NBA Mid-Season Awards
Sunday, January 17, 2010Posted by Jeremy Conlin
It’s about that time. We’re inching closer to the mid-way point of the season. Cleveland became the first team in the league to play their 41st game of the season when they lost to Utah on Thursday night. In honor of the first team reaching 41 games, I feel that now is as good a time as any to break out my “NBA Top Everything,” handing out awards, NBA-sanctioned or otherwise, to players and teams from this season.
The Chris Webber Memorial “My Contract Is Murdering My Team’s Salary Structure Indefinitely” Award
6. Eddy Curry, New York; 2 years, $21.7 Million remaining
5. Andrei Kirilenko, Utah; 2 years, $34.2 Million remaining
4. Peja Stojakovic, New Orleans; 2 years, $29.5 Million remaining
3. Marcin Gortat, Orlando; 5 years, $34 Million remaining
2. Elton Brand, Philadelphia; 4 years, $66 Million remaining
1. Gilbert Arenas, Washington; 5 years, $96 Million remaining
I had to extend this list to six guys because there could be a chance that Gilbert’s contract gets voided if he is convicted of a felony. Although, if it doesn’t, Washington still has $80 Million due to him over the next four seasons whether he plays or not. I think that qualifies as “Murdering My Team’s Salary Structure Indefinitely.”
My personal favorite on this list is Marcin Gortat. Orlando could have swung the Vince Carter trade, and then spent all the Gortat/Brandon Bass money on Hedo Turkoglu, and probably won the 2010 title. Instead, they decided to let Hedo walk, then throw $50 Million at two big men to be their 10th and 11th guys and play a combined 25 minutes a game and put up combined stats of 9 points and 5 rebounds. I’m guessing Orlando would love a do-over on that one.
The Robert Horry Memorial “I’m Grossly Underpaid Because I Can Definitely Help You Win A Title” Award
(Note: Excludes lottery picks still under rookie scale contracts, otherwise the list would consist of Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, and Rajon Rondo
5. Arron Afflalo, Denver; 3 years, $6 Million remaining
4. Shannon Brown, LA Lakers; 2 years, $4.1 Million remaining
3. Kendrick Perkins, Boston; 2 years, $8.5 Million remaining
2. Carl Landry, Houston; 2 years, $6 Million remaining
1. Shawn Marion, Dallas; 5 years, $40 Million remaining
Quick caveat on the Marion contract: Am I going to like it in 2014 when he’s on the books for $9.3 Million? Probably not. But this year, he’s making $6.6 Million, and he’s giving Dallas an 11/6 with 1 block and 1 steal, shooting 48%, and playing arguably the best defense of any single player in the league. Don’t let anyone fool you. On the list of reason’s why Dallas is 26-14 and currently 2nd in the west, the first is Dirk Nowitzki’s killer offensive play, and the 2nd is Shawn Marion’s defense and energy.
The Nick Anderson Memorial “I’m Playing Significant Minutes On A Good Playoff Team, But I Might Self-Destruct At Any Minute” Award
5. Tony Allen, Boston
4. Vince Carter, Orlando
3. Michael Beasley, Miami
2. Ron Artest, LA Lakers
1. J.J. Hickson, Cleveland
This is a big difference from last year’s list, which contained all role players (Matt Bonner, Sasha Pavlovic, Flip Murray, Glen Davis). This year’s list has three guys (Carter, Beasley, Artest) that all might try to do their Michael Jordan impression during a big game, only they can’t do it. I mean, it’s fine for Frank Caliendo to do a John Madden impression, because he’s actually good at it. It’s not fine for my dad to do a John Madden impression, because he isn’t good at it (Although it is fine for him to do a Phil Jackson impression. Big laughs from my friends Scott and Ryan). Vince, Beas, and Ronny will end up overstepping and going 4-17 from the floor. And their teams don’t want that.
