Masai Ujiri wins Executive of the Year

Ujiri totaled 59 points and received eight first-place votes from a panel of his fellow team basketball executives throughout the league. The Los Angeles Clippers' Gary Sacks finished second with 28 points (three first-place votes) and the Houston Rockets' Daryl Morey and the New York Knicks' Glen Grunwald finished tied for third with 25 points (four first-place votes).

Fair decision, I guess. The Nuggets fared the best out of the three teams involved in last offseason's biggest trade and he managed to put together a pretty decent team in the wake of trading Melo a couple of years ago. Some recognition was probably due.

I'm a little surprised, but I'm glad he's gotten some recognition. He's made some great draft day decisions and was able to turn the Melo trade into a positive for the franchise.

One other thing that surprises me looking at that list of winners on NBA.com is that I don't see RC Buford's name on it. I would have thought he would have gotten an award at some point.

No disrespect to Karl or Ujiri as I think highly of both but they might as well merge this award with Coach of the Year and call it the Surprise Team of the Year award.

Most of his accomplishments came in 2011 with the Melo trade, Faried drafting and even re-signing Nene working out for them. The playoffs didn't go so well - perhaps because they don't have a closer (not as high on Lawson as some), but this is a regular season award and they won 57 games.