. Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year were all relative blowouts. Jazz center Rudy Gobert was named Defensive Player of the Year with 466 points and 89 first-place votes, Sixers center Joel Embiid was second with 163 points and two first-place votes, and Davis was third with 139 points and five first-place votes. Several other players received first-place votes as well, including Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George (two), Celtics forward Al Horford (one), Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (one) and Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday (one). Video Play Button Videos you might like Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo dominated the field in Most Improved Player voting, as the All-Star reeled in 99 first-place votes and 499 points. Rockets center Clint Capela was second with 99 points and one first-place vote, while Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie was third with 50 points and one first-place vote. Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams was named Sixth Man of the Year for the second time in his career with 495 points and 97 first-place votes. He was followed by Rockets guard Eric Gordon with 246 points and three first-place votes, and then Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet with 64 points and one first-place vote. Coach of the Year was among the most intriguing races entering the NBA Awards, and it was also one of the closest in voting results. Former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey won with 292 points and 39 first-place votes, but he was followed closely by Quin Snyder of the Jazz (217 points, 21 first-place votes) and Brad Stevens of the Celtics (203 points, 23 first-place votes). First-place votes also went to Brett Brown of the Sixers (11), Mike D'Antoni of the Rockets (four) and Nate McMillan of the Pacers (two). Despite winning Coach of the Year, Casey was fired by the Raptors after getting eliminated by the Cavs in the second round of the playoffs. Casey was subsequently hired as the Detroit Pistons' new head coach.<doc-sep>The winners and losers of the NBA’s annual (?) award show are not limited to the players who finish with the most votes in each category. For example, when it comes to mom shout-outs, everyone wins. When it comes to the presenter skits, everyone loses. Here are the evening’s real champs and fails. Loser: The Timing of the Awards Dwane Casey had a valid case for NBA Coach of the Year after leading the Raptors to a franchise-record 59 wins. He also had a valid case for the NBA awards happening too late after accepting his Coach of the Year award a month and a half after Toronto fired him. Casey, who was let go in May after another underwhelming Raptors postseason, has since been hired by the Pistons. He’s the fourth coach in league history to win the award only to not be with the same team next season, joining Dolph Schayes (1965-66), Pat Riley (1989-90), and George Karl (2012-13). The awards are based off, and voted on at the end of, the regular season, but by the time they’re announced, they often feel expired. If the Raptors had gone further in the playoffs, perhaps Casey would have accepted the honor as a Toronto staffer. That he is already employed again made the moment a tad less uncomfortable, but it still felt like watching Andy be the last person to find out Angela was cheating on him with Dwight. (The trophy being the better prize of the two.) Only Casey can say whether being crowned the best at his job this season felt like vindication or just awkward. He addressed being fired in his speech without a hint of spite, and later thanked Detroit owner Tom Gores for his next opportunity: “That’s all you want as a player, and also a coach: an owner who believes in you and trusts you with his franchise,” Casey said. To be fair, the Raptors did for seven seasons. Still, the NBA created an entire show to spotlight the awards. I doubt this is the kind of publicity it wished for. Winner: Bill Russell “Winner” is kind of evergreen for someone with more rings than fingers, but on Monday he needed only one: Loser: Nick Young Nothing like minimally contributing to winning a ring to give a guy some real confidence. Not that Nick Young needs any more of it, but somehow, that’s his current state. Last week, he advocated for coke to be legalized: “I want people to pass cocaine,” Young said in response to the news that Canada is legalizing weed. “Everybody needs to do cocaine.” Whew! I wonder whether by “everybody” he was including himself, a professional basketball player who is subjected to regular drug testing. Swaggy was “being funny” (which is exactly the kind of thing someone should joke about when leaving a club on a Tuesday). His takes kept rolling into the awards show, as he tweeted out his opinion of the Rookie of the Year winner: Should’ve pull a kanye at the Nba awards show ......about the rookie of the year award — Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) June 26, 2018 He presumably meant that Donovan Mitchell—I’m sorry, but Donny had one of the best rookie seasons of all time—should’ve won over Ben Simmons. Two things: Ben is Taylor Swift in this analogy, which projects well for his future earnings. (I just compared Ben Simmons to Taylor Swift. Look what you made me do.) Also, Young just finished his 11th season. Winner: Lou Williams Drake’s new album comes out in four days, but I’m holding out hope that he’ll slip in another “6 man” line about Lou Will. He deserves it: After his 13th season in the league, and after winning the Sixth Man of the Year award three years ago, Williams