NBA Regular Season Awards

The NBA Playoffs start tomorrow so it's time to decide the regular season awards and give a little playoff preview.

NBA MVP: 

1. Kevin Durant
2. LeBron James
3. Blake Griffin

Kevin Durant has become the consensus pick for MVP and if you journey back to January, you would see that I thought it was the year of the Slim Reaper. What I did not expect was for him to runaway with it at the end of the year. He put up Jordan-esqu numbers averaging 32-7-5 while leading the Thunder to 59 wins in a season where Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Perkins, and Thabo Sefolosha all missed significant time.

LeBron James put on a valiant effort and was still other worldly but it still wasn't close because of the Heat coasting in the beginning of the season and surprisingly playing pretty terrible to end the season. I though voter fatigue would play a role in dethroning the king (yeah I know that was corny) but wow, I was wrong.

Blake Griffin finally played up to his hype. He was outstanding this year and it reflected in the Clippers play. Especially when Chris Paul was out with injury. He improved on his shooting and become much more lethal offensively and as a playmaker. He gets the slight edge over Joakim Noah for me.




Sixth Man:

1. Jamal Crawford
2. Manu Ginobili
3. Taj Gibson

Honarable Mention: Gerald Green, Reggie Jackson

This has not been the most exciting year for the sixth man competition but I think Jamal Crawford means the most to his team. The Clippers need his scoring at times and he is always ready put up 20 points off of the bench. Ginobili has been good this year but injured to much. While Gibson has been great as well. I just don't think he was as valuable in that sixth man role.


Most Improved:

1. Anthony Davis
2. Kyle Lowry
3. Goran Dragic

Honarable Mention: Gerald Green, Markeif Morris, Demarr Derozan

Anthony Davis was an absolute beast this year. He averaged a double-double and lead the league in blocks. The Pelicans only won 34 games and Davis had a win share of 17 games according to Hollinger's stats. He was the only player on the team that played defense and was every bit the impact player he was thought to be coming out in the draft last year. Kyle Lowry was let loose after the trade of Rudy Gay and it reflected in the Raptors record and being the 3 seed in the playoffs. Goran Dragic was phenomenal as well.


Defensive Player:

1. Joakim Noah
2. Serge Ibaka
3. Roy Hibbert

Honorable Mention: Dwight Howard did make the Rockets good defensively.......

I still can't believe that Marc Gasol won this award last year by the way..... Joakim Noah has been the best defensive player on the stingy defensive Chicago Bulls. Serge Ibaka has improved into much more than just a shot blocker and is shutting people down in post isolations now. Roy Hibbert has been terrible offensively but the Pacers have stayed great on defense. Hibberts problem was his rebounding that hurt him.


Rookie of the Year:

1. Michael Carter Williams
2. Victor Oladipo
3. Mason Plumlee

This race was probably more of a runaway than the MVP race. Durant at least had to contend with LeBron but MCW had nobody really contest him from the start. Oladipo had some nice moments but not as many as MCW. Plumlee started to come on later in the season after Brooke Lopez was hurt but he was only an impact on the defensive end for the most part.


Coach of the Year:

1. Jeff Hornacek
2. Gregg Popovich
3. Dwayne Casey

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY thought that the Suns would be good this year, or even mediocre. People thought they were a shoe in for a high draft pick. If you look at the roster, it made sense to think that. But they were a game out of making the playoffs in the west where there were seven teams with 50 wins. Yes Popovich had 60 wins but not with this roster and Dwayne Casey turned around the Raptors but that team is more talented than the Suns and they had the same record as the Suns.


1st team All-NBA:

Stephen Curry
James Harden
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
Joakim Noah

2nd team All-NBA:

Chris Paul
Kyle Lowry
Kevin Love
Blake Griffin
Dwight Howard

3rd team All-NBA

Goran Dragic
Paul George
Dirk Nowitzki
LaMarcus Aldridge
Al Jefferson

All NBA Defensive team:

Chris Paul
Thabo Sefolosha
LeBron James
Serge Ibaka
Joakim Noah

All-NBA Rookie Team:

Michael Carter-Williams
Victor Oladipo
Tim Hardaway Jr
Kelly Olnyk
Mason Plumlee