This has been one of the craziest seasons in NBA history. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you hear that every year and if you hear something every year, how can it still be “crazy?”
For starters, there’s no favorite to win the NBA championship right now. Now, I’m not saying that we don’t have a decent idea as to who will win and can win, but by my count, there are no less than seven teams that can win it all. Of those, you have to play rock/paper/scissors to decide winners of any given seven game series.
For instance, the Grizzlies wouldn’t mind seeing the Thunder, Lakers or Clippers too much, they could still lose, but Memphis matches up well with them, but I don’t think they want anything to do with the Spurs or Bulls. I also think they match up exceptionally well with the Miami Heat, if they get that far.
The Bulls have giant hurdles in the shape of the Heat and Thunder, but match-up with the Spurs, Lakers, or whoever else. This year, more than ever, the Finals will depend on who plays who.
For instance, I don’t think the Celtics can win it all, but they would be a tough out for the Heat and Bulls in the east and would have more playoff chops than anyone out west except the Lakers and Spurs. If Boston saw one of those teams in the Finals, that would be ton of fun.
But we’ll see how that unwinds as the playoffs go on. It would be foolish to try and predict any of that right now.
However, the regular season awards? Much easier and timely. Without further ado:
MVP- Lebron James:
One of the most interesting subplots of Lebron’s Decision in the summer of 2010 has been people rushing to discredit James’ accomplishments and ability.
Did he take the easy way out by choosing to play in Miami with his buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh? Maybe, maybe not. After all, if we learned anything in the 2011 Finals, it’s that role players matter. Tyson Chandler had been given up on by three franchises but turned into a franchise center in Dallas and New York with his ability to transform a team’s defense. Deshawn Stevenson was a forgotten man until he and Shawn Marion became Wade and James stoppers on the way to Dallas’ first world championship.
Chicago has the best record in the NBA this year after missing last season’s MVP and their best player Derrick Rose for 26 games. That has a lot to do with Head Coach Tom Thibodeau, but also the Bulls’ deep roster. They’re more talented from 1-13 than any team in the league. Luol Deng did make his first all-star team this year and Joakim Noah’s numbers always consider a look, but nobody in the league save for the Grizzlies can bring a talented guy like Taj Gibson off the bench with The Turkish Hammer, Omer Asik, making up a front line that would start in some places.
I say all that to say this: as awesome as Kevin Durant has been this season (and he has been) Lebron has been considerably more impressive, with a less talented team overall.
You may think that statement is blasphemy, but let’s take a deeper look: everyone knows about the Heat’s big three, but isn’t Russel Westbrook as good as Dwyane Wade? I know he hasn’t won a championship yet and has caught a lot of flak in certain circles, but he made an All-NBA team last year. Westbrook is a great, great player. Even if you think that Wade is better, the difference is negligible at best, right? Maybe you value Chris Bosh a little higher than Harden, but again, they’re both clearly great players.
But now look at Oklahoma City’s other players. Serbe Ibaka would automatically start for Miami. In fact, any of the Thunder’s bigs would start at center for the Heat. The Thunder have long-distance gunner Daequan Cook on their team, as well. Thabo Sefolosha isn’t anything too special, but he’s as good a player as Shane Battier is for the Heat.
Basically, what this vote came down to for me was who carried the biggest load from night-to-night. Durant and Lebron are the two best players in the league right now for my money. Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard and Kobe are all fantastic players and you can win a championship with any of them, but if I’m watching a one-on-one game, I want to see Lebron v. Durant.
So forget trying to decide who’s better, that’s not what this is about. This is about most valuable, and Lebron is the most valuable player in the league this season. The difference between the two was the fact that Lebron had to be awesome every night, or the Heat were going to lose to any quality opponent. Yes, he had D. Wade and Bosh, but nobody else in the rotation that you could really count on. Durant plays with two high-octane guards who compliment him perfectly. Durant rarely had any off nights, but when he did, the Thunder still rolled on, if Lebron had a bad night, the Heat lost and he had to hear about how terrible he is for the next 24-48 hours.
Call Lebron what you want, whether it be a front-runner, thin-skinned, fake or whatever else, but there’s no denying that he’s the best basketball player on Earth. That point was proven time after time this season.
6th Man Of The Year- James Harden:
Not much question about this one as Harden wrapped this up around the 15th of January, scoring in droves for a championship contender.
The really impressive thing about Harden’s campaign is how much of a runaway winner he was in a season in which the 6th man really made a comeback whether it be Philly’s “Night Shift”, Chicago’s “Bench Mob” or a guy like Manu Ginobili who really started the 6th man revolution a few years ago for the Spurs.
Also, I’d like to speak for everyone here at Beale Street Bears when I say we hope Harden will be alright and return for the playoffs after that vicious elbow from Metta World Peace on Sunday.
