Athletic panel picks Marcus Smart for Defensive Player of the Year, Jayson Tatum First Team All-NBA

Ime Udoka got some love for Coach of the Year as well.

As we inch closer to the start of the 2022 NBA Playoffs (the league’s play-in games notwithstanding), rumbles of which national NBA writers are voting for which players, coaches, and executives for which awards are beginning to percolate up from the mists surrounding the season’s discourse.

And with the league’s best record in the second half of the season powered by elite play at both ends of the floor from some of the league’s best players, the Boston Celtics have found themselves in the mix for several awards ranging from Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) to Coach of the Year (COTY) and others.

The Athletic outlined what their six NBA analysts with an awards vote had to say about their own ballots, and several touched on Boston’s place in various award races — this is what they had to say.