Former Kentucky Wildcats flood NBA player award watch lists

All eyes are rightfully on March Madness right now, but lingering in the background is the NBA finishing up its regular season and preparing for the playoffs. If you can look past the fog of tanking teams, resting stars, and a few jockeying for a better seed, you can see individual player awards are narrowing down to only a handful of favorites. And former Kentucky players are all over these lists.

There are no ‘Cats in the running for Rookie of the Year or Most Improved Player, but several guys pop up elsewhere with a few near locks to take home the hardware. Let’s review:

Most Valuable Player

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still riding his streak of scoring at least 20 points in 130-plus games and counting, setting his own new NBA record higher and higher each night. Despite a great year from Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic, SGA is the favorite to win MVP for the second consecutive year.

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: -275
• Victor Wembanyama: +210
• Luka Doncic: +1500

6th Man of the Year

Keldon Johnson has embraced his new role off the bench, and the San Antonio Spurs are better for it. He is the favorite to win the 6th Man of the Year award, averaging 13 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Not far behind him is Reed Sheppard, who has made a huge lead in his second year in the league.

• Keldon Johnson: -180
• Jaime Jaquez Jr.: +350
• Reed Shepard: +900

Clutch Player of the Year

If the best player in the league is also the most clutch, that guy must be pretty good. And that guy very well could be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In the same game that he tied Wilt Chamberlain for most consecutive games with 20+ points, he also hit the game-winner. He is the runaway favorite to win Clutch Player of the Year, but look out for Jamal Murray and Tyrese Maxey, who have been tremendous late in games as well.

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: -900
• Jamal Murray: +650
• Anthony Edwards: +1200
• Nikola Jokic: +3000
• Tyrese Maxey: +5000

With the current ‘Cats out of the NCAA Tournament, we might as well watch some former Kentucky guys ball. There are a lot of them, and they’re really good.