Our second NBA Tuesday miniseries also needs an update today, as the Boston Celtics won their 18th NBA title last night by clinching the championship at home in Game 5 against the Dallas Mavericks. We’ve done our analyses of the regular-season MVP and the ROTY already, and now it’s time to take on the Finals MVP and the DPOY awards. As stated earlier, we’re fine with people disagreeing here, so just enjoy it all, AI-free.

2024 NBA FINALS MVP: Jaylen Brown, SF, Boston (original); Jayson Tatum, PF, Boston (revised)

As noted, the Celtics beat the Mavs in 5 games, with small forward Jaylen Brown (20.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.6 spg) winning the MVP vote. But we also like the contributions of power forward Jayson Tatum (22.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 7.2 apg, 1.0 spg). Tatum also played more minutes and committed fewer fouls. Neither had a great shooting series, but they contributed in other ways, of course, with their all-around games, together.

Boston really only went about 7 deep in its rotation for this matchup, and we think Tatum was the better player in terms of overall value: more points, more boards, more assists, more minutes, less fouls. We like Brown a lot, but Tatum should have won this vote. He was our pick, too, for the 2018 ROTY, as well. Seems like the only award left for him to win from us (see below) is a league MVP nod. Time will tell, for sure …

2024 NBA DPOY: Rudy Gobert, C, Minnesota (original, confirmed)

Our threshold here has always been 5.0 defensive Win Shares, and only 1 player in the league achieved it this season: the vote winner, center Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves (5.8 DWS). This is the fourth time he’s won the vote, and it’s the third time we’ve confirmed that vote. His stats? 9.2 defensive boards per game and 2.1 blocks per. We actually gave this award to Tatum in 2022, interestingly enough.