Hickson is an interesting case. Some games, he looks like a young Karl Malone: running the floor, rebounding, finishing around the rim, coming up with key defensive plays, and generally being a better offensive version of Anderson Varejao. Usually this happens during the 3rd quarters of blowouts against bad teams. However, in some games, he looks like he has appendicitis, lyme disease, and mono all rolled into one, can’t defend Bernie Lomax, has every third pass bounce off his hands and out of bounds, and single-handedly lowers Cleveland’s ceiling from an A to a B-. However, if the Cavs trade for Antawn Jamison, Hickson gets ousted out of the starting lineup and probably ends up wearing a sport coat on the bench giving out high-fives and chest bumps to LeBron as he comes back to the huddle. Much better role for him.
The P.J. Brown Memorial “The Casual Fan Might Not Know Me, But I Can Play Out Of My Mind And Swing A Game 7 In The Playoffs” Award
5. Shelden Williams, Boston
4. Channing Frye, Phoenix
3. Jawad Williams, Cleveland
2. Martell Webster, Portland
1. DeJuan Blair, San Antonio
Jawad and Shelden Williams are both super-sleepers on this list, but keep an eye on them if they’re on the floor. It’s hard to quantify exactly what they do when they’re in the game, but you know that they’re out there. Shelden came up big at the start of the season when Boston was without Big Baby Davis (even posting games of 12/9, 10/10, and 11/7 over the span of four games), while Jawad has come on strong of late (scoring in double figures in three straight games on Cleveland’s latest road trip). I was talking the other day to a friend trying to explain to him why I like Jawad Williams so much, and the only explanation I could come up with was “He does stuff.” Still, I feel that it’s a perfect way to describe the type of player that doesn’t exactly jump off the screen, but his team always seems to play better when he’s in the game. They do stuff.
DeJuan Blair, on the other hand, absolutely jumps off the screen whenever you watch him. When he’s playing well, you don’t forget for a second that he’s on the floor. He rebounds the hell out of the ball, picks up a ton of garbage points, rotates well, and he’s always around the ball. In a two-game span against Kevin Durant’s Team and Charlotte, he grabbed 37 rebounds, 17 offensive. In games where he plays at least 21 minutes, he averages 12.8 points and 10.7 rebounds while shooting 59% from the floor. Gregg Popovich has been yanking his minutes around a little bit, but if he starts getting consistent playing time, watch out.
The Bob McAdoo Memorial “Maybe I Could Have Helped You Win A Title At Some Point Over The Last 3 Years, But This Year, For Unexplainable Reasons, You Might As Well Just Take Me Out Behind The Arena And Shoot Me” Award
3. Derek Fisher, LA Lakers
If I told you that the best team in the league started a 35-year old point guard that averaged 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and shot 36% from the floor, while also being a complete defensive liability in 27 minutes per game, you wouldn’t believe me, right? Well, it’s true. He even had a game earlier this season against Houston where he played 34 minutes and recorded 0 points, 0 rebounds, and 0 assists. The Lakers survived in overtime thanks to 41 points from Kobe and 19 turnovers from the Rockets, but all season, Derek Fisher has been an unequivocal disaster. In 15 of his 40 games this year, he’s shot under 30% from the floor. He’s only shot over 50% seven times. I’d say it’s about time to start up the Jordan Farmar/Shannon Brown era.
2. Gilbert Arenas, Washington
What, too soon?
1. Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
Just kidding Laker fans. Jokes.
Seriously though, in the last five weeks (since their December 12 loss against Utah), the Lakers have suffered six of their nine losses for the entire season, and Kobe is shooting just 43%, including six of his worst eight shooting performances this season. But if you bring this up to any Laker fan they’ll just ignore you and continue to believe that this is Kobe’s best season yet. Gotta love them.
The 2007-2008 Warriors Memorial “You Thought We'd Take Another Leap, But Instead We Went Backward Because Expectations Were Too High, We Tinkered With Our Chemistry And Our Young Guys Tuned Out Their Coach" Award
(Note: This award was originally created by My Best Friend Bill Simmons, so I have to give him credit where credit is due)
I don’t know exactly how or why, but there is one team that pretty much exactly fits this award every season. This year’s winner is the Chicago Bulls. They only criteria that they don’t exactly fit is the “young guys tuning out their coach” part, but considering the fact that their coach is Vinny Del Negro, tuning him out actually might be an improvement.
