The 2025-26 NBA season is now more than a quarter way through. That means there is a significant sample size of games to go off of when it comes to upcoming All-Star voting, also when looking towards the end
of year awards.
This year sees a couple Portland Trail Blazers players drawing early season noise as contenders for awards season. Deni Avdija is currently the favorite to take home the NBA Most Improved Player award according to FanDuel. Jerami Grant currently sits eighth in 6th Man of the Year odds, also according to FanDuel.
Obviously there are plenty of games left to play before the awards are decided, but two players in the top ten for voting is something that the Portland Trail Blazers have not had in some time.
Let’s go through each player’s case, and who they have to beat to win the award.
The Case For Deni
Avdija is a relatively heavy favorite to take home Most Improved Player honors. He is currently building on an impressive end to last season with dominant play night after night. He has improved his averages from 16.9 points and 3.9 assists to 25.5 points and 6.3 assists while keeping his rebounding, steals and block numbers almost the same. He is also shooting about the same from the field and from three, not sacrificing efficiency when improving volume.
Avdija is putting together an All-Star worthy campaign while running Portland’s offense through a myriad of injuries. This improvement has also lead to a shift in role. With the injuries to most of the Blazers’s guards, Avdija has taken over the role of primary ball-handler and distributor. His assist numbers reflect just how effective he has been in that capacity. These assists are coming in the flow of the offense, but also because of the gravity Avdija demands. He currently leads the NBA in drives per game and utilizes those drives to both initiate contact and lead to easy kick-out opportunities.
Portland’s offense revolves around Deni, especially to help weather the storm of injuries, and he has delivered so far this season.
The Case For His Competition
Currently there are three players close to each other in the next three slots for Most Improved Player. Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves and Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson are tied for second place and Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren is close behind in fourth.
Austin Reaves is averaging 27.8 points, 6.7 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game this season, up from 20.2 points, 5.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game last season. He has been tasked with covering for Luka Doncic and LeBron James as the two have missed time early in this season. He has been very good in that role so far, and his stats reflect that. However, if the two superstars play most of the games going forward, Reaves’s counting stats could take a hit and hurt his MIP candidacy.
Jalen Johnson is averaging 22.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game this season, up from 18.9 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game last season. The points and rebounds improvements are good, but not enough to solidify a MIP campaign. However, the massive jump in assists is due to Johnson unlocking another part of his game. With Trae Young missing some time this season, Johnson has been the focal point of the offense and has been able to showcase his dynamic skill as a point forward.
Jalen Duren is averaging 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game this season, up from 11.8 points and 10.3 rebounds last season. He is also anchoring the Pistons’s defense as they currently sit 21-5 and atop the Eastern Conference standings. Duren’s leap on the defensive side of the ball has helped him cement himself as one of the better defensive centers in the NBA.
The Case For Jerami
Jerami Grant is currently averaging 20.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. He came off the bench for a fully-healthy Blazers squad. The main issue for his 6th Man of the Year candidacy is that the Blazers have not been fully healthy in a long time. Grant has played in 25 games this season and started 13 of them. To win 6MOTY, you have to come off the bench in at least half of your games played. Grant would not be eligible due to that restriction if the season were to end today. As Portland begins to get more healthy, returning to his bench role could vault Jerami right back into the top group of bench contributors.
In his 12 games off the bench, Jerami is averaging 17.7 points in just 26.9 minutes per game, slightly below his season average. However, he is doing that on 48.1% shooting from the field and 39.7% from three. Those shooting splits are important for a team that shoots as poorly as the Blazers do. Grant being able to come off the bench as a sparkplug has helped Portland overcome an early deficit, or have a fresh set of legs come in late in a game to give them a boost.
The Case For His Competition
The top three candidates for 6th Man of the Year are Orlando’s Anthony Black and Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. in a joint tie for first and Houston’s Reed Sheppard in third.
Anthony Black is averaging 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game while coming off the bench in 20 of his 26 games so far. The numbers don’t exactly jump off the page, and neither do his 44.1% from the field and 29.8% from three shooting splits. However, the Magic are a team that struggle to find the bottom of the basket at times, and Black can come off the bench and help them do just that. He can very easily get hot and make a couple baskets in a row to help turn the tide of a game.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. is averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game this season while coming off the bench in all 25 games he has played. The third-year forward has emerged as a do-it-all wing whose versatility allows the Heat to use him in many different roles throughout the course of a game.
Reed Sheppard is averaging 12.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game this year while starting 4 of his 23 games this season. He has been tasked with being a primary ball-handler for a Rockets team that lost Fred VanVleet to injury before the season began. He has also done this while shooting an elite 43.7% from three on almost 6 attempts per game.
What Does This Mean
Avdija definitely looks to be in the driver’s seat for the Most Improved Player award. No other competitor has made as big of a jump, nor as much of an impact on their team. If he maintains this level of play over the course of this season, he will be a strong contender for an All-Star nod in the competitive Western Conference and will almost definitely take home MIP.
Grant, on the other hand, is a tougher case. His numbers put him first in the NBA in points off the bench, but his recent starting role makes it tough to say how many starts he will end the year with. If Portland ever gets back to full health, he will likely go back to his original role. However, that is a pretty big if. There are a number of strong players ahead of him in the rankings that he will have to outperform to have a chance at the award.
If it were announced today that Grant would come off the bench the rest of the year regardless of the state of Portland’s lineup, he would most likely jump up at least one or two spots in the rankings. Without that promise of eligibility, however, he remains more of a darkhorse candidate at this point in the season.
Regardless of how the award races end up playing out, having two players in the mix for an award at this point in the season is fun. The Blazers have been in a downward spiral as a result of injuries, and the rotation is looking short. But the players who are on the court are shining, and those efforts may end up being recognized at the end of the year.
