NBA season starts tonight, here are my picks for MVP, Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, 6th man, Most Improved Player and Finals Pick.

MVP – Giannis

Giannis is set to have an MVP season. He is the best player in the East, Instagram posts show he has been living in the gym and he finally has a coach that will be able to do something with this Milwaukee team. The Freak averaged 27P/10R/5A last season, I can see him averaging 30+ and winning the scoring title as well as the MVP. The Bucks are a talented team, add coach bud to the mix and MVP Giannis may lead Milwaukee quite far in the East playoffs.

COY – Budenholzer

I don’t think Mike Budenholzer has stopped smiling since arriving in Milwaukee, it isn’t every day you get to coach a generational player. Bud is taking over a team that desperately lacked a strong coaching presents last season. Kidd would throw out a different starting 5 every night and Prunty did his best to make sure this team at least made the playoffs.

I really like this Bucks team, I honestly think they can finish 2nd in the East. My first two predictions are kind of hinging on Giannis and Bud making this team a title contender in the East.

 

DPOY – Kawhi

If Kawhi is fully healthy this is his award to lose. Leonard is a 2x DPOY, 4x All Defense (3x 1st Team) and he is a 2x All NBA talent. Kawhi also averages 16 points a game for his career, he scored 25.5 points for the Spurs in 2016-17. If Kawhi can drop 20 a game and shut down every teams best player, he will be walking walk with his 3rd DPOY.

6th man – OG Anunoby

OG doesn’t get talked about much outside of Toronto but he was a steal in last years draft. He tore his ACL while he was at Indiana. He was a lottery talent but he dropped to 23rd in the Draft, that’s when Raptors scooped him up. OG got a lot of starts at SF last year, now he will be backing Kawhi. The Raptors have two of the top shut down defenders on the court at all times this year, not a lot of people are talking about that either. Anunoby averaged 20 minutes last year, the Raptors were being careful with his minutes coming back from the knee injury. Anunoby will be playing his minutes this year against other teams second units. Lou Williams and Tyreke Evans dominated opponent’s benches last season, I think Anunoby can have that same kind of impact. He may not add to much offensively, CJ Miles/Pascal/Van Fleet can take of the scoring, also, Greg Monroe will be there to defense to clean up the contested misses OG creates. This Raptors 2nd unit might be the best in the NBA, OG will be the best player on the unit so I think he deserves the 6th Man of the Year award.

ROY – Luka Doncic

If you have ever watched a Luka highlight clip on YouTube you know why he is the frontrunner for ROY heading into the season. Doncic will be great at SG, but he has been playing sometime at the 3 this preseason too. Whatever keeps Luka on the floor is the best thing for the Mavs, there is so much switching in the NBA it is pretty much position-less anyways.

Ayton is the only other player I think will have a chance at taking the ROY away from Luka, but I think Doncic will have the Mavs team success on his side to sway voters that are on the fence.

Most Improved – Markelle Fultz

I want this kid to do well. It was really hard seeing him implode early last season. I know a lot of people liked watching the leaked practice tapes of him with completely broken shooting mechanics, but it was almost depressing to watch knowing his potential. Fultz’s shot has looked better in preseason, there was even a corner 3 clip that made its way around social media. Fultz will be coming off the bench and looking have the impact that McConnell had for them last season. If Fultz stays healthy he will make a run at 6th man of the year coming off the bench, but the improvement over last years nightmare rookie campaign will be enough to earn him the Most improved Award.

Josh Jackson for the Suns is a dark horse pick for MIP as well.

Finals Pick

I think the Warriors will make it to their 5th straight finals and they will face the Boston Celtics. They were great last year without Hayward and they lost Irving just before the playoffs. Having those two coming back and having Rozier/Smart/Morris coming off the bench makes this Celtics team the best in the East this year.

Boogie will get his gifted wrapped ring in 5 games.

Now that all that is out of the way, it’s time to play some DFS. I’m happy to provide DraftKing lineups to the site this year. Let’s have some fun.

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