Many people (including me) thought that this team would make a big leap, but it turns out that Luol Deng returning from injury screwed up John Salmons’ confidence, they lacked the offensive spark that Ben Gordon gave them last year, and Derrick Rose has battled through some injuries and really wasn’t effective at all until halfway through December. They’ve played better as of late, but I still feel like this team could sputter out at any second.
The 2007-2008 Hornets Memorial “We Didn’t Think They’d Be Ready This Soon!” Award
To Kevin Durant’s Team. I thought that they would be competitive, but not legitimately good. After January 1st last season, they finished the season with a 20-30 record, which is about where I would have expected them to be this season. Slightly under .500, not making a ton of noise. Instead, they’re 4 games over .500 through 40 games and on pace to win 46 games.
The 2008-2009 Cavaliers Memorial “We Knew This Team Had Talent And That They’d Be Relatively Competitive, But We Didn’t Know That They’d Be THIS Good” Award
To the Atlanta Hawks. This award is slightly different from the previous award; this one goes to a team that had made the playoffs before, only now (almost inexplicably) they’re in the discussion as teams that could possibly reach the conference finals. I’ll cover this more when we get to the 6th man award, but Jamal Crawford has helped this team almost beyond measure, and when you combine that with Josh Smith and Al Horford each having career years, Atlanta runs away with this award.
The 2008-2009 Pistons Memorial “We Didn’t Think They’d Fall Off THIS Much” Award
To the New Jersey Nets. Granted, nobody expected them to be good or really even halfway decent, but I at least expected a team with two All-Star caliber players (Harris and Lopez) to at least show up every night and possibly win 30 games. This team is headed for 70 losses.
Most Underrated Non-Superstar of The First Half
3. Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant’s Team
Screw it, I’m breaking my own rule. I don’t care. Besides, have you seen his January splits? They’re unbelievable. In eight games, he’s averaging 32 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, with 55/55/90 shooting %. Yes, you read that correctly. In January, Durant is shooting 55% from the floor and 55% from three. Even better, if you want to run the stats back to mid-December, his line looks like this (14 games):
32.6 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1 SPG, 1 BPG, 56% FG, 52% 3-PT, 86% FT, 10.1 FTA
I mean, seriously, we should be sick of hearing how good Kevin Durant has been playing lately by now. What exactly would he have to do to lead Sportscenter? Start dunking from the three-point line and making left-handed running jumpers with his shoelaces tied together? I give up.
2. Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves
He’s currently tied for 11th in the league in double-doubles with 17. That doesn’t sound too significant until you remember that Kevin Love has only played 23 games. Look at the top 10 in terms of the percentage of games that the player has posted a double-double:
1. Kevin Love: 17 in 23 games (74%)
2. Dwight Howard: 28 in 40 games (70%)
2. Chris Bosh: 28 in 40 games (70%)
4. Carlos Boozer: 26 in 40 games (65%)
5. Zach Randolph: 25 in 39 games (64%)
6. Pau Gasol: 14 in 23 games (60%)
7. Gerald Wallace: 21 in 37 games (57%)
8. David Lee: 22 in 40 games (55%)
9. Tim Duncan: 19 in 36 games (53%)
10. Joakim Noah: 20 in 38 games (52%)
10. Brook Lopez: 20 in 39 games (51%)
The defense rests.
1. ShaqDrunas O'NeGauskus
Say what you want about Cleveland’s big men, but they’re combining to give the Cavs 18.2 points, 12.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 blocks, and shoot 49% from the floor.
82games.com tracks how each team stacks up against its opponents, position-by-position, using the difference in PER (defined here) between the team and its opposition to judge. Using that method, Cleveland’s centers submit a +3.2-point advantage in PER over their opponents, only topped by Toronto’s +8.7, San Antonio’s +7.0, Orlando’s +6.9, the Lakers’ +5.0, and Memphis’ +3.7. So, technically, ShaqDrunas O'NeGauskus is the 6th best center in the NBA. So there.
Most Overrated Player of The First Half
3. LeMarcus Aldridge, Portland
Hey, any time you can give a $65 Million extension to a power forward that gives you a 16/8 with no shot blocking or toughness, you gotta do it.
