NBA Season Awards

The hectic lock out shortened NBA regular season has come to an end, but before we move on to the postseason, let's take a look back at this season and hand out some awards.  Here are my picks for the regular season awards.

MVP

He may not be the most popular figure amongst NBA fans in the post-Decision era, but there is no doubting that LeBron James is the best all around player in the league.  For much of the season he was on pace to break Michael Jordan's record for single season PER (31.71).  A late season slide pushed his efficiency level down a bit, but his 30.80 mark was still by far the best in the league.  Amazingly, it's only the third best mark of his career, as he's twice passed the 31.00 mark (MJ is the only other player to do so, as those two make up the top 5 on the all-time list).

James finished third in the league in scoring (27.1) to go along with 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game in leading Miami to the second seed in the East.  He was also a major contributor as one of the league's best wing defenders on the other end of the court. 

His late season swoon will likely make the choice a bit more interesting, with scoring champion Kevin Durant likely stealing some votes.  Durant may hold a slight edge on the offensive end, but LeBron's superior defense pushes him to the top. 

Chris Paul deserves a lot of credit for turning around the Clippers franchise by changing the culture of the team and turning them into a legitimate contender.  Kobe Bryant battled through injuries all season, but still managed to lead the Lakers to another division title while falling just short of another scoring title.  Rajon Rondo earned his first career assists title, taking the torch from Steve Nash, while fueling a drastic second half turn around for the Celtics that has put them in position to be a surprise contender.  With Nash's Suns narrowly missing the playoffs, Rondo sneaks in to steal the final spot on my ballot.

Kevin Love deserves to be mentioned based just on his eye popping numbers, which clearly make him one of the league's elite, but his Timberwolves failed to make the playoffs, which holds him off the list.  Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade and Manu Ginobili all put up impressive numbers, but missed too many games with injury to be considered.   Dwight Howard sat out the last few games of the season as well, but that's not all that kept him off the list.  Despite his great numbers, he was on cruise control for much of the season, put the entire franchise through the drama of speculation regarding his future, tried to get his coach fired and then ultimately quit on his team.  Fair to say he won't be making the list this year.

MVP Ballot
1. LeBron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Chris Paul
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Rajon Rondo

Rookie of the Year

This was shaping up to be a fantastic race between top overall pick Kyrie Irving and European sensation Ricky Rubio before a devastating knee injury robbed Rubio of the last third of the season.  That paved the way for Irving to run away with this award.  18.5 points and 5.4 assists as a rookie playing on a team devoid of much talent around him is enough to show he earned it.

ROY Ballot
1. Kyrie Irving
2. Ricky Rubio
3. Kenneth Faried
4. Isiah Thomas
5. Kawhi Leonard

Defensive Player of the Year

Tyson Chandler was the defensive anchor for last year's champion Dallas Mavericks.  This year he brought his rim protecting talents to New York to help transform the Knicks into a top 5 team in defensive efficiency (98.4) despite being surrounded by star teammates like Carmelo Anthony and Amre Stoudemire that treat defense as an afterthought.  Chandler's 9.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game aren't overwhelming for his position, but his presence in the paint goes beyond the box scores. 

Kevin Garnett deserves a nod for his rejuvenated effort in the second half of the season after shifting to the center position in Boston's small ball line-up, but his slow start when he looked old and tired through the Celtic's sub par first half holds him back.  Serge Ibaka led the league in blocks (3.7) by a mile, which gives him some consideration.  LeBron James remains among the elite in terms of wing defenders.  Then there's Dwight Howard, who has run away with this award the past few seasons, but drops in this vote due to the aforementioned issues.

DPOY Ballot
1. Tyson Chandler
2. Kevin Garnett
3. LeBron James
4. Serge Ibaka
5. Dwight Howard

Sixth Man

James Harden may come off the bench for the Thunder, but he's also the third best player on one of the league's best young teams.  They say it's not how you start, but how you finish.  Well in the closing minutes of a close game you can count on Harden to be out on the floor.  Averaging just under 17 points in over 31 minutes per game off the bench, Harden provides some much needed scoring power once Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook check out of the game to get a rest.  Outside of their dynamic All-Star duo, Harden is the team's only other reliable scoring option.  Give him extra credit for having the league's best beard.

6th Man Ballot
1. James Harden
2. Jason Terry
3. Lou Williams
4. Manu Ginobili
5. Jamal Crawford

Most Improved Player
The popular choice will probably end up being Jeremy Lin, who took the league by storm by coming out of nowhere to transform himself from a guy at the end of the bench struggling to hang on to a spot on the roster to a bona fide star.  Yet I just can't bring myself to give the award away to a player that really only had an impact for a few weeks of the season.  It was halfway through the year before he got any meaningful playing time, then his season was cut short due to injury.

Instead, I'm giving the award to Ryan Anderson.  Orlando's Power Forward has always been known as a sharpshooting stretch 4 that can knock down 3's at a near 40% clip, but this year he became a more complete player.  He easily set career highs in scoring (16.1), rebounding (7.7) and led the league in 3 pointers made.  The Magic rely heavily on their ability to hit open shots when Howard is double teamed in the paint and nobody took advantage of that better than Anderson.

MIP Ballot
1. Ryan Anderson
2. Jeremy Lin
3. Nikola Pekovic
4. Ersan Ilyasova
5. Goran Dragic

Coach of the Year
This season was tougher than usual for coaches due to the condensed season.  A packed schedule left little practice time available and most teams had to be more conscious of managing their player's minutes.  No coach did that better than the Spurs Gregg Popovich.  Despite limiting the minutes, or in some cases sitting out, his veteran players like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, the Spurs still managed to climb their way to the top seed in the West once again.  No team in the league enters the postseason on a hotter role than the Spurs.  What's most impressive is that Popovich has found a way to blend his veteran core with an infusion of young talent.  These aren't the boring, defensive minded Spurs you are used to.  These Spurs led the league in offensive efficiency (108.5) while playing at the league's 7th fastest pace, which is unheard of for this team in the Duncan era.

Tom Thibodeau of course deserves his fair share of credit for getting the Bulls to the top seed in the East, despite playing without reigning MVP Derrick Rose for about a third of the season.  The architect of their stifling defense (1st in defensive efficiency - 95.3) should be credited for that (which also happened to be a big part of my argument against Rose winning the MVP last year).  Doc Rivers also deserves mention in this race for turning Boston's sinking ship around in the second half and leading the Celtics to another division title despite an aging roster and a devastating string of injuries that most expected would derail them during a hellacious stretch of their schedule late in the season.

COY Ballot
1. Gregg Popovich
2. Tom Thibodeau
3. Doc Rivers
4. Frank Vogel
5. Tyrone Corbin

All-NBA 1st Team
Guards: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant
Forwards: LeBron James, Kevin Durant

Center: Andrew Bynum

All-NBA 2nd Team

Guards: Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook
Forwards: Kevin Love, Blake Griffin
Center: Dwight Howard

All-NBA 3rd Team
Guards: Dwayne Wade, Tony Parker
Forwards: Josh Smith, Paul Pierce
Center: Al Jefferson