2025 Executive of the Year
I examine an award that gets little coverage, try to understand what voters look for historically, and project which executives will receive the most consideration.
Today is the due date for NBA awards voters to turn in their ballots. Many voters have shared their real or fake ballots throughout the week. Just for fun, I added mine at the bottom of this post.
There is another award that doesn’t get as much discussion: Executive of the Year. That’s mostly because it is voted on amongst other NBA executives instead of media members. This has led the award to receive little to no discourse.
It’s a strange award because there’s no clear criteria. But a couple could be picked up on who finished top three over the last five seasons.
2023-24
Brad Stevens (Celtics)
Sam Presti (Thunder)
Tim Connelly (Timberwolves)
2022-23
Monte McNair (Kings)
Koby Altman (Cavaliers)
Justin Zanik (Jazz)
2021-22
Zach Kleiman (Grizzlies)
Koby Altman (Cavaliers)
Arturas Karnisovas (Bulls)
2020-21
James Jones (Phoenix)
Dennis Lindsay (Utah)
Sean Marks (Brooklyn)
2019-20
Lawrence Frank (Clippers)
Sam Presti (Thunder)
Pat Riley (Heat)
The most obvious is that this award almost exclusively goes to a top 3 seed. You’d have to go as far back as 2009-10 for that not to be the case1.
Many of the executives who received significant consideration saw their teams significantly improve over the previous season. This award often feels analogous to Coach of the Year in that regard.
Except for Justin Zanik placing third in 2022-23, executives rarely get significant votes for initiating or conducting a rebuild. Sam Presti only received 4 third-place votes in that season despite selecting all of Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams, and the Thunder going from one of the worst teams in the league to the Play-In. The following season, he finished second because the Thunder improved to be the one-seed despite making no rotational additions other than drafting Cason Wallace.
I often wonder how the results would look if the media, or if another cohort of people who aren’t peers, voted on it. And I get it. Although we see the results, the behind-the-scenes isn’t public. These executives communicate with each other all the time, so there are factors we can’t see that play into the decisions. But the results are consistently homogenous towards executives toward teams that are title contenders or significantly surpassed expectations.
Based on how this award is typically voted on, here is how I see the top five turning out for 2024-25:
Rob Pelinka (Lakers)
Kobi Altman (Cavaliers)
Sam Presti (Thunder)
Mike Dunleavy Jr. (Warriors)
Rafael Stone (Rockets)
Pelinka could win this award just by successfully acquiring Luka Doncic. The negotiation, in which he didn’t give up Austin Reaves or their 2031 first-round pick, was superb. He also deserves credit for the discretion that likely got this deal to the finish line. The Dorian Finney-Smith trade was also a sneaky, low-cost move that could be huge for their playoff run. I could see him not getting enough votes simply because it’s the Lakers. But if it were by someone on just about any other team, that executive would certainly win it for making the Doncic trade.
Altman could outright win the award alone for getting Donovan Mitchell to extend his contract. That validated a huge swing he took three years ago to acquire him with no guarantees of staying beyond his original contract. His restraint in not overreacting to last season’s loss and running nearly the entire team back will also be taken into consideration. The Cavaliers could’ve easily modified the roster, brought in the wrong players, and undersold core players.
Altman’s most significant addition was hiring Kenny Atkinson, which was notable for two reasons. The first is concluding that a coaching change was necessary when it wasn’t so obvious with their incremental internal improvements. The other being that Atkinson looks like the absolute correct choice among the pool of candidates. They also ran the team back
Presti should be a finalist with this young Thunder team winning 68 games this season. And unlike last season, he made significant moves this season. He added two All-Defensive level players in Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. The addition of Hartenstein was complemented by cap gymnastics that allowed the Thunder to also re-sign Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe to long-term, team-friendly deals2. Both players could’ve stuck around for the minimum this season, but the Thunder didn’t need that extra flexibility. It made total sense to give them a raise now and have them motivated for their playoff run.
Executives love voting for an executive who takes a big swing that hits. This year, that appears to be Dunleavy Jr. for his acquisition of Jimmy Butler. It was a risk with no guarantee that adding the 35-year-old veteran would improve their playoff odds, and the contract extension that he required could age poorly. I’m still lower on the move than consensus, but I think most executives will view it as a necessary move since it revitalized their season.