was at his best right when the Clippers needed him to be. He averaged a career-high 22.6 points per game this season, becoming the only player in history to average a career-high of 20 or more this late in his career. He was even an All-Star candidate! Williams was the ideal spark, yet again. Lou had six games in which he put up 35 points or more (and eight total). Every other bench player in the league combined for five such games. Winner and Loser: Statement Suits Your 2018 MVP wore cow print. It was more of a trench coat than a suit jacket, but he had the full support of Chris Paul. There’s only one ball, but there is a world of prints. Chris Paul e James Harden #NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/gE7eiLDqCl — Harden MVP BR (@RedNationBR) June 26, 2018 Shout-out to Most Improved Player Victor Oladipo’s look—apparently, he is most improved in that arena, too—and Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, who has yet to wear a color he can’t pull off.<doc-sep>The NBA finally held its awards show for the 2017-18 season on Monday night. I didn’t watch a second of it because at this point I basically forgot about the awards and didn’t really care. I guess there were some goofy outfits, skits and Bill Russell giving Charles Barkley the finger, but there were also a handful of votes for some Bulls. Kris Dunn earned two third-place votes for Most Improved Player, with one coming from Bill Simmons and the other coming from Diego Martínez Cabrera of Periódico Reforma, a newspaper based in Mexico. Dunn did make a pretty substantial leap in his second season, so these aren’t the craziest votes in the world. Dunn was abysmal, at least offensively, as a rookie in Minnesota before coming over to Chicago in the Jimmy Butler trade. He had a true shooting percentage just over 43 percent and was a turnover machine. This past season, Dunn showed he can be an average starting point guard and potentially a bit more. He improved his per-minute averages and shooting percentages basically across the board, and his defense was stellar with a lot of promise. However, he still had a sub-49 true shooting percentage and must improve in a variety of areas to be an impact two-way player. No other Bulls players received votes for these awards (I was kind of surprised Bobby Portis didn’t get votes for sixth man), but general manager Gar Forman got two second-place votes from his peers It’s unclear which GMs voted for Gar, but maybe those two did really like the Jimmy Butler trade. Or maybe it was just this: Eh...I don't think it says that at all. It just says that Thibs (Wolves) and Demps (Pels) voted for Gar https://t.co/Jq0q3zVdgG — Anthony P (@APBullsHoops) June 26, 2018 Speaking of Jimmy Butler, he got one third-place MVP vote ... from Joe Cowley. Perhaps returning the favor for being a trusted source? A shot at the front office for trading Butler? A little from column A, a little from column B? Either way, pretty funny.<doc-sep>SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Behold the last stop on the LeBron James bread crumbs tour. If we’re being honest, that’s what the NBA awards show inside a Santa Monica airport was really all about on Monday. Houston’s James Harden winning MVP was a foregone conclusion. Ditto for Utah’s Rudy Gobert and Defensive Player of the Year. As for the rest of the honors? They pale in comparison to James’ uncertain future. “The only thing better would be if LeBron James actually was here tonight, because he would absolutely break the Internet,” TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller told USA TODAY Sports. “But look, no one knows (what he’s going to do). I don’t even think right now that he knows.” The event was jam-packed with front office executives, agents and some of the game’s best players, and you couldn’t go more than a few minutes without the topic of James’ free agency coming up. The presence of his agent, Klutch Sports Group’s Rich Paul, only fueled that fire. But Paul was there in support of another client, Philadelphia’s Rookie of the Year, Ben Simmons. Everyone wants clues about what the game’s greatest player might do when July 1 rolls around – assuming James declines the player option worth $35.6 million for next season on his Cleveland Cavaliers deal by the Friday deadline and becomes an unrestricted free agent. And while there was no clarity just yet, there were plenty of insights and observations to go around. Here are a few that stood out relating to his suitors. THE LAKERS HAVE LEARNED NOT TO TAMPER Jeanie Buss knows that now is not the time for another tampering snafu. The Lakers owner was surely displeased back in August, when improper communication between general manager Rob Pelinka and the agent for Oklahoma City’s Paul George, Aaron Mintz, led to a $500,000 fine from the NBA for tampering. And when it happened again in early February – this time because of a seemingly innocuous public comment from Lakers executive Magic Johnson about Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo that cost the organization another $50,000 – the message was sent loud and clear by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: We’re watching. So when Buss was asked to discuss the Lakers’ looming free agency desires while sharing a red carpet with Silver himself, it came as no surprise that she wasn’t about to stumble at this crucial hour. The Lakers, of course, are widely considered to have a legitimate shot at landing James. And as ESPN reported on June 21, Buss recently called a meeting with team employees to express the importance of avoiding another tampering charge. The least she could do – which she did – was set