The NBA regular season has finally and mercifully come to a close. There have been many surprises this year like Linsanity, the Spurs once again being the 1 seed out West, and Dwight Howard evidently having no soul. Now we stand just one little day away from the Playoffs, so like all people not good enough to actually be in the NBA we must declare winners for the regular season awards.
Rookie of the Year: Kyrie Irving, Guard, Cleveland Cavaliers - Good for the Cavs, man. You can’t match losing a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron James, but Irving will be a pretty good player and most likely will be an All Star. If the Cavs can put a good team around him he will be able to make them a playoff team for sure and the assist numbers will go up. Though he’s missed time this year he has proven to be a leader on the floor and if he can stay healthy he will be the guy in Cleveland for a few years until he hosts a television special and leaves. If Ricky Rubio had stayed healthy and gotten the Timberwolves into the playoffs I would say he gets this award, but alas the Basketball Gods can be cruel sometimes and robbed us of that reality. Irving has had a great rookie year but it will be interesting to see if his health woes from college and now the pros stick with him.
Most Improved Player: Nikola Pekovic, Center, Minnesota Timberwolves - While my brother is may have won our NBA fantasy championship, I deserve a trophy for making this pick up during the season. In only 26 minute per, he put up 14 and 7. He has had absolutely beast games during the year but has also battled injuries. Either way, this was a guy who started the season behind Darko Milicic in the rotation and now starts. They thought freaking Darko was better than him, man. Ryan Anderson is also worthy of this award, but I take Pekovic since it is much more unexpected that he has had such a good year. I’m also partial to centers who can get it done down low rather than big men who have to camp out and shoot threes to get his points so I am more impressed with Pekovic.
Defensive Player of the Year: Tyson Chandler, Center, New York Knicks - I guess somebody should throw him a bone for being the only guy on that team who plays defense. Amar’e Stoudemire has never been a particularly good defender, and despite his newfound dedication to defense Carmelo Anthony has never exactly been known for anything other than being able to score. Chandler holds it down on defense for New York and when he misses games it instantly becomes a worry as to how anybody will be able to stop the opposing team from putting points on the board. People compare what Chandler has done in NY this year to what Kevin Garnett did in Boston in 08 by transforming the culture of the team and making them focus on defense. I don’t agree with that completely since Garnett completely changed his style of play and was responsible for the creation of an elite team while Chandler is doing what he always does and has guided the Knicks to stay a few games over .500. I don’t mean to take away from what he does though. All of a sudden the Knicks aren’t this soft, candyass team down low. You have to be wary about going into the paint and you have to actually fight for rebounds since Chandler can boss people and has also inspired the other guys on the Knicks to hustle more. Chandler doesn’t get a ton of blocks or anything like he’s Dwight Howard, but the mere fact he is in the paint is enough to throw shots off course. He was the big reason Dallas could play defense and win last year, and now he’s inspired the Knicks to fight on the defensive end for the first time in years.
Sixth Man of the Year: James Harden, Guard, Oklahoma City Thunder - Here is a guy who people have been talking about a lot lately as somebody who could go start on any other team and be an absolute animal. He scores so efficiently and is the ultimate spark a great team needs off their bench. He is having a career year and has proven to be every bit as important to the team as Durant and Westbrook. Look at the Thunder’s recent loss to the Lakers. After Harden nearly died from Ron Artest’s brutal elbow the Thunder didn’t have that same spark to help with the scoring and defense and they ended up losing in double OT. Without Harden the Thunder are not even close to being the same team. He used to be furious about this role but he has since grown to appreciate it and is now thriving. Harden dropped a career-high 40 points on Phoenix the other night and was staring at a big role in the playoffs until Artest murdered him.
