Cotton or Davis? A showdown for the ages

After 22 exciting rounds and countless debates, the NBL26 awards will be presented at Crown Casino on Monday night.

While there are numerous stars named as finalists across the competition’s six main categories, only two men remain in the running for the NBL’s most prestigious individual accolade, the Andrew Gaze Trophy.

Those two men are Adelaide’s Bryce Cotton and Sydney’s Kendric Davis.

Ahead of the announcement on Monday evening, two former NBL champions, Mark Worthington and Chris Anstey, weighed in on who they believe should take the silverware.

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“I'm not jumping off the [Bryce Cotton] bandwagon at this stage of the season,” Worthington said on a recent episode of NBL Now.

“He's been exceptional, highlighted by another 42-point performance last week.

“While I can admire what Kendric Davis has done, if you take him off this team, they still have an embarrassment of riches, as far as stars that can step up and help the Sydney Kings team win.

“You take Bryce Cotton off the 36ers, and I don't think they come close to winning a championship with the current roster makeup and who they've got.

“There's one thing about looking at stats, and there's another about the eye test. For me, both KD and Bryce have been exceptional players doing exceptional things all year. But for me, Bryce Cotton has just done a little bit more for me to win this award.”

On the other side of the ledger, Anstey, who took home two NBL MVPs during his career, made a case for the Kings' point guard.

“I've got Kendric Davis,” Anstey said.

“If you had asked me halfway through the season, and I get Wortho's point about recency bias, I would have had Bryce Cotton ahead halfway through the season, but only just.

“I go back to a couple of reasons why I think Kendric will win, and I want to preface this by saying that the way these conversations are cut up, these two guys have had exceptional years, as has Nathan Sobey, who I don't have him as winning the MVP, but I think he's been absolutely exceptional.

“I've got Kendric Davis for a few reasons, his impact on winning as Bryce has had, but that's certainly a wash.

“One of the things Brian Goorjian does is manage his players exceptionally well, gets deep into his bench, doesn't feel the need to keep his stars on in games that have already been won and trusts different players and different nights.

“What Kendric Davis has done, if we're only comparing to Bryce Cotton, he's done it in six minutes a game less.

“My eye test had Kendric Davis winning it, but looking at the stats, if we averaged out to a 40-minute game, Davis has 30.5 points per game, while Bryce Cotton has 26.9.

“Kendric Davis also has 8.4 assists per 40 minutes to Bryce Cotton’s 8 and 5.1 rebounds to Cotton’s 3.7, so what he’s been able to do in the role, on the top team, is absolutely incredible.”

The Gazeys tip off at 7.30pm AEDT on Monday evening, live on Disney+, Kayo Sports and the NBL's YouTube Channel.