Phoenix Suns: Best candidates for 2018-19 NBA awards

Heading into the 2018-19 campaign, which players are the best Phoenix Suns candidates for end-of-season NBA awards?

After a busy offseason, the Phoenix Suns can definitely say they got better this summer. Unfortunately, so can pretty much every other team in the Western Conference. For such a young roster currently lacking an established point guard, they could very easily find themselves near the bottom of the standings once again in 2018-19.

However, not all improvement comes in the win-loss column. The Suns will obviously be aiming for more than 21 wins next year, especially after Devin Booker said he’s done missing the playoffs during exit interviews. However, under a first-year head coach, and with so many new pieces to implement, Phoenix’s progress will have to be measured in various ways.

Step one will be trading for a legitimate point guard, but for a roster that’s unsettled and a team likely to struggle, another way to evaluate where this rebuild is going will be examining players’ individual progress.

End-of-season NBA awards are a great way to recognize individual achievements, where team success is factored in, but not the ultimate decider. More than likely, the Suns won’t field many legitimate candidates for most of the league’s individual awards, but then again, quite often we see award winners who were entirely unexpected to contend before the season began.

Bearing all this in mind, who is the team’s best candidate for each award, and what odds does each player actually have of winning it? Here’s a look at the Phoenix Suns’ top candidate for Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and MVP in 2018-19.