Joe's 2011-12 NBA Regular Season Awards

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.

Solving (Most of) the NBA lockout is easy!

According to ESPN and the rest of people “in the know,” the odds of there being an NBA season starting up in a few months are nil. Evidently, the players and the owners are extremely far apart on reaching a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the future. The owners want shorter contracts, a larger share of revenue, and a fixed salary cap since they are claiming to be bleeding money. They also want the fixed cap to avoid the creation of superteams like the Miami Heat and to keep their own star players from leaving and destroying their market. The players don’t want a change in the system, but are willing to compromise a bit on some of these issues.

Both sides are being slightly ridiculous. Yes, the owners should want to stop the creation of superteams. It is bad for the NBA if the star players are on only a handful of teams, leaving 25 other teams that range from mediocre to terrible. Look at the NFL - parity can be a good thing. But for the owners to cry about being taken advantage of by the players is profoundly dumb. The owners were the ones who set a minimum market value for Mike Miller at $5 million a year for five guaranteed seasons, or signed an injured Elton Brand to a five year, $80 million contract. To be fair, the players have to realize that even though it is unfair that they should have to compromise and receive less compensation going forward because the owners are too stupid to spend wisely, things do have to change. There are too many average players receiving too much guaranteed money for too long a period of time. One would also assume that the players realize that the superteam concept is a serious issue that needs to be addressed going forward, as it puts too many teams at a competitive and financial disadvantage.

The owners want a hard salary cap, as opposed to the flexible cap set at $58 million last season and a luxury tax threshold of $70 million. In prior seasons, a team could spend $58 million on player salary and could go over that limit in order to resign its own players. Then, if the salaries went over $70 million the team would have to pay a dollar for every dollar that they were over that threshold. If you were wondering, this is why there are so man sign and trades, as opposed to just a regular signing. When LeBron James announced he was going to Miami, he didn’t directly sign with the Heat. He re-signed with Cleveland in order to get the maximum amount of guaranteed years and better salary and then the Cavs traded him to Miami. This allowed the Cavs to get some draft picks and compensation in return for losing LeBron, and it allowed Miami to go over its salary cap to sign him. This is how nearly every team lands a free agent.

In the future, the owners want the cap to be $40 million, no exceptions. The players are obviously opposed, as it would lead to considerably less pay for them. This is where a solution is easy, if both sides would quit being babies. Under the current rules, a team can go over the salary cap to sign its own players and are allowed to offer more guaranteed years and more money per season. The problem lies in the flexible cap and the sign and trades. The sign and trade negates the concept of a team being able to offer a better deal than the rest of the league. It also allows larger teams like New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles to pick up nearly anyone they want because they bring in enough revenue that paying the luxury tax doesn’t matter, as they can still turn a profit either way. Teams like Charlotte, New Orleans, and Sacramento can’t compete with that and this needs to change. There are two ways to do this.

The first would be contraction, an idea I support. The NBA should eliminate two teams (at least) from each conference and put all the players on waivers. This would cut a large chunk of that disputed $300 million loss the owners claim to have faced. Get rid of the Hornets, Timberwolves, Bobcats, and the Raptors. It helps to solve the problem of teams being diluted because of expansion and cuts losses from the bottom line. Besides, are there normal people really clamoring to see the Bobcats and T-Wolves on TNT or ESPN? No, but contracting the teams and disbursing the players means that you could potentially see someone like Kevin Love grabbing boards and catching passes from John Wall or Chris Paul lobbing alley oops to Blake Griffin. You could see Demarcus Cousins running and gunning with Steve Nash or Tyreke Evans playing the shooting guard off Deron Williams. Automatically the teams that add these guys become more watchable and therefore more profitable.

The other way is to have a hard cap and eliminate the sign and trade if it puts a team over the cap. This cap should be somewhere between the owners’ proposal of $40 and the last season’s $70 million threshold. Let’s split the difference and set a hard cap of $55 million, not far off from the salary cap last season. Keep the Bird Rights, where a team can resign its own player even if it puts them over the salary cap, but eliminate them on a sign and trade. If Carmelo wants to go to New York, he has to sign for the most the Knicks can offer and not sign the maximum allowed from when he was in Denver, then having that transferred via trade. If a player wants a max deal and wants to go somewhere else, too bad. This would eliminate the superteam dilemma from a financial aspect. Now, if two stars wanted to team up together they would have to give up money and show that they are actually serious about winning. LeBron James would have to sacrifice and accept the best Miami can offer, instead of taking a pay cut from $20 million to $17 million a season by doing a sign and trade and taking a little less so that the he can claim to be unselfish. If a player really cares about winning and playing for a champion above all else, let’s see them leave $15 million a year for three to five years on the table. A $55 million cap gives players a lot more than the $40 million cap (an average of $1.25 million for a team composed of 15 players), but also negates throwing out massive contracts to schlubs like Eddy Curry or Erick Dampier.

A punitive cap and blaming the players is a bad move by the owners. People pay to see Kobe Bryant or Derrick Rose, not to see Jerry Buss or Jerry Reinsdorf. If teams are losing money, it is more often than not on the part of poor business planning and financial management, rather than greedy players sucking teams dry. The only legitimate gripe is that small market teams are hurt by the luxury tax and the movement for superstars teaming up in larger markets. But the owners are claiming to be taking it on the chin as businessmen and are choosing to blame player greed for that. In reality, the players are just taking advantage of a system set up by the owners. Wouldn’t that be considered smart business, not some kind of malicious dealing? If anything, the owners should be embarrassed with themselves for acting like spendthrifts and doling out stupid contracts left and right. While some changes in salary structure are necessary, as there are a lot of players seriously overpaid, casting all the blame on the players and trying to punish them is not a good faith negotiation and for that the owners should be castigated.

Changing gears abruptly, the other part of the lockout equation is revenue sharing, a concept I don’t fully
know all the particulars of and am not nearly egotistical enough to solve. All I can say is that both sides need to sit down and get a deal done, lest they lose all momentum from one of the most exciting and memorable seasons in the NBA since I started watching over 20 years ago. If the 2011-2012 season ends up getting cancelled, both sides will only have themselves to blame.