Predicting the 2023-24 NBA award winners, featuring Anthony Davis and Jayson Tatum

It feels like the most recent MIP award winners get to a new team, carve out a more significant role, and do some things they hadn’t done in previous stops on the court. I am talking about Brandon Ingram’s transition from the Los Angeles Lakers to the New Orleans Pelicans that led to the MIP in Year 1 (2019-20), Julius Randle’s MIP in his second season with the New York Knicks, and, of course, the reigning MIP, Lauri Markkanen’s winning of the award this past season in his debut as a Utah Jazz.

Mikal Bridges showed post-2023 trade deadline that there’s far more to his game to unlock than many could have believed. And now, with an entire season as the primary offensive option, I’d expect him to take another step forward.