Third Quarter Awards for the NBA's 2024-25 season

The playoffs are in sight, but the season isn’t over yet. Unlike last season, not a single race feels decided. The last ~20 games will matter for a whole lot of teams and players.

As a reminder, my quarterly awards aren’t predictive for the end-of-year real hardware. I’m giving out trophies for games played from January 15th through March 2nd only. A player must have played at least 79% of his team’s games for the quarter to mirror the league’s 65-game requirement for the full-season award, which will disqualify some otherwise worthy contenders.

(For a look back, here are my awards for the first quarter and second quarter.)

Most Improved Player of the Quarter

Josh Giddey, Chicago Bulls

New readers should note that my Most Improved pick isn’t based on how players have changed from last year. I’m looking to see who has improved the most between quarters, adjusting somewhat for circumstances, shooting variance, injuries, and role changes. This section takes me more time to research and prepare than everything else combined, as gathering all the data, context, and notes to compare different timeframes is a little tricky.

You could argue that LeBron James deserves to be on here for his defensive improvement alone, but bloggers spill enough digital ink across screens in James’ name (as I will soon). Other stars like Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell had bounce-back stretches.

However, the largest quarter-over-quarter improvement happened in Chicago. Bet you didn’t expect me to have another Bulls-related piece, did you? Josh Giddey had one of the league’s biggest quarterly improvements in scoring (from 11.3 points per game in the second quarter to 15.7), field goal percentage (42.1% to 48.5%), and three-point percentage (30.4% to 44.9%[!!]).

This isn’t just about a hot streak from deep. Giddey decided to put his head down and force his way to the rim — he averaged 12 drives per game in the third quarter compared to eight in the second, a reflection of his newfound aggression that also showed up in increased free throw attempts.

The Bulls have been playing faster, and a big part of it is Giddey’s willingness to push the pace. Here, he dusts Derrick Jones Jr. (a very good defender) by rejecting the screen and draws an and-one by plowing full speed into a surprised Ivica Zubac’s chest:

These kinds of plays have been happening more and more frequently.

Giddey has also been way more active and involved on the defensive end, although that started in December after coach Billy Donovan began benching him for being a red carpet. He looked like one of the worst defenders in the league to start the year. Now, he’s trying to get through screens and actively playing help defense:

How much of this is real? How much is motivated by Giddey’s status as a free agent after this season? The Bulls traded for him and presumably want to bring him back. Giddey has proven he can reach these levels, although I’m not sure he can sustain them. Whether Chicago thinks he can or not will be the difference of tens of millions of dollars.

Perimeter Defensive Player of the Quarter

(As always, I’ve split Defensive Player of the Quarter into Perimeter and Interior awards, reflecting those archetypes’ vastly different impacts and responsibilities.)

Ausar Thompson, Detroit Pistons

For me, the best part of the Pistons’ season hasn’t been Cade Cunningham’s breakout or Jalen Duren’s improvement, although those storylines are extremely important to the team’s success now and in the future.

Instead, I can’t get enough of a healthy Thompson committing felonious acts against foes. Jayson Tatum should have pressed charges for this:

I’m including this next clip for two reasons. First, the sheer audacity with which Thompson tries to make the 180-degree alley-oop layup to start. Second, the burst to easily intercept a pass from a shocked James Harden (you can tell by how his beard trembles):

That 0-60 acceleration and never-stop engine befit a player in Motor City. Thompson starts this end-of-quarter play on the opposing baseline. 99% of NBA players would have simply covered their man and chilled 80 feet from the action. That’s doing the job. Instead, Ausar clocks overtime and apparates from nowhere for the block:

Unsurprisingly, advanced stats love Thompson like my toddler loves screaming in the middle of the night — a disturbing amount. He’s behind only Alex Caruso in Defensive EPM, is the third-highest perimeter player in D-LEBRON, and is posting the same steal and block rates as Dyson Daniels, who is about to become the first player in nearly 25 years to average three pilfers per game. All that for a player with 103 career games played.

Thompson has already missed 22 matches on the season, most of which happened as he recovered from a scary blood clot issue to start the season. He’ll be ineligible for an All-Defensive Team, which is a shame. There probably aren’t five better defenders, including his brother, in the league.

Interior Defensive Player of the Quarter