A quick review of the 2008-09 season, players rather than teams for now, by making my choices for the end of season award winners. Those marked with an asterisk are those which I think will be announced the actual winner in the coming weeks.
MVP
1. LeBron James *
2. Dwyane Wade
3. Chris Paul
Based on their individual stats on the season alone, James and Wade are almost identical, but for a couple of points (Wade) and rebounds (LeBron) per game. However, the team win-loss record speaks for itself, combined with the 39-2 home record and the defense that James provides makes it a pretty obvious choice.
Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul are at the next level, although the media seems to be getting stuck into both Paul and the Hornets for a late season drop off in performance. The people that vote on this award probably take the Lakers record, and the fact that Bynum got injured (despite still having Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and other capable fill-ins) into account so I wouldn't be surprised if the actual order is more like: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.
Rookie Of The Year
1. Derrick Rose *
2. O. J. Mayo
3. Russell Westbrook
Derrick Rose deserves to win this one without a doubt. Rose was only a little behind Mayo for scoring, on a much better team, while also contributing a lot of assists at the true point guard position. Before Mike Conley got it together in the second half of the season, and with Rudy Gay not improving at all from last year (or so it seemed), Mayo was seemingly the go-to player on this team. Westbrook deserves a mention, but a terrible field goal percentage and high number of turnovers hurts.
Interestingly, if Greg Oden was eligible for this award, and I'm not sure he is, I wouldn't have him in my top five.
I don't see the media getting fooled into voting Mayo over Rose, particularly with Chicago finishing in a tie for 6th in the East.
Coach Of The Year
1. Rick Adelman
2. Mike Brown *
I hate the "best team means best coach" predictability of this award at times, unless that coach happens to be someone like Pop or Jackson that has already won the award multiple times -- that's when they starting thinking outside the box. Perhaps this causes me to go too far in the opposite direction, and purposely not just pick the coach with the best record. I've heard several times again this year about how Jerry Sloan has never won one, which he probably deserves, but I don't think this is the year.
Adelman has done a good job with Houston this year, with T-Mac being not so great, then injured for the season. He didn't have much behind Yao on the offensive end -- with both Artest and Battier shooting terrible this year, not to mention Alston getting traded -- but he's got the team winning games, and in the end they just missed out on 3rd place in the West, on the final day of the season. Interesting fact, he's made the finals every year, except the two year stint he spent at Golden State for the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
The media will obviously look at Cleveland's dominant year, and the fact they went from 45 wins to 62 is quite impressive, but I think Mo Williams, and further improvement from LeBron this year, had quite a significant impact on that too.
Defensive Player Of The Year
1. Dwight Howard *
2. Chris Paul
3. LeBron James
Defensive player, and team, is hard to speculate on when you don't get to watch games/highlights day-in day-out, read the match reports in detail or generally be immersed in the game by being in the USA. For example, Troy Murphy and David Lee both had amazing rebounding numbers, but from all accords neither is more than an average defensive player. However, when you put together the blocks and rebounds, with some decent defensive numbers from the Magic, I think Howard has to be the winner here. It seems like a PF/C is often the winner of this award (Mutombo, Mourning and Ben Wallace in recent years), so it makes sense.
If I'm wrong, maybe Chris Paul as the league leaders in steals, or LeBron's steals and blocks, could get the nod.
Sixth Man Of The Year
1. Jason Terry *
2. Chris Andersen
3. Nate Robinson
The sixth man award is at times controversial, where the player has been, or could be, a regular starter for that team or any other team (e.g. Manu Ginobili). Terry started a handful of games this year, but most were probably due to injuries. Scoring almost 20 ppg, with more than 2 threes, is quite an impressive number for a bench player. When you consider they've also got Dirk (4th in the league for scoring), Josh Howard and Jason Kidd, the numbers only look better. As such, I think Terry is almost a certainty to win this one.
Chris Andersen has been increasingly dominant in blocks, and handy for rebounds, as the season has gone on. Finishing second in blocks to Dwight Howard for the season, that kind of production has to be priceless from a bench player, or a suitable fill-in should the starting PF/C get into early foul trouble.
Nate Robinson had a good year for points and assists, but like many of the Knicks his performances were very up and down, and more so down later in the season.
