Est. 2023 Β· ESPN League 1227546734 Β· Head-to-Head Points
Weekly update β October 28, 2026 β edition update-2026-10-28. Refreshed from the site's verified data only: the 2026-27 leaders board (Basketball-Reference, updated 2026-10-26). Moved this week: Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama β Mo Bamba (verified BPG leader, 4.0). Carried forward unchanged (no verified board on the site justifies moving them yet): NBA Champion, Finals MVP, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year.
| Award | The desk's pick | His line right now | The one-line basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBA Champion | Oklahoma City Thunder | The 2025 champs kept their core and still hold the league's deepest rotation of two-way wings; the West runs through them until proven otherwise. | |
| Finals MVP | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | PPG 26.0 (No. 7) Β· BPG 1.4 (No. 24) | Back-to-back regular-season MVP and the Thunder's late-clock engine β if OKC repeats, the trophy follows the ball. |
| Most Valuable Player | Victor Wembanyama | PPG 25.0 (No. 13) Β· RPG 11.4 (No. 4) Β· BPG 3.8 (No. 1) | The desk's pick stands after Week 1. The verified 2026-27 scoring board is led by Luka DonΔiΔ (34.3 per game) and Anthony Edwards (33.3); the pick's case rests on two-way dominance β he also leads the blocks board β and one week of scoring lines does not move it. |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Mo Bamba | BPG 2.5 (No. 4) Β· FG% 78.6 (No. 1) | He leads the site's verified 2026-27 blocks board at 4.0 per game (Basketball-Reference leaders, updated 2026-10-26) β the preseason pick is confirmed by the first week's numbers. |
| Rookie of the Year | AJ Dybantsa | FG% 66.7 (No. 6) Β· FT% 100.0 (No. 1) | The No. 1 pick led Division I in scoring at BYU (25.5 per game) and lands in Washington with a green light and franchise-wing usage. |
| Most Improved Player | Dylan Harper | FT% 92.3 (No. 18) | 11.8 points in 22.6 rookie minutes for San Antonio points to a much larger second-year role next to Wembanyama. |
| Sixth Man of the Year | Payton Pritchard | 3P% 47.6 (No. 28) | The 2024-25 winner remains Boston's bench engine and just signed a bargain two-year extension β the role and the minutes are secure. |
Every category the desk's data supports is here: champion, Finals MVP, MVP, Defensive Player, Rookie, Most Improved and Sixth Man. Coach of the Year is not carried β the desk's awards data names no coach pick, and the page does not invent one. Stat lines are the verified 2026β27 per-game leader boards (Basketball-Reference via the Invitational's NBA data, updated 2026-10-26); a pick with no leader-board line says so. These are desk picks β predictions, labelled as such, not results.
| Category | Leader | Team | Per game |
|---|---|---|---|
| PPG | Luka DonΔiΔ | LAL | 36.0 |
| RPG | Domantas Sabonis | SAC | 16.2 |
| APG | Trae Young | WAS | 10.4 |
| SPG | Kawhi Leonard | TOR | 3.5 |
| BPG | Victor Wembanyama | SAS | 3.8 |
| 3PM | Luka DonΔiΔ | LAL | 5.3 |