Dan Devine and Ben Golliver talk their way through some of the NBA’s year-end awards and explain why they have anxiety about voting.

00:00 - Count me in!

04:20 - NBA’s 65-game threshold worked!

09:00 - NBA awards anxiety

13:05 - Jokic for MVP?

20:00 - Rookie of the Year

25:05 - All-Defense

29:00 - Most Improved Player

36:30 - All-NBA

40:30 - The Closing Five

55:30 - Weekly recommendations

On this episode of Devine Intervention, Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer Dan Devine has anxiety about his ballot for some of the NBA’s year-end awards and he welcomes Ben Golliver from the Washington Post to help him try and sort some of it out.

First, Ben explains why the NBA’s 65-game threshold for year-end awards has worked. More NBA stars played more games this year than last year, which means less fans ended up disappointed when going to a game or tuning in on TV. That’s great!

Dan talks a bit about his own anxiety in putting together his ballot for year-end awards, while Ben explains why he no longer has a ballot and what his voting process was when he did.

The guys discuss the toxicity around the NBA MVP conversation the last few years and wonder if Joel Embiid is right when he says that this year’s MVP race is boring. Can anyone catch Nikola Jokic?

Rookie of the year is pretty much settled, and the guys spend some time talking about just how great Victor Wembanyama already is, but the real question is who to vote for after Wemby and Chet Holmgren.

The rules around voting for All-Defense has changed this year, and Dan wonders if anyone will be crazy enough to submit a first-team that is nothing but bigs. Ben explains why that’s crazy and why he would judge anyone who does that as “not knowing ball”.

What is the criteria for Most Improved Player? Can it be a 2nd year player? Is the leap from good to great harder than going from bad to good? Is this award a lock for Tyrese Maxey or can Jalen Williams jump in front?

The rules around voting for All-NBA have also changed, but the guys are more interested in whether team success should have a factor in how many players from that team make All-NBA.

We end the podcast with The Closing Five, where we learn a lot about moose, and weekly recommendations.

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