Okay, let’s get the end of year awards out of the way. The
ballots are all in, but for some reason the NBA is not telling us who won until
two months from now. You know how MLB is the only sport that waits an
excruciating amount of time to tell us who won, draining all interest and angst
from knowing? The NBA is copying this and denying us the massive “pissed off”
ness in the first round from whoever doesn’t win between Westbrook and Harden.
Might as well start right there.
Most Valuable Player:
I am going to cheat. I am voting for Harden but the MVP is
Kawhi Leonard. He plays defense, all the time. Kawhi has upped his scoring
average every year of his career, by 4 points this year over his All NBA
performance last year. Kawhi has the most wins of the 4 folks seriously up for
this award. His team lost the greatest power forward of all time last year, and
didn’t miss a beat. They won 60 games, again. He had numerous “moments”. Kawhi
won’t win though, because defense isn’t sexy. I would be ecstatic if he did.
Assuming this comes down to Westbrook and Harden, I’m voting
for Harden. Harden took a team with a similar preseason prediction to OKC’s and
won almost ten more games than Westbrook did. He made the whole machine go,
with a new coach and several new players. Harden had more total points scored
and created than Westbrook. The Rockets are contenders, and OKC really isn’t.
Honestly to me this isn’t close. Westbrook’s triple double stats are great,
much respect. But this is like Nash over Kobe ten years ago. I stand by that
decision, and the same logic applies here.
Side note, I’d have Curry over Lebron for the 4th
spot. Curry’s stats are about what they were two years ago when they won,
Lebron’s team imploded in the second half of the season, and Curry’s team won
67 games for the third straight season with some tough depth issues and missing
his next best player for a quarter of the season. Curry hit 300 3s in a down
season. Give the man respect.
Defensive player of the year:
-I am torn between Kawhi, Draymond, and Gobert. Kawhi remains
the man I am most scared of, the player if I had to defend someone from scoring
a basket to save my life I’d call. But his advanced stats are weird and he’s
probably decreased his defense 5% this year while upping his offense 20%.
Gobert probably deserves it most this year specifically. He’s a monster. I feel
like Draymond is going to win it and probably should have sometime over the
last few years. I’ll take Gobert, Draymond, Kawhi in that order.
Rookie of the year:
-It’s Saric. I hate that, and that comes from someone who
actually really likes Dario. That’s my guy in 2K. But his season wouldn’t get
all rookie first team in some years. But he had a full log of games, impacted
his team, and facilitates actually scoring the ball and making others better.
Brogdan was my second. He was very solid, and contributed to a playoff team
which has value for me. But he more kept the fort tidy than built it up. Embiid
is first in a per game basis so far and away over either of them, but 31 games
just doesn’t cut it, especially because in some ways he’s a third year player.
Sixth Man of the Year:
-Andre Iguodala. It was Eric Gordon but he played in a
pattern where I don’t think he was a true sixth man, and he trailed off
anyways. Iggy came on strong the back half of the season. To me, the Warriors
are THE WARRIORS when Iggy is doing his thing. I can’t wait to see it full time
in the playoffs again.
Most Improved Player:
-Giannis. Let’s just move on.
Coach of the Year:
-It’s Mike D’Antoni. NY and LA were bad stops where he couldn’t
do his thing. In Houston he could do his thing and Harden went from a selfish
scoring guard to doubling his assist total and finishing top 2 in MVP at worst
as the distributor for a top 10 all-time offense. Much respect to Pop and Spo.
I don’t like Erik that much, but what he did this year was great.
Executive of the Year:
-Daryl. Come on, the coach and Gordon/Anderson. He remade a
culture that was positive and made it electric, and removed Dwight’s stink to
make it happen.
All NBA:
1st team-
Westbrook
Harden
Kawhi
Lebron
Gobert – Wins over full stats
2nd team-
Curry
Thomas
Giannis
Durant – I was so close to the missed games pushing him to
the third team. But the last three games helped him get to 62 total, and his
defense and general game helped the best team win 67 games overall. Career high
in rebounds and blocks.
Anthony Davis – Still giving him the benefit of the doubt
these are not empty stats.
3rd team-
Wall – Tough for him not to be second team, great year.
DeRozan – Respect to a top tier team that was kept afloat
while Lowry was out. I know the advanced stats don’t love him, but great year. Respect
to Brad Beal and Klay Thompson.
Butler – A monster.
Draymond – Defense and bringing it every night. Respect to
Gordon Hayward. Not much respect to Paul George (got to bring it all year my
friend).
Gasol – Defense and wins count folks, and he stretched his
game out to 3.
Okay, here we go for round 1!
East:
1. Celts over 8. Bulls in 5 games
-Prime time Wade/Rondo/Butler are going to be more annoying
that the Celtics are going to want, but the depth isn’t there and spacing is
going to be issue quickly here.
2. Cavs over 7. Pacers in 5 games
-Paul George is going to not love Lebron in about a week. And
then going to not love missing 40 million dollars a few weeks after that.
3. Raptors over 6. Bucks in 5 games
-I feel bad for this matchup: the Bucks could have made hay
elsewhere. This is a good matchup for the Raptors and they should quickly take
care of business.
4. Wizards over 5. Hawks in 6 games
-The Wizards can do this the easy way (if Atlanta is not
healthy) or the hard way (if Atlanta is ready to go), but overall the talent
difference in the backcourt is too much.
West:
1. Warriors over 8. Blazers
– sweep
-If Nurkic was healthy, maybe Blazers make it more
interesting. Lilliard and McCollum are great and the class of most backcourt matchups
around the league. Golden State is the one that outclasses them. Oh, and then
Durant versus Evan Turner. This team is almost unfair.
2. Spurs over 7. Grizzlies – sweep
-More like last year than 4 years ago. Grizzlies just can’t
score in this series.
3. Rockets over 6. Thunder – 5 games
-I really believe the lack of spacing and lack of scoring for
the Thunder will rear its head in this series. The Rockets can create its
offense just fine, but once some scheming is done for Westbrook the OKC offense
will falter.
5. Jazz over 4. Clippers – 7 games
-I am really excited to watch this. I am worried a bit because
of the health of Hood and Favors, but the Jazz are a nice mix of young
(Hayward, Gobert) and experienced (Joe Johnson, Diaw, Hill). The Clippers find
a way to lose every year despite top flight talent. It might be time to blow
this up LA.
Title Picture:
-Golden State should be the prohibitive favorite again. I
would say the true contenders are GS, HOU, SA, CLE, and TOR. I actually might favor
TOR over CLE at this point assuming the team keeps coming together so nicely.
They are now very experienced and have added a very experienced piece in Ibaka.
Happy playoffs everyone.
