The Sal's NBL Showdown has produced plenty of highlights over the last five weeks and with Finals Week still to come the League is also on the verge of announcing a number of award winners, including the prestigious SkyCity MVP.
This year's awards will be voted on by a panel of 11 people, including the seven head coaches and four independent people. The independents have seen every game played during the season - they are Mike Lacey (journalist), Huw Beynon (commentator), Casey Frank (commentator) and Justin Nelson (League GM).
Coaches are allowed to vote for their own players.
Here are the awards up for grabs and how the winners will be decided.
SkyCity MVP
After every game during the regular season (finals not included) the coach from each team awards votes to the five best players on the court, with the player they deem to be the best receiving 5 votes. Each set of votes from a coach must include at least two players from the opposition team. The Top-10 vote-getters from the home and away season (the SkyCity MVP Leaderboard) will go through to the final vote. Each panel member will place a vote (from 10 down to 1) beside each player. The player deemed to be the winner of the award will receive 10 votes, and so on down to the player deemed to be 10th (1 vote) on the list. The player who receives the most overall votes from the panel will be awarded the SkyCity MVP.
Defensive Player of the Year
Each coach has nominated two players from their own team to be in consideration for this award. From the list of (14) nominees, each panel member will place a (3) beside the player deemed to be the best defensive player, then a (2) beside the 2nd best and a (1) beside the 3rd best. The player who receives the most votes will be deemed the winner of the award.
Youth Player of the Year (21yrs & under)
Every player who qualifies for this award will be listed. Again, each panel member will vote for (3) players only with a 3, 2, 1 – the (3) votes going to the player deemed to be the winner, and so on. The player who receives the most votes overall will be deemed the winner.
Coach of the Year
All (7) coaches will be nominated and again the panel will vote 3, 2, 1 – the (3) votes going to the coach deemed to be the winner, and so on. The coach who receives the most votes overall will be deemed the winner.
All-Star Five
Based on the SkyCity MVP voting, the panel will receive a list of the top 10 Guards and the top 10 Forwards/Centres. From these lists each panel member will be asked to vote for either 2 x Guards and 3 x Forwards/Centres or for either 3 x Guards and 2 x Forwards/Centres. The players with the most votes will make the All-Star Five.
Team Awards
The only other two awards to be decided will be the GM of the Year and the Best Social Media. These awards will be decided by League Management.