The Rockets ran back nearly their entire roster so he could benefit from decisions from previous seasons paying off. However, he made one brilliant trade that is already paying dividends: acquiring control of the Suns’ first-round picks in 2025, 2027, and 2029 in exchange for the Nets getting control of their own first-round picks in 2025 and 2026. There’s a 16.9-17.3 percent chance of the Suns' 2025 selection jumping into the top 4. This is the type of deal that could help extend the Rockets' window by giving them multiple valuable selections for depth or potential trades.
If I had a ballot, this would be my vote:
Sean Marks (Nets)
Koby Altman (Cavaliers)
Sam Presti (Thunder)
I explained the cases for Altman and Presti. Both executives pressed the correct buttons to elevate their respective teams to become true championship contenders. While Pelinka deserves a ton of credit for executing the Doncic trade, it also fell on his lap. I can’t put him in my top three when the other party made a generational mistake that continues to get scathed by the media and NBA fans.
You might be thinking: “Yossi, you just praised the Rockets for that pick swap with the Nets. How do you have Sean Marks first? The Suns' pick this year is just as valuable as the Nets' own pick they got back!”
Although the Nets received a generational haul for Kevin Durant, they were still in a hole from their acquisition of James Harden in 2021. They owed the Rockets two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps ahead of last year’s draft, including their 2024 first-round pick that jumped up to third overall. They had a high quantity of draft picks to enter a rebuild, but they didn’t have control of their draft picks to commit to one.
The pick swap with Houston, in conjunction with the Mikal Bridges trade to the Knicks for five first-round picks, including four unprotected selections in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031, was brilliant. There are fair arguments that the quantity of draft picks the Nets have doesn’t project to be of high quality. The Rockets are looking like they could be coming out on top in that deal, given the Suns' trajectory and receiving a net gain of one first-round pick from it.
But this was the necessary direction to take after their awful 2023-24 season, and a creative way to do so. And five first-round picks for Bridges, who has never been an All-Star, is yet another haul for the Nets. Those selections might not look appealing now, when looking at how strong the Knicks are right now. But in this league, an injury-riddled season or a disgruntled star could change everything. The Nets know, having been on both sides of this type of trade.
Marks also hired a pretty good head coach.
Lawrence Frank will get a decent amount of consideration. The decision to let Paul George leave and pivot to several cost-effective role players led many to believe they’d finish last in the Pacific division. Instead, they won 50 games in one of the biggest surprise results of the season. Trajan Langdon will also receive consideration for hiring JB Bickerstaff and adding the correct complementary pieces to the roster to push the Pistons to 44 wins.
Without explanation, here’s my fake ballot for all the other awards:
MVP + All-NBA First Team
Nikola Jokic
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jayson Tatum
Anthony Edwards
All-NBA Second Team
Donovan Mitchell
Evan Mobley
Jalen Brunson
Stephen Curry
LeBron James
All-NBA Third Team
Cade Cunningham
Karl-Anthony Towns
Jalen Williams
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Tyrese Haliburton
Defensive Player of the Year + All-Defense First Team
Evan Mobley
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Dyson Daniels
Amen Thompson
Jalen Williams
All-Defense Second Team
Ivica Zubac
Draymond Green
Toumani Camara
Lu Dort
Rudy Gobert
Rookie of the Year + All-Rookie First Team
Stephon Castle
Zaccharie Risacher
Donovan Clingan
Kel’el Ware
Zach Edey
All-Rookie Second Team
Jaylen Wells
Isaiah Collier
Alex Sarr
Matas Buzelis
Yves Missi
Most Improved Player
Dyson Daniels
Ivica Zubac
Evan Mobley
Sixth Man of the Year
Payton Pritchard
Malik Beasley
Ty Jerome
Coach of the Year
Mark Daignault
Ty Lue
Kenny Atkinson
John Hammond won the award in 2009-10 after the Bucks went from a lottery team to a 6 seed.
The Thunder took advantage of the minimum cap holds of Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe to maximize their cap space. They created $30 million in space to sign Isaiah Hartenstein, then went over the cap to give Wiggins and Joe new contracts with descending salaries each year.
Glad to see some Lawrence Frank love in here. He made the biggest decision last offseason by letting PG go and it’s clear it unlocked a new identity for this Clips team. Interested to see if this becomes a precedent under the new CBA with aging stars or whether it was just a one-off situation. Great article!