2. Monta Ellis, Golden State
Our “Great Stats, Terrible Team” MVP so far this season. Could any halfway decent scorer average 26 points if they got to take 22 shots per game on a terrible, rudderless team that doesn’t play any defense? Maybe not 26 per, but probably 20. Is there any difference between Monta Ellis and Raymond Felton? I’m not sure.
1. Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee
Of the top 40 scorers, Jennings has the lowest shooting percentage (39%), and of the top 25 in terms of shots per game, Jennings scores the fewest points other than Trevor Ariza. He also plays sub-par defense, his Assist/Turnover ratio isn’t great.
For all this talk about “The Lefty Chris Paul,” let me offer this: In Chris Paul’s rookie season, his team was six games under .500 and finished in 10th place in a very strong conference, despite having no real talent and no real home court (this was the year they played in The City That Kevin Durant’s Team Now Plays In). And that year ran away with the Rookie of the Year, receiving 124 of 125 possible first-place votes.
Jennings? His team is six games under .500 and in 9th place in a historically WEAK conference, playing with a good home-court advantage and relevant talent already in place (Andrew Bogut has played well). And if the Rookie of the Year voting were held today, Jennings would definitely finish behind Tyreke Evans, and you could make a case for Ty Lawson finishing ahead of Jennings also. I don’t know, I feel like these things should be mentioned before we start comparing him to the best point guard of this generation.
6th Man Of The First Half
3. Al Harrington, New York
He’s been their most reliable scorer during their recent run that’s put them at least in the preliminary discussions regarding the eastern conference playoffs. He’s been playing three positions, stretching the floor, and seems to give a crap on defense. Shocking, but he’s in a contract year.
2. Jamal Crawford, Atlanta
He’s giving Atlanta the scoring boost off the bench that they’ve needed for the last two years. Along with the development of Josh Smith and Al Horford, Crawford’s production off the bench is one of the biggest reasons that Atlanta is 26-13 and a half-game ahead of Orlando in the east right now, not 20-19 and sandwiched between Toronto and Miami in the doldrums of mediocrity.
1. Carl Landry, Houston
I thought Houston was going to be terrible this year because they wouldn’t be able to score. Well, Carl Landry is single-handedly proving me wrong. He comes in for 27 minutes a night, scores at will, rebounds, defends the rim, and does everything short of doing Houston’s radio play-by-play. He’s easily Houston’s MVP so far this season, and Houston is 8th in the west right now and happens to be a terrible matchup for the Lakers should they meet in the first round. OhpleaseOhpleaseOhpleaseOhpleaseOhplease OhpleaseOhpleaseOhpleaseOhpleaseOhplease.
Worst Coach of The First Half
3. Vinny Del Negro, Chicago
Let me put it this way, if your team blows a 35-point lead at home to a terrible road team, you’re going to be in the top three of my “worst coach” ballot. Sorry.
2. Don Nelson, Golden State
It’s one thing to yank around the minutes of his best young player (Anthony Randolph) to the point where he’s basically lost the will to live. But if you pile that on top of his continued insistence to play Monta Ellis, Steph Curry, Anthony Morrow, Corey Maggette, and Vladimir Radmanovic together, it seems as if he’s just trying to get himself fired. Hey, Don, try charging onto the court and mooning a ref. I’m almost positive that would work.
1. Kiki Vandeweghe, New Jersey
The Nets are on pace to be the worst team in the history of the league. I don’t know, that seems relevant.
I went to a Nets game back in December, when they played Kevin Durant’s Team. The Nets lost by 15. Kevin Durant had 40, despite the fact that they weren’t going to him at all in the first quarter, and they stopped going to him in the fourth after the game was locked up. Durant was on fire. Why is this important? Because at no point during the game did the Nets try to double-team him. Not once.
