As the playoffs near (thank g-d! There's nothing like playoff basketball) its time for us to analyze the best of the best this season. Personally, the NBA is a bit crooked in handing out its awards, and for some odd reason they always tend to give it to people who don’t deserve it, or people who are media whores.
Obviously, this is not the official award list. This list is purely based on who deserves the award from an average spectators perspective, simple as that. I’m not going to take into consideration anything that happened off that court or years past, or even look at the years stats. This is purely for this year and what was done on the court. Anyways, lets get started.
MVP
Not even going to waste my time here. Lebron James is clearly this years MVP, and whoever disagrees with me clearly hasn’t watched enough basketball this year. This guy does it all, he scores, passes, rebounds…..every thing a player can do on the court this guy has essentially mastered it.
He’s a freak of nature. Every time I watch him play I ask myself how a man like this is not on steroids. At 6-8, 250 pounds, he’s probably one of the fastest players in the league and he weighs as much as a center. He gets better every year with no threshold on his potential. Did I mention he’s not even in his prime yet? Imagine four years from now…..no, I don’t want too….the possibilities are way to scary to imagine
Coach of the year
This is probably the hardest award to give out. In my opinion, the nba screws up this award so often its obscured. You cant give a coach of the year award to a ‘Mike Brown,’ he has Lebron James to do all his dirty work, to make him look good. Without Lebron, Mike would not have a winning record, so giving it to a coach with a superstar like that is pointless, but the NBA always finds a way to give undeserving coaches this award
So many coaches are worthy of this award, but three stand out the most. Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz, Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles, and Scott Brooks of the Thunder. Let me explain each coach individually
Jerry Sloan
Probably one of the most respected coaches of all time, Jerry Sloan has never won a COY award. This makes me scratch my head and wonder who the hell is behind the award choices. This man has been in Utah for generations, always praising defense first while constantly bringing in the W’s every year.
This year was no exception. He handled this Utah team like a pro that he is even with all the controversy they had going into the season. He kept boozer focused for the entire season, worked in a healthy Deron and finally got AK47 playing at the level within himself. Utah was not expected to be a top 4 seed in the wild western conference, but never doubt the tricks Jerry has up his sleeves. If Utah can make a huge push at the end of the season and finish 2nd behind the Lakers Jerry Sloan should (but because of the NBA, probably wont) finally take his long awaited reward.
Scott Skiles
Great coach, solid in all regards. No one expected anything from the Bucks this season, at most they would be fighting for a final spot in the east. Now, out of everyone’s surprise, the bucks are holding onto the 5th seed in the east and look like a favorite to host a 1st round upset.
Scott Skiles has done wonders with Brandon Jennings. A natural scorer as he is, Skiles has kept Jennings grounded as a player and developing him as a pure point guard, which is a necessity for a successful basketball club. We all know this kid could score, who knew he was so loyal to an offense. Scott also has done wonders with Bogut. A Former first round pick, he was considered a write off due to injuries but this year Bogut made a huge turnaround, probably because of the solid play from Jennings. Lets not forget how well he implemented Salmons into the lineup with their star Michael Redd injured.
In my opinion, Scott wont win the award, but he got the bucks on the map again, and I have a feeling this team will not be one n’ done after this season
Scott Brooks
Love the Thunder, they have everything to need a successful team (except a center.) Scott Brooks has done a wonderful job of getting this team to play as a group and the results have clearly shown. OKC is now fighting for a playoff spot and potentially home court in the first round in the heavily competitive western conference.
If Scott wins this award, give half the award to Durant. Its that simple. Although I love what Scott has done since he’s been the coach, Durant is simply unstoppable and when you have a player like that on a team you’re going to win more than enough games.
6th man of the year
Love this award, by far my favorite award the NBA can hand out. The 6th man is such an asset to any team and the best 6th man this year hands down has to go to Jamal Crawford. This guy has made such an impact on the Hawks this year and he did it from the get go. The Hawks were criticized when the brought Jamal in, claiming that he’s never came off the bench before and needs starter minutes to produce, and boy were those critics wrong.
Since the start of the season Jamal has been killing it off the bench and he seems to love his role in Hot-lanta. He’s finally going to the playoffs this year and maybe he can be the Hawks missing piece to actually make a push in this years playoffs.
However, knowing the NBA and how the media works, odds are they are going to give the award to Anderson Varejao because of the play he pulled against the Lakers, and if the NBA does than something is really wrong here. Sure, the man is a game changer off the bench. He’s a pest on the court and seems to get in everyone’s head, but he is not worthy of 6th man of the year.
When a player like Varejao is having an off game, its simple to replace a player like that since all he does is play defense. Just substitute another big man and your money. Compared to Jamal, the impact he has on the hawks is much more critical to the teams success. If Jamal were to get hurt, we would see the Hawks losing much more than Cleveland would if Anderson got hurt (in fact, he is hurt right now and Cleveland continues to win). That’s what this awards all about, the impact these guys have when they step on the court and not about the attention they draw from the media.
Most Improved
This one is tricky since no one this year made that big of a leap in their game to earn this award. Because of that only one person comes to mind, Kevin Durant. You may be asking my why, since this man has always been able to light up an opponent. To me, there is more to it than his scoring ability.
Again, we know Durant can score, and even though he improved on that this year, it is his leadership, smarts and consistency that to me have earned this award. This man will do great things for the NBA and for the Thunder. Last year, the exact same Thunder team couldn’t make the playoffs. But this year, with their improved Durant leading the way they are now fighting for a top seed in the west.
The team as a whole should be nominated for most improved, but since it can only go to a player, its gotta be Durant.
Defensive Player of the Year
This award, from the first day of the season will be between these two players: Ron Artest and Dwight Howard. Both are top defensive players at their respected position. Stat wise, Dwight should take this award home, but these awards should not rely on stats to decide who wins what. In order to see what I’m talking about, you must watch these two guys play.
Ron Artest was signed by L.A to play defense and he surely has done his job, except against Lebron (who is un-guardable.) He might not be like he was when he won the award back in the day, but this knuckle-head still has some juice left him in. We will see what happens in the playoffs. If he plays defense and brings the Lakers to the finals, he should win the award. Unfortunately, these are regular season awards so the playoffs don’t count. Because of that, Dwight will take this award home.
There you have it, those are my guesses for this years award races. Knowing the NBA as well as I do, they will probably try to give every award to Lebron James or any member of Cleveland. Sure, I may be a little bit bias, and I’m ok with that. Maybe ill talk about why I hate Cleveland so much as my next post, but until then.
T-T-R
