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SuperWest Most Improved Player of the Year

Norman Powell (Los Angeles Clippers, UCLA)

It’s quite unheard of for a player to have their best career season in their 10th year in the league, but Norman Powell has managed to do just that.

Powell was always regarded as a good scorer but was never allowed to shine as the star man due to the presence of big stars such as DeMar DeRozan, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, and more.

In the seasons before this one, Powell averaged 15.3 points off the bench for the Clippers and had elite shooting splits of 48.2% from the field and 41.9% from three.

However, with Kawhi being absent for the first half of this season, the Clippers suddenly needed a scorer next to James Harden. Despite being 31 at the start of the season, Powell didn’t run from the challenge.

Until the All-Star break, Powell averaged 24.2 points a night while shooting 49.6% from the field and 42.8% from three in 45 games to help lead the Clippers to a 27-18 record.

Kawhi’s return and a hamstring injury slowed Powell down until the end of the year, but now, being the main scorer is no longer his role on the floor. He is now back to being the third option as his Clippers look to finally make a memorable playoff run.

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SuperWest Defensive Player of the Year

Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers, USC)

If you know me, you know that I’m a Warriors fan. But even I can’t deny Evan Mobley’s defensive brilliance. Not only is he my ex-SuperWest DPoY, but he’s also the most deserving player to take the NBA’s DPoY award.

Draymond Green can talk all he wants about how this year is his “last chance,” but that won’t change the fact that Mobley is a better defender than him at this stage of his career.

Also, Draymond already has a DPoY award and a Hall of Fame legacy, so why is he so obsessed with taking this award away from a deserving young player?

This season, Mobley averaged 1.6 blocks, 0.9 steals, and 9.3 rebounds a night while also avoiding fouls at an exceptional rate, only averaging 2.0 a game.

Ben Wallace is the only other player in NBA history to have ever matched/surpassed these numbers while playing in more than 60 games. But unlike Wallace, Mobley is a force on offense.

He has taken a huge leap on the offensive side of the ball, scoring 18.5 points per game with a true shooting percentage of 63.3%.

Mobley’s improvements have been one of the main reasons for the Cavs’ dominance this year, and he shouldn’t blame himself if he loses out to Draymond Green’s PR campaign.

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SuperWest Rookie of the Year

Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies, Washington State)

Iespite a poor ending to the season, Jaylen Wells is the deserving winner of the SuperWest Rookie of the Year award.

Despite being a second-round pick on a team fighting for playoff contention, Wells became a starter after just five games. In his first 53 games as a starter, Wells averaged 11.7 PPG, shooting 46.2% from the floor and 38.6% from deep.

His key contributions helped the Grizzlies go 36-17 in those games, and Wells was viewed as a Rookie of the Year candidate heading into March.

And that was when Wells went through a terrible slump. In his last 21 games of the year, Wells put up just 7.7 points per contest with a true shooting percentage of 46.9, the third lowest mark in the league among all players with 150+ shots in that span.

The rest of the team didn’t do much better, as they went 9-12, fired their head coach, and are now in the Play-In tournament.

Unfortunately, it seems like Wells cannot help the Grizzlies in their postseason run, as he has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken right wrist and a concussion.

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SuperWest Sixth Man of the Year

Payton Pritchard (Boston Celtics, Oregon)

The rise of Payton Pritchard shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise.

The former Oregon Duck put the league on notice in the 2023-24 preseason and scored 16.5 points per game in the last 15 games of the regular season campaign.

He made a pair of buzzer-beaters in the NBA Finals as the Celtics won the NBA Championship, and it was clear that he’d get a bigger role in the 2024-25 season.

Pritchard’s minutes per game increased by 6.1, and he took full advantage of this newfound opportunity by averaging 14.3 points per game while shooting 47.2% from the field and 40.7% from three this season.

Pritchard is currently the odds-on favorite to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, but he’s more concerned about winning another championship.

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SuperWest Biggest Letdown of the Year

Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami Heat, UCLA)

In the 2021-22 season, ex-SuperWest rookie Chris Duarte put the league on notice and looked like a future star, but the pressure to improve got to him in his sophomore season. He lost all his confidence and is now nothing more than an afterthought.

Unfortunately, the same thing might be happening to Jaime Jaquez Jr. The 18th overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft became an overnight sensation as a rookie, and Heat fans expected him to become a star after Jimmy Butler’s trade request.

I even wrote about how this was a “golden opportunity” for Jaquez.

Despite a slow start, Jaquez looked like he had found his groove in the first few games of the 2025 calendar year, but then he suddenly lost his confidence and played very poorly.

The Heat also lost their faith in him, handing him a few DNPs and slashing his minutes.

But all hope is not lost, as he had an awesome 41-point explosion against the Wizards in the final game of the regular season, which could be all he needs to get his confidence back.

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SuperWest Most Valuable Player of the Year

James Harden (Los Angeles Clippers, Arizona State)

He might be 35, but The Beard (or Mr. Beard, as the people in my country affectionately call him) is still a superstar.

With Kawhi Leonard missing over half of the season and the departures of Paul George and Russell Westbrook, many thought the Clippers would hand the Thunder a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Luckily for the Clippers, James Harden returned to his peak and elevated the likes of Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac to help the Clippers stay afloat until Kawhi’s return.

And once Leonard was back to his best, the Clippers became unstoppable, going 18-3 in their last 21 games.

Harden posted a few vintage performances throughout the year, including three 40-point games, a 50-point game, and six games with 15 assists or more.

Harden’s Value over Replacement Player of 4.4 this season is the most he has put up in a season since his final full season in Houston and is an indicator of his return to All-Star form.

But the biggest improvement in Harden’s game has been his defensive output.

The arrival of Jeff Van Gundy to help the Clippers’ coaching staff has been a huge part of their success this year, and he has done something no one else has managed to do: turn James Harden into a solid defender.

His 4.3 Defensive Win Shares this season is a career-high, which is insane for a 35-year-old with a history of a lack of effort on D. The eye test doesn’t lie either, as he has made some impressive stops.

Simply put, Harden has flipped the script, going from a washed-up player to an All-Star while leading a team many expected to bottom out to 50 wins.