Now that the regular season has come to a close, it's time to reflect on the season and hand out some awards to players that did have a big impact on the season.
MVP
1. LeBron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Chris Paul
4. Carmelo Anthony
5. James Harden
There is only one option for the top spot on the ballot. While the other players on this list had phenomenal
Let's see - best player on the best team? Check. Miami finished with 66 wins, which was 6 wins more than the next best team. Over the past decade, only one team has won more games in a season (Dallas won 67 in '06-'07). Two teams equaled the 66 win mark in that span, with one of them being a LeBron led Cavs team (the other was the '07-'08 Celtics in the first year of the Big Three). Their lofty win total was fueled by a 27 game win streak that stands as the second longest streak ever.
Best stats? Check. LeBron led the league in PER (31.67) and it wasn't even close. He also has a comfortable lead in other advanced stats, such as Value Added and Estimated Wins Added. He finished 4th in the league in scoring (26.8) and easily could have finished higher if he weren't busy dishing out 7.3 assists per game. He also set a career high with 8 rebounds per game. He did all this while shooting much more efficiently than ever before, with a career high .565 FG%. In one stretch in February he scored 30+ points while shooting at least 60% from the field in 6 straight games - an accomplishment that had never been done by anyone before.
Most valuable? Check. This term is open to far too much interpretation, which could lead to some voters trying to diminish James' accomplishments by saying the Heat would still be great without him because they have two other All-Stars. This is the type of ignorant thinking that allowed Rose to steal the award two years ago. Yes, a team built around Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh would still be a playoff team, but they wouldn't be a 66 win juggernaut and a favorite to win their second straight title. LeBron carried the Cavs for years without an All-Star sidekick (in retrospect I think we can now all agree that Mo Williams owes his lone appearance to LeBron), so we know he's capable of making a team great on his own. Scottie Pippen once carried the Bulls to the playoffs while Michael Jordan was off on his baseball sabbatical. Does that mean MJ wasn't an MVP just because the Bulls weren't awful without him? You can't hold it against James that he has talented teammates.
LeBron is the clear choice for the award, but there are other contenders that at least deserve being mentioned in the race. Kevin Durant had the best season of his career, while joining the rare 50-40-90 club. Only five other players (Larry Bird, Steve Nash, Reggie Miller, Dirk Nowitzki and Mark Price) can claim to have hit all three of those shooting percentage marks in the same season. He was narrowly edged out for his 4th straight scoring title, which would have given him two more rare accomplishments. He would have joined Wilt Chamberlain and Jordan as the only players with 4 straight scoring titles. He also would have somehow managed to lead the league in scoring despite not even leading his own team in shots per game (queue the Russell Westbrook critics). Carmelo Anthony gets a spot on the list for leading the league in scoring (28.7), while transforming the Knicks offense with small ball lineups featuring Melo at power forward. However, he wasn't nearly as consistent or efficient as Durant, which is why KD finishes higher on my ballot.
Chris Paul remains the league's best point guard. If you disqualify Rondo for missing more than half the season, Paul easily led the league in assists (9.7). He did so while putting up nearly 17 points per game with efficient percentages and trailed only LeBron and Durant in PER. He'd rank higher than 6th in EWA if he hadn't missed 12 games, but it's hard to drop him further down the ballot considering Melo missed more than that. James Harden joins the MVP race for the first time in his career after being set free from the shadow of his superstar teammates in OKC following the pre-season trade that sent him to Houston. He immediately transformed the Rockets from a sure lottery team to a feisty playoff team. The Beard was 5th in the league in scoring and just barely missed cracking the top 10 in PER.
Other honorable mentions go to Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Stephen Curry.
Defensive Player of the Year
1. Marc Gasol
2. Paul George
3. Serge Ibaka
Defense isn't all about steals and blocks. While those are factors in evaluating defense, you have to dig deeper than the league leaders list of those categories to find the best defenders. That's where advanced stats like team defensive efficiency and NBA.com's Defensive Rating come in handy. Games and minutes played are also a factor, which is why I'm ignoring anyone that played less than 65 games or 25 minutes per game.
Gasol has become one of the game's best all around centers and serves as the backbone for the league's
Paul George flourished into an All-Star this season, in part due to his work on the defensive end, which has helped the Pacers to the league's best defense (96.6 Def Eff). His 96.0 DefRtg barely trails his teammate Roy Hibbert (95.6), but George plays nearly 10 minutes more per game. He's also responsible for locking down the opponent's best wing player every night and his 1.8 steals puts him in the top 10 in the league.
Ibaka led the league in blocks (3.0) for the second straight season and continues to improve overall on the defensive end. The third ranked Thunder defense also includes Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha, who are great defenders in their own right, but neither of them play heavy minutes. Consider that when Sefolosha sits he's typically replaced with the human turnstile, Kevin Martin, and it makes Ibaka's rim protecting skills all the more important.
A couple of older veterans deserve some praise as well. Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett remain among the best defenders in the league. Their minutes have been cut back too much to give them real consideration, but they are tough omissions given that on a per minute basis they are still two of the league's best.
