With the 2024-25 NBA playoffs in the books and the Oklahoma City Thunder having been crowned NBA champions for the first time since arriving in the Sooner State 17 years ago, it’s time to assess the most impactful players across the entire two-month gauntlet of postseason basketball.
The NHL handles its postseason honors that way, with the Conn Smythe Trophy awarded to the player with the best overall postseason. The NBA does it differently, handing out a Finals MVP along with Eastern and Western Conference finals MVP awards, honoring the top performer in each of those series. We set out to fill that gap with our five-player MVP ballot for overall postseason excellence.
With that criteria in mind, here’s that five-man ballot — plus one honorable mention — to encapsulate how everything shook out from the first round through the Thunder’s Game 7 victory Sunday night.
Previous rankings: First round | Second round | Conf. finals
2:29
SGA fuels OKC to NBA title with 29-point double-double
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tallies 29 points and 12 assists to lead the Thunder to the 2025 NBA championship.
2025 playoff stats (23 games): 29.9 PTS | 6.5 AST | 5.3 REB | 1.7 STL
Gilgeous-Alexander capped one of the best individual seasons in NBA history with his first championship and Finals MVP award, putting him in rarified air on several fronts.
He became the 11th player to win the league’s regular-season and Finals MVP awards in the same season, joining a list exclusively made up of inner circle Hall of Famers. He became the first player to win the league’s MVP award and a title in the same season since Stephen Curry 10 years ago (in what also was his first championship) and the first to win the league’s scoring title and a title since Shaquille O’Neal 25 years ago.
Gilgeous-Alexander is also one of four players — along with O’Neal, Michael Jordan (four times) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — to win the league’s MVP award, the scoring title and a championship all in the same season.
All of that to say: Of course Gilgeous-Alexander is the first name on this list, after the way this season and these playoffs have shaken out.
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He delivered in every critical moment for the Thunder, particularly in his closing flurries of the two biggest victories en route to OKC’s title: Game 4s on the road, while trailing 2-1 in the series, to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and the Pacers in the NBA Finals. And while Indiana got Gilgeous-Alexander out of his comfort zone in a way few other teams have, he still delivered when it mattered most in Game 7.
Whether or not this title is the springboard for a dynastic run for Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder, his performance will go down as one of the best in league history.
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1:03
Rick Carlisle on Hali: ‘He will be back’
Rick Carlisle gives an update on Tyrese Haliburton’s injury and assures that “he will be back.”
2025 playoff stats (23 games): 18.6 PTS | 9.2 AST | 3.5 REB | 1.4 STL
While Indiana fell agonizingly short of its first NBA championship, this has been a remarkable year for the Pacers and their star guard, as Haliburton led them to several jaw-dropping comebacks in the playoffs, including a couple of iconic shots.
Haliburton’s tying shot at the end of regulation of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks in New York and his winning shots at the buzzer in Game 2 of the conference semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Thunder will go down among the most memorable moments from these playoffs, firmly establishing Haliburton as the heir to Reggie Miller as a clutch-time maestro in Indianapolis.
Although Haliburton’s Finals overall were disappointing — he had one superlative game, a 22-point, 9-rebound, 11-assist showing in Game 3, and spent the final few games navigating a nagging calf strain that limited his mobility — his impact during these playoffs was undeniable, as was the way Indiana ran through the Milwaukee Bucks, Cavaliers and Knicks en route to the league’s championship series.
But it was heartbreaking to see Haliburton’s magical postseason end with him lying on the ground in agony with a torn Achilles — not only ending this season, but putting next year in doubt, too. It was a cruel way for one of the most entertaining playoff runs in recent memory to end, but it doesn’t diminish Haliburton’s indelible impact.
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0:23
Pascal Siakam blows by defense for and-1 layup
Pascal Siakam goes up for the layup and is fouled for the and-1 opportunity.
2025 playoff stats (23 games): 20.5 PTS | 6.3 REB | 3.4 AST| 42.7 3P%
When Siakam was acquired 18 months ago by the Pacers from the Toronto Raptors, there were plenty of questions over whether trading multiple first-round picks — and subsequently giving him a max contract — was a savvy business decision.
Those questions are laughable now. Since joining the Pacers, Siakam has helped spark runs to the 2024 Eastern Conference finals and the 2025 Finals, won Eastern Conference finals MVP and helped push Oklahoma City to the brink in the league’s championship round.
Siakam has fit in beautifully. He had 30 points in three of the six games against the Knicks and averaged 24.8 across the series to lead the Pacers before being Indiana’s most consistent performer in the Finals. His ability to attack mismatches in transition was a massive factor in Indiana’s resurgence. The Pacers will lean even more heavily on Siakam next season as they endure Haliburton’s injury absence.
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1:10
Jalen Williams: Playing with SGA has helped accelerate my growth
NBA champion Jalen Williams joins “First Take” to share what helped him thrive during the NBA Finals for the Thunder.
2025 playoff stats (23 games): 21.4 PTS | 5.5 REB | 4.8 AST | 1.4 STL
While it was an up-and-down playoffs for Williams, his emergence into the reliable second perimeter scorer Oklahoma City needed played a huge part in the Thunder claiming their first NBA title. Williams eclipsed 25 points in three straight games in the Finals, including his 40-point explosion in Game 5.
Arguably the biggest question about the Thunder and their chances of winning the title entering this season was whether Williams could become that kind of reliable playmaker to take pressure off Gilgeous-Alexander. In the biggest moments in these playoffs, Williams repeatedly showed he was up to the task. Williams, who is eligible for a massive rookie contract extension this offseason, showed he’s going to be right in the center of any Thunder success going forward.
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0:33
Jalen Brunson’s best dimes of the playoffs
Check out Jalen Brunson’s top assists from the Knicks’ playoff run so far.
2025 playoff stats (18 games): 29.4 PTS | 7.0 AST | 3.4 REB
Gilgeous-Alexander’s struggles with Indiana’s high-pressure defense in the Finals, including the two worst turnover games of his playoff career in losses in Games 3 and 6, put Brunson’s performance against the Pacers in a new light.
Brunson averaged more than 30 points on better than 50% shooting across New York’s six-game loss in the Eastern Conference finals. He scored at least 20 points in 15 of New York’s 18 playoff games, 30 or more 10 times and 40 or more twice, helping lead the Knicks to their best season in a quarter century. That Brunson, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, was seen as somewhat of a disappointment against Indiana despite those gaudy numbers shows just how high he has raised the bar since arriving in New York three years ago.
Brunson has already become one of the five best Knicks of all time, and he doesn’t turn 29 until August. He should remain the face of the Knicks for years to come, and New York will certainly believe that with some improved depth — and whatever tactical changes the coach replacing Tom Thibodeau will make — the Knicks can take on Indiana, the Cleveland Cavaliers and any other challengers in the East next season as they hope to return to the Finals for the first time since 1999.
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2025 playoff stats (15 games): 25.3 PTS | 7.8 REB | 5.5 AST
Edwards was largely taken out of the Western Conference finals by the Thunder, who held him below 20 points in three of the five games after he’d scored at least 20 in nine of the 10 games across Minnesota’s two five-game series wins.
That said, Edwards deserves credit for being the face of what was a second-consecutive trip to the conference finals. It’s worth remembering that, before last season, there had been one season in the first 35 of the Timberwolves’ existence in which they won even a single playoff series. Now, they’ve won four in the past two years.
And while there’s work to be done by Minnesota to try to chase down the Thunder, the new-look Houston Rockets with Kevin Durant, the Denver Nuggets and other contenders in the loaded Western Conference, having Edwards leading the way is a good ticket to staying in that conversation.
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