the right example. “I think that we’ve continued to be aware of comments,” Buss said when asked about the tampering concerns. “We were – you know, we had to deal with the league in terms of comments made about a free agent, so it’s really just reminding everybody what the rules are, and that we’re here to support the rules and be one of the good citizens of the NBA.” More NBA But when it comes to the question of whether the Lakers can land James, no one seems to be able to predict who might join him as a co-star. After all, they’re the only team in the league with enough salary cap room for two max-level players. Yet in the absence of that answer, most objective observers assume he would then either stay in Cleveland or head elsewhere. As reported by USA TODAY Sports, the early signs aren’t positive when it comes to Paul George, Kawhi Leonard or Chris Paul winding up in purple and gold. So might James head for the Lakers even if he couldn’t secure another All-Star? Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma, who as a player is not bound by the same rules of tampering, made it seem like a grand idea. “That man has been in the league for 15, going on 16 years, so the only person who really knows (what he’ll do) is him,” Kuzma told USA TODAY Sports. “But as young players, we want to be known as those types of guys as well – the (high-profile) guys they’re trying to bring in. We want to be those guys, so you know you’re always going to have that (mixed feeling). But at the end of the day, you want to win, and having one of the greatest players of all time would definitely help that – on any team.” THE ROCKETS AREN’T OUT OF IT YET Unlike the Lakers, the Rockets have all sorts of reasons to believe they can contend for a title even if James doesn’t come. They’re still expected to re-sign Paul, who was part of the Rockets contingent on hand to celebrate Harden’s big night. Paul even asked a question in Harden’s news conference, not long after poking fun at a recent report that there was tension between him and the team. As was the case with Paul last summer when he forced his way out with the Clippers, it remains possible that James could opt in to his current deal and force a trade to a team like the Rockets by making it clear that he’ll opt out and leave in free agency if the Cavs don’t comply. And while Houston is considered a longshot to land James, that isn’t about to keep the Rockets general manager, newly named Executive of the Year Daryl Morey, from trying. According to a person with knowledge of their situation, the Rockets are still pursuing James – even if Harden made it clear that it was hardly a necessity. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. “We were a half away from the Finals, so I don't think there is a piece that we need to bring in or take away,” Harden, whose Rockets fell to Golden State in seven games during the Western Conference finals, said when asked what the Rockets needed to add this summer.<doc-sep>
The Los Angeles Lakers might have came home empty-handed after the 2018 NBA Awards on Monday, but the official voting totals released by the NBA revealed a handful of Lakers, including Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma, were in the running for a few of the night’s biggest awards. According the results, Kyle Kuzma finished second in Rookie of the Year voting, behind Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz and Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers. Dennis Smith Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks came in at No. 5, with one third place vote. Kuzma also received the ninth-most votes for Sixth Man of the Year, just behind his former teammate Jordan Clarkson. Kuzma was named to the All-Rookie First Team in May, making him just the 12th rookie in Lakers history to receive the honor. The former No. 27 overall pick ranked second among rookies in points per game with 16.1 PPG, despite averaging the fourth most minutes per game (31.2 MPG). Lonzo Ball, who was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in 2017, finished with zero Rookie of the Year votes. Luckily, not all of the Lakers’ former lottery picks were shunned on the NBA Awards ballots. Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram finished fifth and 19th respectively in the Most Improved Player voting results. Randle received nine second place votes and nine third place votes, while Ingram received one second and third place vote. Although Ingram made strides in his sophomore, the most obvious candidate for Most Improved Player on the Lakers’ roster was always Randle. The 23-year-old averaged career highs in points per game (16.1 PPG) and field goal percentage (55.8 percent) despite averaging just 26.7 minutes per game, the fewest minutes per game he’s averaged since his rookie season. As a result, his per-36 minutes numbers were off the charts: Julius Randle per-36 minutes (2017-18): 21.7 points (career-high), 10.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists Coming off a career year, Randle will have no shortage of suitors in restricted free agency. While the Lakers can match any offer made for the former No. 7 overall pick, his future in Los Angeles hinges on whether or not the front office can attract bigger name free agents like LeBron James and/or Paul George. Whether it’s in L.A. or not, expect Randle to be in the Most Improved Player conversation again next season. The Lakers might not have a surefire All-Star on their current roster (yet), but the future looks bright for the team’s young players. Hopefully, the front office can add talent this summer without letting go of their up and coming stars.