Coach of the Year: Tom Thibodeau, Chicago Bulls - Gregg Popovich is also deserving but really nobody has had to overcome as much as Thibs. Last year Chicago won 62 games despite significant injuries to Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, their starting front court. This year the Bulls are once again the 1 seed in the East and were one of two teams (Popovich’s Spurs being the other) to finish with 50 wins despite even more injures. Reigning MVP Derrick Rose has missed significant time, Rip Hamilton has barely played, Luol Deng hasn’t been as effective as usual since he clearly needs surgery on his wrist, and CJ Watson has been nursing a few injuries and missed time. So that’s three injured starters and one of the most important reserves. In spite of this the Bulls have been able to scrap and fight their way to victory time and time again. This shortened season has been absolutely brutal and has taken its toll on a lot of teams, and there have been so many times when it looked like the Bulls were done and the injuries would be too much to overcome but somehow they keep winning. Sure Carlos Boozer has actually played well this year and all, but the main reason behind all of this is the fact Tom Thibodeau’s defense-first mindset has taken hold on the roster and keeps them in games always. Nobody else has had to deal with ⅗ of their starting line up being out or depleted, and not everybody could face that and still have a winning team that could win a championship.
Most Valuable Player: Kevin Durant, Forward, Oklahoma City Thunder - I was thinking LeBron for a while, even when I first started writing this thing, but really I can’t go with LBJ since it just doesn’t seem right. I will explain that in a little bit. This year you could make the case for Durant, Kobe, LeBron, or even Chris Paul since it is all pretty wide open, and really there isn’t much to say when making the case for anybody since I feel this year hasn’t seen any particular standouts aside from LeBron filling up a stat line in historic fashion. Durant has had yet another stellar season and is still the guy in OKC. It has now become apparent that he can co-exist with Russell Westbrook and together they can form a devastating one-two punch. Westbrook has taken on more of a scoring load and is starting to share the spotlight more this year, but it is still Durant’s team through and through and he is the leader. Durant has no fear taking over in the fourth quarter and has inspired that team for years. He is shooting a career-best 49.5% from the field, he is having a career year in rebounding and assists, and his scoring is back up as well and he’s this year’s scoring champion. He has still been a killer this year, starting off the season right with that sick game winner over Dallas. It seemed like he took a step backwards last year after everybody thought he was poised to be a destroyer, but he is right back on track. Of course Durant won’t win and LeBron will since everybody gushes over the numbers only, but it is the little things that count and though some late-season struggles have hit OKC, this team has been poised to bust loose for a couple years now and it seems very likely that this is the time. We haven’t had to spend countless hours thinking about Durant’s drive or his focus or if he’s ready to finally make a statement, Durant just goes out and proves time and time again that he’s a great player and a great teammate. Durant inspires his team to win and they all believe in him, but with LeBron it comes across as the Heat all say they believe in him so he’ll man up and play better in the playoffs. This isn’t high school and I don’t like having to baby somebody to give him confidence regardless of how amazing his skill set may be.
LeBron is going to win this award but I still took the time to put together a case against him as only three people have multiple MVP awards with no title: James, Karl Malone, and Steve Nash. They all have two, and I can’t get behind LBJ with a third right now. Who can forget that even in the All Star game where nothing really matters, LBJ was afraid to take over in the clutch and ignored an open Melo to throw that ridiculous cross-court pass to Dwyane Wade that got stolen and cost the East the game, then looked like he wanted to cry since Kobe asked him what's wrong with him? Sure LBJ has more confidence this year, but he still openly shirks responsibility late in games to Dwyane Wade. I can’t get behind him as King no matter how much he says he’s changed. I am not cool with saying LeBron deserves to be a three-time MVP yet since I still am not certain he is the most valuable guy on that team. Sam Smith said it, a ton of people say it, and you can just tell by watching a Heat game that in the first half you have to beware of LeBron, but in the second half that is when you worry about Wade since that’s when he goes to work. I am not ready to crown LeBron for adding that ugly post-game and cutting out the three-pointer from his game since these are things he should have done back in Cleveland. It isn’t just about statistics to me, it is about the intangibles and it seems like Wade is the guy who is still counted on to drag this team out of danger when the game is on the line. LeBron fills up his stat sheet and is an amazing player, but he isn’t the player of most value since Wade has to do the dirty work at the biggest moments. Obviously LeBron is the greatest athlete to ever set foot on a basketball court, and his two MVP awards are a credit to that skill, but I don’t think he’s the one this year. I don’t think he’s totally undeserving at all, but I won’t agree with it when he does win in a few weeks.
So that’s that. Playoffs start Saturday and since this crazy lockout schedule has left so many teams nursing injuries, people seem to think there will be a lot of upsets. I’m not sure, and I probably won’t bother writing predictions, but each series will be pretty competitive and intense so I’m looking forward to it.
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