The Nuggets have a finalist for two major awards

The NBA announced the finalists for the league's seven end-of-season awards, and the Nuggets are just one of four teams to have a finalist for multiple awards

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Apr 21, 2025, 9:26 AM

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The NBA announced the finalists for the league’s seven major awards at the end of the season, and the Denver Nuggets have a player in the top-three of two of the awards. Denver is one of four teams (Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit) to have a finalist for multiple awards.

Complete list of awards finalists for the 2024-25 NBA regular season ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4bgbfQpohT

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 20, 2025

Once again, Nikola Jokic has found himself in the heat of the MVP race for the fifth consecutive season. He has finished at least second in the MVP voting in every year since the shortened 2020-21 season, including three first-place finishes in 2021, 2022 and 2024. This season, all signs point to him finishing in second behind Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has led the Thunder to an incredible 68-win season while leading the league in scoring.

However, this is arguably Jokic’s best season this decade. He became the first center in NBA history to average a triple double, and just the third player all time (Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook 4x). He set a career-high in points per game (29.6), assists per game (10.2) and 3-point field goal percentage (41.7%). Not to mention, he had one of the worst rosters surrounding him in years, and his head coach and general manager were actively spiting against each other for the entire season.

The MVP race isn’t the only one Jokic is in, as he was also named a finalist for the Clutch Player of the Year award. This is just the third year that the award has been in circulation, and Jokic is looking to bring it to the Mile High City for the first time. Among players who played in 20 ‘clutch’ games this season, Jokic ranked third in points per game (4.2), second in rebounds per game (1.5) and first in assists per game (1.1). He led Denver to the eighth-most clutch wins in the entire league, with 21.

De’Aaron Fox and Stephen Curry are the two players who have won the first two iterations of the award.

While it’s great news for Denver to have a finalist in two of the seven categories, it comes with a bitter taste, as Christian Braun was snubbed for being a finalist of the Most Improved Player award. In Braun’s place were Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and Los Angeles’s Ivica Zubac.

Daniels and Zubac have had phenomenal seasons and are well-deserving of the nomination. However, Cunningham’s nomination is somewhat questionable. He had a great season as well, improving his points, rebounds and assists per game, but none of his improvements showed exponential growth from the 2024 season. However, for a player who was the first overall pick in the NBA Draft four years ago, growth like this is expected.

For Braun, he was thrown into the starting lineup for Denver after being a bench guy for two seasons. While he was great in his role off the bench, the team never needed him to score a lot of points because of the other pieces they had around him, like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. This season, they needed Braun to fill those shoes offensively, and he stepped up and delivered.

Braun’s points per game doubled, jumping from 7.3 in 2024 to 15.4 this season. His field goal percentage also had a massive leap, increasing from 46% to 58% in one year. He has become a key piece of Denver’s success, as shown by his clutch 3-pointer in overtime of Game 1 versus the Clippers. While Cunningham has had a great season, Braun has made a larger leap, and should be in the final three for Most Improved Player.

For Jokic and Braun, their eyes are set on taking a 2-0 series lead over the Clippers, as Game 2 tips off from Ball Arena at 8:00 p.m. Monday night.