every team nominates a player--it gets cut down to 3--so he has to jump another hurdle to actually get nominated in the sense he is nominated for the award
All 32 players are NOMINATED. But then there are the three FINALISTS.
(On most of the other post season awards, various groups, from media, to players, to GMs, vote their top players. Only the top three players are announced as finalists. Once the award is made, the actual voting is revealed so you can see ALL the players for a specific award that received votes. King Clancy, Willie O Ree, and Messier are different.)