The NBA announced the candidates for the 2017-18 regular season's top awards – Most Valuable Player (MVP), Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY), Rookie of the Year (ROY), Coach of the Year (COY), Most Improved Player (MIP) and Six Man of the Year – on Wednesday.

MVP: James Harden from the Houston Rockets; LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers; and Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans.

DPOY: Joel Embild, Philadelphia 76ers; Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz; and Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans.

ROY: Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers; Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz; and Jason Tatum, Boston Celtics.

COY: Brad Stevens, Boston Celtics; Dwane Casey, Toronto Raptors (since fired); and Quin Snyder, Utah Jazz.

MIP: Clint Capela, Houston Rockets; Victor Oladipo,  Indiana Pacers; and Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn Nets.

Six Man of the Year: Louis Williams, Los Angeles Clippers; Eric Gordon, Houston Rockets; and Fred VanVleet, Toronto Raptors.

Here the word "is" is used because voting by reporters and TV commentators from the United States for these awards ended shortly after the regular season. Whatever happens in the playoffs has nothing to do with the votes. Meanwhile, in order to add some fun for the fans, the league has introduced another six awards decided by fans voting since 2017. They are:

Dunk of the year

Game-winner of the year

Assist of the year

Block of the year

Best style of the year

Performance of the year

Fans can enter the name of the award and their pick for it through channels approved by NBA and decide the six winners for awards.

Though the NBA has listed three candidates for MVP, the suspense for this award is basically over in most minds. James Harden made 30.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game in the regular season. He did not only become the league's scoring champion but also took the Houston Rockets to No.1 ranking with the team's best of 65 wins. According to surveys by multiple media agencies, Harden has been far ahead in votes received.

However, when it comes to other awards, disputes start to grow, especially over COY and ROY. Coach Casey led the Toronto Raptors to No.1 in the Eastern Conference with a franchise record of 59 wins. However, he has also been blamed for failing to help his team win tough games. That is also one of the reasons the Raptors fired him after they were swept aside by the Cavaliers. By contrast, Coach Stevens and Coach Snyder managed to lead their teams to much better performances than expected.

Bigger disputes come from who should win ROY. Ben Simmons started the season with a strong tendency by becoming the 76ers' organizer. However, as the season went on, more and more teams found his weakness of lacking shooting range and started to use that against Simmons who then began to struggle in the court. Meanwhile, Jason Tatum and Donovan Mitchell have maintained steady contributions and were both praised as players too mature to be seen as rookies.

The award ceremony will be held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, on June 25.