Most Improved Player
1. Kevin Durant
2. Danny Granger *
3. Devin Harris
4. Jameer Nelson
First off, I'm not a huge fan of this award. It seems quite subjective, and the parameters are not so clear. For example, is Nelson going from around 10.9 ppg to 16.7 ppg better than Granger going from 19.6 to 25.8 ? The increase is almost identical, but Nelson certainly won't make the headlines like becoming the 7th best scorer in the league will. With that said, on with the justification.
Durant has seen a big improvement in his second year, like many rookies usually do. He was only 0.4 rebounds per game off leading the team in every category except assists -- although to be fair the team isn't that great. However, leading a team means both more opportunity and more defensive attention, so to increase FG% from 43.0 to 47.6 is quite impressive. Dealing with a coaching change, and finally getting to move from SG to SF only adds to his credentials.
Danny Granger, on a slightly better team (with Mike Dunleavy out injured) than Durant, seems to be a more popular choice. He's had a steady increase from year 1 through to now (year 4), but his only real increase this year over last is 6ppg, which might be attributed to Dunleavy being out for almost the whole year and Jermaine O'Neal being traded.
All NBA First Team
G Kobe Bryant
G Dwyane Wade
F LeBron James
F Tim Duncan
C Dwight Howard
I'm going with the 2G/2F/C formula, so Chris Paul had to the miss the first team, and a second forward had to be added. Close call over Pierce and Nowitzki, but I narrowly went with Duncan. Duncan produced numbers (20/10) just under his career average, but was without Parker and Ginobili for much of the season, and still achieved 54 wins for the Spurs.
The rest of the team pretty much chose themselves, as per the MVP choices.
All NBA Second Team
G Chris Paul
G Tony Parker
F Paul Pierce
F Dirk Nowitzki
C Pau Gasol
As above, Pierce and Nowitzki seem to be the next best forwards. Pau Gasol is a more than adequate second best player on the Lakers, in a league with few dominant centres. Another close call for the second guard, I went with Parker (for the same reasons as Duncan) ahead of Roy and Billups.
All NBA Third Team
G Brandon Roy
G Chauncey Billups
F Kevin Durant
F Danny Granger
C Yao Ming
Best of the rest, a couple that just missed included Deron Williams and Chris Bosh.
All Rookie First Team
G Derrick Rose
G O. J. Mayo
F Kevin Love
F Michael Beasley
C Brook Lopez
Like the All NBA, one of the guards from my Rookie Of The Year selections had to the miss the first team. This year was certainly a year for guards, and perhaps that's often the case -- the forwards probably take longer for their bodies to develop, and need more strength and muscle from a couple of pre seasons.
However, there was still enough quality to fill out the rest of the team. Lopez has been getting better as the season goes on, and contributes quality points, rebounds and blocks each night. Love was thrown into the starting lineup early, didn't remain there the whole year, but seems to have survived through the 82 games quite well. Beasley was managed a little differently and more cautiously, but had enough big games to earn a first team mention -- expect big things from him next year.
All Rookie Second Team
G Russell Westbrook
G Eric Gordon
F Jason Thompson
F Anthony Randolph
C Roy Hibbert
Westbrook and Gordon were the next best guards, and both starters contributed well to their respective teams. The rest of the team was a little trickier. Thompson was the next best forward, and worked his way into the starting lineup for the Kings -- although they were the worst team in the league. Randolph struggled due to a lack of game time, but showed some potential late in the season as the injuries started to add up for the Warriors. Hibbert was simply the next best centre, I'd rather have picked another guard, either D. J. Augustin or Courtney Lee.
All Defensive First Team
G Chris Paul
G Kobe Bryant
F LeBron James
F Tim Duncan
C Dwight Howard
A little bit of guesswork here as with the defensive players. I went with the stats, team results, and past performances when all else fails.
All Defensive Second Team
G Dwyane Wade
G Bruce Bowen
F Shane Battier
F Kevin Garnett
C Chris Andersen
Would not be surprised if Andersen doesn't make this team, but I think he's earned a spot as the second centre. I've been a little creative with this team, as I've technically got 3 forwards and Wade in the other spots.
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