GMOTY 2025-26
Posted: June 1st, 2025, 9:43 pm
Voted, 1. Nav, 2. Jwoo, 3, Nolan.
The Raps put together an awesome season. I didn't actually love the Jokic move for Jwoo initially given Jackson had already offered to resign once and Jokic was on the wrong side of 30, expensive, and having his worst season for the first time in an outside offense... I was proven extremely wrong, and as soon as he was back in a balanced offense he was just as dominant as he was in Phoenix. The trade certainly improved the Raptors and was definitely a "big balls" type of move which I like to reward in my voting, but the Raps did give up considerable value to get him, especially with the state of the Blazers pick. Toronto had a smattering of other moves I mostly thought were good - Lonzo Ball trade was great, Trey Murphy was a steal, didn't love the Chuma trade but it was totally fine. Overall, really like the team building.
The Knicks, on the other hand, did less wheeling and dealing but gave up almost nothing to get the league's MVP, in the midst of maybe his best season ever (feel like I say that every year), at the perfect time to get them over the hump to be the clear #1 team in the strongest conference in league history. Only having to attach one pick to Jones on a supermax is as shrewd a move as we will ever see in this league - swapping Jones for Kyrie at that point in the season added so much championship equity I had to give the nod to NYK.
Shoutout to Nolan from going from -3 last year to winning the conference, even if it's the Mickey Mouse conference. Didn't love the value of the Okogie or Payton deals for Houston, but they had the assets and went and made the moves, which I will always tip my cap to.
The Raps put together an awesome season. I didn't actually love the Jokic move for Jwoo initially given Jackson had already offered to resign once and Jokic was on the wrong side of 30, expensive, and having his worst season for the first time in an outside offense... I was proven extremely wrong, and as soon as he was back in a balanced offense he was just as dominant as he was in Phoenix. The trade certainly improved the Raptors and was definitely a "big balls" type of move which I like to reward in my voting, but the Raps did give up considerable value to get him, especially with the state of the Blazers pick. Toronto had a smattering of other moves I mostly thought were good - Lonzo Ball trade was great, Trey Murphy was a steal, didn't love the Chuma trade but it was totally fine. Overall, really like the team building.
The Knicks, on the other hand, did less wheeling and dealing but gave up almost nothing to get the league's MVP, in the midst of maybe his best season ever (feel like I say that every year), at the perfect time to get them over the hump to be the clear #1 team in the strongest conference in league history. Only having to attach one pick to Jones on a supermax is as shrewd a move as we will ever see in this league - swapping Jones for Kyrie at that point in the season added so much championship equity I had to give the nod to NYK.
Shoutout to Nolan from going from -3 last year to winning the conference, even if it's the Mickey Mouse conference. Didn't love the value of the Okogie or Payton deals for Houston, but they had the assets and went and made the moves, which I will always tip my cap to.