NBA Individual Awards

It’s a testy time for NBA fans, as the field of 16 is set, and we wait for the next chapter in league playoff history to unfold. But as much of the trash talk has turned to the teams as a whole, there is still the matter of the individual awards to be won. Much of the chatter has been about the Most Valuable Player award, as we certainly see legitimate arguments for multiple elite players, but there are interesting award races for the lesser-discussed accolades as well.

Now, as much as every NBA junkie wishes he or she could get their hands on one of the 125 official ballots for the awards, the majority of us must rely just on our imaginations and lunchroom conversations to portray how things would go if we did have a say. Let’s dive in.

MVP

Just because the MVP race has been talked in circles the last two weeks, doesn’t push the league’s most prestigious individual award further away from the top of the list. There have been six legitimate candidates for the NBA Most Valuable Player this season (in alphabetical order by last name), Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, James Harden, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook.

The NBA awards ballots have places for five players in each category. Personally, I’m removing LeBron from the ballot right off the bat. After his offseason relocation back to Cleveland, the Cavaliers struggled out of a gate, leading to LeBron taking a two week hiatus to “rest,” while seemingly playing general manager as the Mozgov and JR/Shumpert trades were finalized during this time. With his points and rebounds declining, along with all of his shooting percentages, I just can’t bring myself to give him a vote this year while on a more talented team than he was last season when he came in second to Kevin Durant.

Which brings us to the five that will make the ballot…

1. Stephen Curry
2. James Harden
3. Chris Paul
4. Anthony Davis
5. Russell Westbrook

Westbrook won his first scoring title this season and almost willed the Thunder to the eight seed out West. Which in all honesty would not have moved him up on my ballot. Even though he played with a quantum robot lazer focus that we haven’t seen in anyone deemed as human in… well forever, at least in my lifetime, Westy failed to impress me as the Most Valuable to his team. Granted, there are different interpretations of how you define the MVP award, something that has been argued about by pundits for years. Many say it is the best player on the best team. I say that’s a cop out. There are many things to quantify when trying to determine how valuable a player is to their team, such as the talent around them, their competition (which conference they are in etc) and of course, their production.

Although Russell Westbrook put up godly numbers (28.1 points 7.3 rebounds 8.6 assists and 2.1 steals) with reigning MVP Kevin Durant out of the lineup for 55 games, especially in the last two months of the season (31.1 points 8.4 rebounds 9.4 assists and 1.9 steals in his last 36 games), he couldn’t drag OKC with him to a postseason berth. He also had fairly abysmal shooting numbers, going 42.6% from the field and an awful 29.9% from three, which are the type of numbers we ridicule players like Carmelo Anthony for posting in his MVP candidate seasons. In my estimation, you can’t win MVP if your team doesn’t make the playoffs, and you combine that with the fact that Westy’s supporting cast even without Durant is more talented than that of CP3’s Clippers or Brow’s Pelicans, Russell deserves no higher than an honorable mention fifth place vote in 2014-15.

Now the man who DID will his team (literally) to the playoffs is Anthony Davis. In a must win game against the hottest team in the league coming into the final day of the regular season (Spurs), Davis led the Pelicans to a postseason clinching (and apparently coach saving) victory with 31 points, 13 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks. The win meant that the Pelicans kept their record tied with the Thunder, and held the tie breaker due to winning the season series. And if you didn’t know how that season series was won, here’s a healthy reminder…

Anthony Davis single-handedly kept the OKC Westbrooks out of the playoffs (that was his only three pointer of the season). But the real reason the Pelicans are in the postseason is more about the Brow’s season-long dominance rather than just those two games. Davis (at age 21!) averaged a monster 24.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.9 blocks and 1.5 steals in his third season in the NBA, breaking the Player Efficiency Rating (PER) record for his age (30.8), something that he did when he was 20… and 19. The short list of other players with a 30+ PER season on their resume stands at Wilt, LeBron, Jordan, Shaq, David Robinson, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul.