Rookie of the Year
1. Anthony Davis
2. Damian Lillard
3. Andre Drummond
The rookie race is bound to be a close one between the top two candidates. Lillard will be the popular choice after his surprising rise this season, but it's the top overall pick that should (barely) edge him out. A case can be made for either candidate depending on how you look at it.
Lillard put up bigger numbers in most of the more common stats (19.0 points, 3.0 Rebounds, 6.5 assists)
compared to Davis (13.5, 8.2, 1.0), while also playing substantially more minutes. Lillard actually played more total minutes than anyone in the league by averaging 38.6 per game (tied for 2nd most) and playing all 82 games. That's an impressive feat for a rookie, considering first year players tend to wear down over the course of a long season. Yet Lillard stayed remarkably consistent without suffering much of a drop off.
Dig a little deeper though and you can find plenty of reasons to pick Davis. First of all, Davis came into the league known for his defensive skills. While he didn't block quite as many shots as people expected (1.8), he's a far superior defender compared to Lillard, who struggled on the defensive end. Davis was also a more efficient shooter and turned the ball over far less.
Advanced stats show that Davis has a big advantage in PER (21.80 - 16.45) and also beats Lillard in both VA and EWA. The later two stats are cumulative over the course of the season, not based on per minute averages like PER - yet Davis still beats Lillard despite playing 10 minutes per game less and missing 18 games! That means when Davis did manage to stay on the court, he had a much greater impact. Granted Lillard does deserve some credit for being able to play as may minutes as he did, while Davis nearly misses out based on having missed so many games, but Davis did enough in the games he played to give him the top spot.
Drummond showed a lot of potential as a big man destined to be a perennial double-double guy and shot blocking force. However, he only played 60 games and averaged just over 20 minutes in the ones he did play, putting him a distant third in this race.
Sixth Man
1. JR Smith
2. Jamal Crawford
3. Jarrett Jack
Crawford looked to have this award locked up about a month ago, until Smith exploded down the stretch.
Jack can't match the scoring ability of the guys ahead of him on this list, but he was a key factor for the Warriors this season. He was more than capable of running the offense when Curry rested and when they played together it allowed Curry to play off the ball more so he could get open for more shots.
Most Improved
1. Nikola Vucevic
2. Larry Sanders
3. Paul George
This award is often misinterpreted, so allow me to lay out some ground rules for how I view it. First of all, you can't go based only on increased overall statistics if it coincides with a drastic increase in minutes or role. James Harden exploded once he became the top dog in Houston, but we expected that based on what we had already seen from him on a loaded Thunder team. We can also exclude former high lottery picks that show natural progression, because once again - that was expected (sorry, Kyrie Irving). Also, established superstars like LeBron and Durant may be having the best season of their careers, but they are already the best players in the game, so nothing unexpected about that either.
For the most improved player I want to go with guys that had true breakout seasons where we might not necessarily have expected it. While their minutes almost certainly went up due to their increased production, their per minute production also saw drastic increases.
Topping my list is Vucevic, the Swiss import that was considered a throw in for Orlando in the mega
Sanders also made a big leap this season, finishing second in the league in blocks (2.8) and nearly averaging a double-double (9.8 points, 9.5 rebounds). In his first two years in the league he appeared to be a below average player, but his PER jumped from a mediocre 13.34 last year to 18.77 this season.
George was already a solid role player last season, but after struggling in the postseason last year there were many that doubted he'd be able to shoulder a bigger load this year. He proved himself more than capable of becoming the top option on a team that was without top scorer Danny Granger. George improved his scoring, rebounding and assist rates while blossoming into an All-Star.
Coach of the Year
1. Gregg Poppovich
2. George Karl
3. Mike Woodson
Like Jordan in his prime, you could pretty much give this award to Pop just about every year. There is no
better coach in the league when it comes to looking at the big picture and preparing his team for when it matters most. Pop knows when to rest his aging vets, which famously got him into trouble this season when he rested Duncan, Parker and Ginobili for a nationally televised game in Miami. The league was furious that the Spurs would tank a marquee game by resting their starters... despite the fact that the Spurs still nearly won the game! Through injuries and minute limitations for his stars, Poppovich has still managed to steer his team to the second seed in the West. Also have to give him credit for giving the worst mid-game interviews of any coach in the league. He generally looks miserable and uncooperative to the point that it's actually hilarious to watch.
Denver managed to claim the third seed in the deep Western Conference despite not having a single All-Star on their team. The Nuggets were the league's deepest team and Karl had them playing a high paced style that took advantage of that - especially in the thin air in Denver. That helped the Nuggets to the best home record in the league (38-3). If not for a devastating season ending injury to Danilo Gallinari and a still hobbled Ty Lawson, the Nuggets would be a team that no team would be eager to see this postseason.
The Knicks exceeded expectations to claim the second seed in the East. Part of the credit goes to Woodson, who made the bold (but necessary) decision to bring Amar'e Stoudemire off the bench (when healthy) to allow Carmelo Anthony to spend more time at power forward in small ball lineups. Surrounding an elite scorer like Melo with a roster full of a shooters and a defensive anchor in Tyson Chandler has turned the Knicks into a legitimate contender.
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