Offensively, Yi Jianlian was a force in the first half. He scored 18 of his 29 before halftime and was single-handedly keeping the Nets in the game. In the 2nd half, Kevin Durant’s Team started throwing double teams at him, and he got flustered. And not because he didn’t know how to handle the double team, but because he didn’t know they were coming. I mean, how do the other Nets on the floor not try to clue him in? Both the lack of double-teams on Durant plus the lack of communication on the other end are two tell-tale signs of crappy coaching. I hate watching the Nets simply because of how unspeakably awful they are, but whenever I find myself watching them, I can’t help but notice how unbelievably poorly coached they are.
Best Coach of The First Half
3. Alvin Gentry, Phoenix
2. Mike D’Antoni, New York
1. Rick Adelman, Houston
All three of these coaches are overachieving with the talent that they have. Phoenix has tapered off after an explosive start, but New York and Houston are finally starting to hit their stride. I especially like how D’Antoni has been able to get his guys to give a crap, although pretty much all of them have expiring contracts, so that might have something to do with it also. Either way, I like what these guys are doing.
Least Valuable Player of The First Half
3. Adam Morrison, Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic; LA Lakers (tie)
The Lakers have the best record in the league while having $15 Million of their payroll tied up into these three players that have combined to play 30% of the minutes that Kobe Bryant has played this season. Imagine if they packaged two or three of these guys along with Shannon Brown and/or a few 1st-round picks and made a run at say, Andre Iguodala (who is actively being shopped by Philadelphia). They could give play AI 2.0 as their 6th man, rest Kobe a little bit more, and even play the obscenely ludicrous smallball lineup of Farmar, Kobe, Iguodala, Artest, and Gasol. Explain to me how to score against that five-some. If this happens, they might as well cancel the rest of the season, because the Lakers will win the title.
2. Tracy McGrady, Houston
McGrady played a total of 46 minutes this season before being banished by his team. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, except for the fact that he’s on the books for $23.2 Million this season. If you’re wondering, that’s just over $505,000 per minute.
1. Gilbert Arenas, Washington
I mean, do you really need an explanation here? Let’s just move on.
Rookie of (the First Half of) the Year
3. Ty Lawson, Denver
The perfect change-of-pace guard for Denver. He comes in for 10-11 minutes, runs around at a million miles per hour for, shoots 44% from three, pushes off every miss, then comes out, then comes back in the 2nd half and does it again. I continue to think that Denver’s best lineup is Lawson, Smith, Anthony, Anderson, and Nene.
2. Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee
For all the reasons I mentioned in the “Most Overrated” section, I can’t have him any higher than 2nd.
1. Tyreke Evans, Sacramento
He’s good. I was wrong. He has single-handedly turned around the state of basketball in Sacramento. He’s giving them a 20-5-5 every night, decent defense, playing three positions, and running all of their plays at crunch time. They’ve got a good foundation with Evans and Jason Thompson (one of my favorite young guys in the league), and they can either trade Kevin Martin or hope that Martin and Evans can play together (unlikely). If I were Sacramento, I would try to trade Martin, pick up an expiring contract or two along with one decent young player and a 1st-round pick. That way they can bottom out a little bit, possibly throw their hat into the John Wall sweepstakes, and build around Evans, Thompson, Decent Young Player X, Lottery Pick X, and Other First-Round Pick Y. Either way, Evans has been (by far) the best rookie so far this season.
Most Valuable Player of The First Half
5. Brandon Roy, Portland
He started the season slow, but has picked it up big-time after all the injuries that Portland has suffered. He’s averaging 26 points per game in January on ridiculous 60% shooting from the floor in 6 games. Despite all of Portland’s injuries, they’re still 5th in the west with a 25-16 record, and have impressive wins against Dallas, San Antonio, the Lakers, and Orlando in the last three weeks, mostly thanks to Roy’s composure and clutch play.
4. Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant’s Team
I’ve already done my share of Durant-gushing in this column, so let me just say this. If that team manages to find itself in the playoffs, Durant will easily leapfrog these next two guys into 2nd place, and might even find himself at the top of my ballot.
3. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas
Do you realize that until he hurt his elbow following his collision with Carl Landry and his numbers dipped for a week, Dirk was averaging a career high in scoring? At age 31? His rebounding numbers are down, but he’s improved his passing and he’s shooting threes at his best percentage since his MVP season in ’07, and his defense is as good as I’ve ever seen it in his career. Beyond that, he’s been positively killer in crunch time and almost unguardable when Dallas goes small. Like I said in the Marion section, he’s the biggest reason why Dallas holds the 2-seed in the west right now.
2. Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
I’ve had Kobe moving back and forth over the course of the season, but his recent slump combined with the continued dominance by my top choice has caused him to slip to a fairly distant second. It’s as simple as that.
1. LeBron James, Cleveland
I think I’ve reached the point with LeBron that I’m going to just keep voting for him until I get tired of it. By the way, I haven’t reached that point yet. He’s getting perilously close to the Bird in ‘86/Jordan in ’97/Duncan in ’03 level where he should win the MVP simply because he’s in the league and playing at a high level. And I know that Jordan didn’t win the MVP in ’97, but it was an out-and-out travesty and I just pretend it never happened.
So what’s the case for LeBron? How about his career highs in FG% and 3-PT% being the icing and sprinkles on his obscene statistical MVP resume? How about Cleveland’s most recent 5-game road trip, where LeBron has tossed up averages of 36.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 2.0 steals with 55% shooting from the floor and 46% shooting from 3, and came within a buzzer-beater from a 10-day contract player in Utah and a missed three at the buzzer in Denver from sweeping all five games.
Or, my personal favorite: Through 42 games last year, the Cavs were 34-8 and were tied for the best record in the league. This year, the Cavs are 31-11, and have the 2nd best record in the league, despite the fact that four guys in their 10-man rotation (Shaq, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Jawad Williams) weren’t with the team last year. Who is Kobe working into the folds? Artest? Yes, I understand that he’s a handful, but is he really that much more of a handful than Shaq?
…
Well, I figured that as long as this column is dragging on to the length of most John Grisham novels, it wouldn’t hurt to add on my All-star ballot and my latest NBA Power Poll. Enjoy
East All-Star Ballot:
Starters: Rajon Rondo (Boston), Dwyane Wade (Miami), LeBron James (Cleveland), Chris Bosh (Toronto), Dwight Howard (Orlando)
Bench: Joe Johnson (Atlanta), Paul Pierce (Boston), Gerald Wallace (Charlotte), Mo Williams (Cleveland), Derrick Rose (Chicago), Al Horford (Atlanta), David Lee (New York)
West All-Star Ballot:
Starters: Chris Paul (New Orleans), Kobe Bryant (LA Lakers), Carmelo Anthony (Denver), Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas), Pau Gasol (LA Lakers)
Bench: Kevin Durant (Kevin Durant’s Team), Steve Nash (Phoenix), Tyreke Evans (Sacramento), Tim Duncan (San Antonio), Brandon Roy (Portland), Kevin Love (Minnesota), Carlos Boozer (Utah)
NBA Power Poll
The Isiah Thomas Division
30. New Jersey Nets
29. Golden State Warriors
28. Washington Wizards
27. Minnesota Timberwolves
26. Detroit Pistons
The Sheriffs of Sucktown
25. Sacramento Kings
24. Philadelphia 76ers
23. Indiana Pacers
22. Milwaukee Bucks
Getting Progressively Less Terrible
21. New York Knicks
20. Los Angeles Clippers
19. Chicago Bulls
18. Memphis Grizzlies
17. Miami Heat
Not Quite Sleepers, More Like “Coma-ers”
16. Utah Jazz
15. Charlotte Bobcats
14. Toronto Raptors
Making Just Enough Noise To Be Told To Shut Up
13. New Orleans Hornets
12. Kevin Durant’s Team
11. Houston Rockets
The Old Guard
10. Phoenix Suns
9. San Antonio Spurs
Fatally Flawed?
8. Orlando Magic
The Sheriffs of Friskyville
7. Portland Trail Blazers
6. Atlanta Hawks
I Have No Idea How To Accurately Rank This Team
5. Boston Celtics
The (2nd) Best of The West
4. Denver Nuggets
3. Dallas Mavericks
The Contender
2. Los Angeles Lakers
The Favorite
1. Cleveland Cavaliers
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