Coach Of The Year- Lionel Hollins:
Oh? You think I’m being a homer because I’ve seen more of the Grizzlies this season? You think that the coach of a 5 seed shouldn’t be looked at for a prestigious postseason award? You think that because the Bulls and Spurs have a better record than Memphis that Tom Thibodeau or Gregg Popovich deserve extra consideration?
Normally, you’d be right, but let’s be honest, the Spurs and Bulls are loaded teams and were always going to have a better record than most other teams in the league. When you have the greatest power forward of all-time in Tim Duncan, that team could almost coach itself and when your best player lives, breathes and sleeps basketball and is so psychopathic about winning like Derrick Rose, your job as a coach gets a lot easier.
Hollins hasn’t had it quite so easy. The Grizzlies entered this season with some actual aspirations, and not even playoff aspirations, but maybe even championship aspirations. If that is logical or not, we can argue for a spell, but the players believed they could do it, and so did the fans.
When Zach Randolph went down on New Year’s Day in Chicago, many fans feared the worst. When it was decided that he would miss at least two months, there no more championship dreams. There were barely any playoff dreams. Many fans just hoped to stay relatively close to the pack so that they could sneak in as an 8 seed for the second year in a row and maybe win a game or two there.
The Grizzlies traded for rarely utilized Marreese Speights from Philadelphia, plugged him into Randolph’s spot and rather than struggle without their franchise guy, they flourished, going 38-23 since he left that game against the Bulls.
I know what you’re saying. You’re saying that should prove that Thibodeau had a better season than Hollins because he lost the MVP of the league last season for 26 games to various ailments and still ended up with the best record in the league. That’s well and good, unless you believe that Rose is the only reason the Bulls are any good, which is untrue. First of all, the Bulls are the best defensive team in the league, by far. Do they struggle to score without Rose at times? Sure they do. Do other teams have trouble scoring without their best player on the floor? Of course they do. Thibs is a defensive-minded coach and no matter who his point guard is, that will always be what his teams are built on. Second, the Bulls have other players besides Derrick Rose. He’s their best player and nobody would deny that, but the Bulls have another all-star in Luol Deng and a borderline all-star in Joakim Noah. The Bulls wouldn’t be title contenders without Rose, but they’d still be pretty good.
No other playoff team from last spring saw as much roster turnover since the end of last year aside from the Mavericks. The Grizzlies traded or allowed to leave Greivis Vasquez, Xavier Henry and Ish Smith while welcoming Gilbert Arenas, Josh Selby, Dante Cunningham, Quincy Pondexter and Speights to the team. Add in the fact that the Grizzlies lost super sub Darrell Arthur before the season ended and that’s a lot of turnover for a team that seemed to be on it’s way up. Hollins being able to acclimate and change his rotations on the fly was huge for the Grizzlies, especially with no training camp.
Quite simply, the Grizzlies’ bench went from the worst in the league by almost any statistical analysis in 2010 to a position of strength for them in 2012. A lot of that has to do with the Grizzlies importing talented players, but don’t forget about the guy that got everyone to buy in. Lionel Hollins is the coach of the year.
Rookie Of The Year- Kyrie Irving:
Much like Harden and the 6th man of the year, this section was barely worth writing as Irving took Cleveland, who had the worst record in the league last year, to a fringe playoff team overnight. It’s not just about his stats either, even though he was fantastic. It was just his effect on his teammates, he made them better. If there was any question about his abilities, they were answered when Irving went down and the Cavs fell off completely, sinking to the bottom of the Central division.
Ricky Rubio is the only other candidate and while Minnesota also fell apart without him, Rubio at least had Kevin Love, a top 10 player, picking up his slack every night. Irving had Anderson Varejao. As good as Rubio is and will be in the future, Irving’s rookie campaign was too good.
Defensive Player Of The Year- Tony Allen:
I may have been swayed by some slight Grizzlies bias here, I want to admit that up front. I realize that Andre Iguodala and Luol Deng are just as good defending opposing perimeter players as Tony, but they’re not noticeably better and at some point you have to pick one, so I went with T.A. If you prefer Iguodala or Deng, I’d have no issue with it.
At the end of the day, the West has Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and countless others and Allen has taken his turns guarding them all at some point or another. In the East, you have Lebron, Wade, Rose and Pierce, but outside of them, no real explosive perimeter scorer to speak of. When you consider that Lebron and Wade are on the same team, that takes one more away from the pool. Since the west has better perimeter guys, and Allen was just as good and had just as much of an impact on his team, you have to vote for Allen, right?
Dwight Howard would have also gotten consideration, but he missed too many games and sulked his way through what could be his last Orlando season. Also, there aren’t as many quality centers in the game as there are perimeter guys. In the east, Joakim Noah or Roy Hibbert are probably the second-best options at center, neither of whom would you consider offensive threats.
Those are my award. Like ’em, love ’em, hate ’em? Tell me about it in the comments or send me an e-mail at bealestreetbears@gmail.com.