Now that’s not the only reason that CP3 ends up one spot higher on the ballot than Davis. It’s key when assessing the Clippers that you keep in mind the roster that they have constructed is devoid of bench talent even when fully healthy. It’s six deep. That means that it’s imperative that their three stars, Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan produce at a high level every single night. Paul went above and beyond this season, averaging 19.1 points, 10.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 steals on 49/40/90 shooting, while playing 82 games for the first time in his career. His 10.2 assists per game were good for the league lead and he was able to achieve that on a team that ran out Austin Rivers for 20 minutes a night. Hell, fans got 12 minutes per game of Hedo Turkoglu for 62 games this year! On top of that, Blake Griffin missed 15 games, reigning sixth man of the year Jamal Crawford missed 18 games, and did I mention Austin Rivers played 20 minutes a game?!

And yet, the Clippers are capping off a 56-win campaign that saw them lose out on the two seed in the ultra-competitive Western Conference by a tiebreaker. Chris Paul is the heartbeat of the Clippers, and the engine of the team with the third best record in the league deserves a spot high on the ballot. Because Paul doesn’t get much of a reward otherwise for all the Clips success this season… they draw the defending champion Spurs in the first round.

Which brings us to the final two candidates, the only two that really have any business being in the conversation for who is going to win it. For weeks I was, reluctantly, on the James Harden bandwagon. Here’s a guy who took the Houston Rockets to the two seed for the majority of the second half of the season, without the help of his starting power forward (Terrence Jones) and center (Dwight Howard) who missed a combined 90 games. Not to mention starting point guard Patrick Beverly going out for the year down the stretch, missing 26 games, young blossoming Euro big man Donatas Motiejunas sitting out 11 games (after starting 62 in Jones and Howard’s absence). He averaged 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.9 steals this season, missing only one game due to suspension for kicking LeBron James in the groin. There’s a good argument to be made that without him, the Rockets would not even be in the playoffs in the West. The same cannot be said for Steph Curry, who is of equal importance to the best team in the league during the regular season. If Curry was removed from the Warriors squad, they would still make the postseason. They would still compete for a 7th or 8th seed as they go 12 deep on a team with seemingly endless talent.

But that argument became null and void when the Rockets dropped a back-to-back against the Spurs, and with it, from two to six in the playoff standings. The whole argument that had been built up around Harden for MVP was shattered in a 72 hour period.

It wasn’t that hard to move to the Curry train. His ability to take over games is special, it creates a buzz in the arena that you can feel through your television. I’ve even felt the tingle through my smartphone when I was away from home. Here’s 17 minutes of Steph highlights from this year, just because he’s that mesmerizing…

At age 27, he’s already the best shooter that the NBA has ever seen. He has set and broken his own three point record for threes made in a season twice, and sandwiched fifth most of all time in between. What makes these stats more impressive are the efficiency. He shot 44.3% from beyond the arc this season while averaging 8.1 attempted threes per game! That’s unheard of. Watching those highlights, you know there’s so much more to his game that just shooting. He dished out 7.7 assists, grabbed 4.3 rebounds and swiped 2.0 steals per game this season to go along with his 23.8 points per, all in just an average of 32 minutes.

Even though Harden’s Rockets moved back up to the two seed in the end on the season’s final night, they backed into it. San Antonio controlled it’s own destiny to keep Houston down at the six seed and they couldn’t do it, losing to the Pelicans on Wednesday. What Harden did this season was extremely impressive, and as someone who can’t stand him or the Rockets, he’s an amazing player who had a helluva season. Curry just stands above all this year, and he absolutely should be the MVP.

Sixth Man of the Year

The other awards don’t need write ups as long as the ever popular MVP award, but that’s not because there aren’t necessarily as many deserving candidates, it’s just a bit more clear cut.

1. Isaiah Thomas
2. Lou Williams
3. Jamal Crawford

The Celtics are in the playoffs. Now there’s something you and I didn’t expect to say in 2015. It’s thanks in large part to Thomas and his fearlessness to take big shots late in games. On February 1st, Boston was 16-30, and while they didn’t quite make it back to .500, they finished 40-42, good for the seventh seed. Isaiah Thomas was traded from the Suns to the Celtics on trade deadline day, and played only 21 games for Boston. But what a big 21 games it was, averaging 19.0 points and 5.4 assists off the bench after being underutilized in Phoenix for the majority of the season (where he still managed 15.2 points per game in 25 minutes). Boston went 14-7 in games that Thomas played, and for whatever reason that the Celtics decided they wanted to make a playoff push instead of get lottery position, the accomplished it thanks to Thomas.

Lou Williams was runner-up, and killed it in his role once again for the Raptors. But I’m less impressed with Sweet Lou due to the talent around him than I am with Isaiah in Boston. If that trade never happens, Lou would have taken home the hardware.

Rookie of the Year

What’s really important to consider when talking about Rookie of the Year honors is the role that each rookie was thrust into on their respective teams, and also what position those teams were in.

1. Nerlens Noel
2. Andrew Wiggins
3. Elfrid Payton

Although Nerlens was drafted two seasons ago, injuries caused him to miss all of last season, making him eligible for ROY this year. He didn’t have the most outstanding stats, not eclipsing double digit averages in points (technically, 9.9) or rebounding (8.1), but the peripheral numbers are what has me salivating. Noel averaged 1.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.9 blocks, which is possibly where you need a reminder that the guy is 6-11 228lbs! That’s top ten in steals and blocks! Also relevant is that Nerlens can’t legally drink a Budweiser yet! At 20 years old, he’s one of two players that I can see touching the legendary 5×5 game (5 points, 5 boards, 5 assists, 5 blocks and 5 steals) besides Anthony Davis in the near future.

Wiggins had a great year in his own right. However, his numbers don’t impress me as much as others. The man (or kid, as I guess all these guys are) was run out there for 36 minutes a game this season and given all the usage he could handle. He’s going to be a great player in this league, and is already a superb wing defender, but I wasn’t as blown away as I felt I should be given the minutes. My bronze medalist Elfrid Payton is a sentimental pick, as I picked him to win the award preseason. He did great in his first season in Orlando (2 triple doubles!), and I think he will have a great NBA career. But he can’t shoot a lick. If the new staff coming into Orlando can improve that aspect, he’ll be supremely dangerous on both ends (1.7 steals per game already).

Defensive Player of the Year

Just gonna get right to it.

1. Kawhi Leonard
2. Draymond Green
3. DeAndre Jordan

Call it a homer pick if you’d like. Maybe that’s what it is. But hear me out.

Firstly, Leonard has been a monster on both ends of the floor when healthy this season. But we’re focusing on defense, where he’s leading the league in defensive rating, becoming the first non power forward or center to do so since Scottie Pippen in 1995. He led the league in steals at 2.31 per game (how about 7 in a game here), a full 0.22 more than second place Westbrook, to become the first non-guard steals leader since Gerald Wallace in 2006.

The last wing player to win DPOY was Ron Artest back in 2004. Let’s compare some defensive metrics between the two. They posted the same defensive rating of 96. Leonard had a defensive rebounding percentage of 20.6% to Artest’s 12.6%. Kawhi’s steal percentage was 3.7% to Ron’s 3.1% and block percentage was 1.8% to 1.4% in favor of the Klaw.

But then there’s the eye test. The Spurs collapse when Leonard isn’t on the floor, evidenced by their 8-9 record without him this season. Even when he heads to the bench, usually the last of the starters to do so, the defense takes a noticeable dip. Per 100 possessions the Spurs defense is a full five points worse with him off of the floor (104.8 to 99.8). Opposing coaches scheme around him and opposing players fear his presence. Nobody else has ever made LeBron react like this to them checking back into the game…

Look at that scoreboard. That was the 2013 Finals! Two years ago! Think about how much better Leonard is now than he was then. Without Leonard, the Spurs don’t have a shot. He’s the best overall player on the team, but more importantly, the best defensive player in the game.

That being said, don’t discount what Draymond Green and the Warriors have done this season. They’re the number one defensive team in the league, and Draymond is a beast on defense. His versatility (he’s played center way more than you think possible this season), tenacity and instinct on the defensive end are elite in this league. But he doesn’t strike fear into the heart of an opponent like Leonard, he gives Golden State the flexibility they need to create mismatches on the other end, but this is purely a defensive award and Kawhi is the best there is. Third place goes to DeAndre Jordan, because he’s a beast patrolling the rim (2.23 blocks per game), and just gobbles up rebounds like nobody else right now, a league leading 15.0 per night!

Most Improved

1. Rudy Gobert
2. Hassan Whiteside
3. Robert Covington

The aptly named “Stifle Tower” ( or “French Rejection,” whichever you prefer) is probably someone who was either an afterthought in your mind at the beginning of this year, a prospect who you may have seen come off the bench for limited minutes last year, or watched in the Olympics playing for Team France. More likely for the casual fan, you had no idea who he was.

But once Enes Kanter was moved to OKC, Gobert was unleashed, becoming a one man wrecking crew around the rim. Honestly, he’s an early favorite to crash the defensive player of the year party next year (watch out Kawhi!). The 7 foot 1  (with a 7 foot 8 wingspan!) Gobert ended up anchoring the Jazz defense that became extremely formidable with the departure of the defensively inept Kanter. Still only 22 years old, and starting less than half the season, Rudy posted 8.4 points and 9.5 boards to go along with 2.3 blocks per game. Why oh why does he have to be in the Western Conference?

Hassan Whiteside bounced around the league for two years before departing for a two year career overseas. He returned with a bang on Miami’s injury depleted roster this season and it looks like he’ll stick now that he’s got his head on (somewhat) straight. Prone to temper tantrums, Whiteside averaged a double-double (11.8 points and 10.0 rebounds and don’t forget his 2.6 blocks) in 48 games with the Heat, starting 32 of them. If he can avoid dumb things like this, he’ll be a force for Miami in the future.

Robert Covington only had 34 minutes of NBA experience prior to this season. He played 70 games in 2014-15 for the 76ers. But Covington made the most of his opportunity, and seems to have found a place in the Sixers future being groomed as their sixth man off the bench. Putting up 13.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game is nothing to scoff at in less than 28 minutes per game, and the 6-9 small forward is dangerous from three. He’s a player to watch as the Sixers may finally be trying to move towards relevance in GM Sam Hinkie’s master plan.

Coach of the Year

1. Mike Budenholzer
2. Brad Stevens
3. Steve Kerr

This award to me means which Coach got the most out of what roster was given to him, not necessarily who the actual best coach is (*cough cough* Popovich). Taking the Eastern Conference by storm in just his second year as Head Coach, and even somewhat limping to the finish line, Budenholzer took the Hawks from last season’s 8th seed to this year’s 60-win (+22 from last year) 1st seed.  When your major addition is Thabo Sefolosha (granted whose injury might hinder the Atlanta depth enough to hold the Hawks back from an NBA Finals run), and you make that much of an improvement, the Coach is to be celebrated.

Brad Stevens also made something out of (a whole lot of) nothing with the Celtics this year. But his efforts in my estimation won’t garner any playoff wins this season. He’s an early favorite for next year.

It’s impossible not to have Kerr, who broke all kinds of rookie head coaching records this season with the Warriors, at least on the ballot somewhere. At 67 wins, Kerr took a successful team that he inherited and took them to heights that nobody foreshadowed. The true measure of his ability however is untested. That will be gauged by these playoffs, and it’s truly unfortunate that we cannot have a postseason recount if the Warriors live up to their regular season billing.