NBA 2011-2012 Season Awards Predictions

Whilst this year’s NBA Lockout may have presented us with a shortened season, it didn’t suffer from providing us some great storylines.  So whilst we have a great playoffs to look forward to, just bear with me for one second as I take a look back at some of the more notable performances of the regular season, in my end of season award predictions.

COACH OF THE YEAR

WINNER : Gregg Popovich

This was probably the most difficult award to predict.

A case can be made for Doc Rivers inspiring a resurgence from the Celtics after the All-Star break or Tom Thibodeau who led his Chicago bulls without his ‘Superstar’ (as Derrick Rose constantly loves to refer to himself as) for practically half of the season, to the best record in the league.

So why have I given it to ol’ pop then? Well for simply proving once again that his ‘AGING’ spurs team, that we continue to discount every off-season, are once again playing at an elite level. No matter if he needed to give Tim Duncan or any of his other key players a rest, he continually managed to extract every ounce of effort and production out of all of his players, be it Tony Parker who is having an MVP esque season or role players such as Danny Green or Kawhi Leonard.

Hell he even managed to rest Duncan, Parker and Ginobbli on the same night and still came out with the victory with the team riding on the backs of a bunch of bench players. It’s really quite remarkable, so while the award will probably end up going to Thibodeau, I think it’s time to appreciate Popovich who has only taken the award home ONCE before, can you believe that? And heck, Thibodeau got it last year, there’s no need to be greedy about it..

2. Thibodeau

3. Doc Rivers

6TH MAN OF THE YEAR

WINNER : James Harden

From the hardest to the easiest pick. James Harden is pretty much the consensus for this award. The Thunder can sometimes be lacking in offensive options with their very defensive minded front court, and whenever Durant or Westbrook are in a shooting slump, so Harden’s instant injection of Offense is crucial. The only argument you can make against him is the fact he plays 32 minutes anyway, more than anybody coming off the bench in the league and more than practically all of the Spurs starters, suggesting that he’s probably not your typical ‘6th man’.

But quite frankly, James Harden would be starting on pretty much every other team in the NBA anyway. No other 6th man or role player can come off the bench and just hit you with 30 points. Lou Williams, Mo Williams, Jason Terry and OJ Mayo would be worthy candidates any other year (well probably not as Harden would more than likely dominate that list too) but the sheer numbers that Harden provides makes it impossible for him to be overlooked.

2. Jason Terry

3. Lou Williams

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

WINNER : Tyson Chandler

If the coach of the year is the hardest choice, then the defensive player of the year certainly has the most viable candidates. And whilst Lebron James is like no other defender in the league with his ability to cover practically every position on the court and Serge Ibaka’s frequent highlight plays, this really came down to two players (three before Howard became a coach killer), Kevin Garnett and Tyson Chandler.

What sets them both apart is their ability to anchor a defence. Kevin Garnett was practically the only big on his roster and has been playing for half a season at the the 5 next to Brandon Bass who measures up at roughly 6″8. Tyson Chandler has not only had to anchor a team with not one single trace of a good defender on, (before Shumpert’s emergence and Melo actually starting to give a shit) and transforming them into the 5th ranked team in defensive efficency, but he also had to be incredibly adaptable with Linsanity, then Lin getting injured, melo taking over, d’antoni getting fired and woodson taking over etc etc – the point is, he’s had to deal with a LOT. At times hes had to be on the court with Baron Davis, Carmelo and Amare AT THE SAME TIME, there’s really no comparison to any other defender in the league so for that reason, hes my defensive player of the year.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Kyrie Irving

I don’t really need to make a case for this one, Irving shocked many with his performances this season and any challenge he may have been presented was muted when Rubio was sidelined for the rest of the season. So, easy pick – It’s Irving.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

WINNER: Lebron James

This is simply a no contest, some people may hate Lebron but you can’t deny this is one of the most statistically impressive seasons of the last decade. So I’m going to quickly dismiss any case you may be able to make for Kevin Durant taking the award.

1) The one element of Durant’s game that is supposed to be superior to Lebron’s is scoring. Lebron is far superior in distribution, rebounding and his all round defensive contribution, so you’d expect Durant to pretty much dominate Lebron in the scoring statistic… RIGHT!!???! Well he only averages 0.9 ppg more than Lebron, so I guess that argument is dismissed.

2) Durant has a better supporting cast. The Thunder are the deepest team in the league, and are practically the only team that can afford to have a player as talented as James Harden be the 6th man. Yes Lebron has Dwayne Wade, but he’s 9-1 without him.. That would suggest he’s pretty valuable to the Heat right?

3) That performance against the Nets. Yes it’s only the nets, but in an MVP race that needed somebody to get ‘hot’ with the remaining 2 weeks of the season, to substantiate his claim for the MVP, Lebron effectively carried the Heat, and that was none more evident than in his ‘clutch’ (yes Lebron was indeed ‘clutch’)  performance against the Nets where he scored the Heat’s last 18 points.

4) During that same time period, Kevin Durant hit a slump, de-stabilising any momemtum he may of had beforehand, with the Thunder going a very average 6-5.

5) There is no better evaluator than when the 2 mvp candidates literally go ‘head to head’, playing the same position, and who came out on top? Well Lebron. The one time the Heat needed to send a message before the playoffs and Lebron produced one of his better performances of the regular season (34-10-7) as his Heat team secured a 98-93 victory over the Thunder.

The only detraction from Lebron’s MVP case, is the fact his team didn’t produce the best record in the East, the Chicago Bulls (who played the majority of their season without Derrick Rose) did. There is no doubt the Heat underperformed, so for me to crown the leading player on that under-achieving team, the MVP is a concern. But for me to choose anybody else, they have to emerge as a legitimate candidate and Durant’s Thunder didn’t achieve much better, only winning one more game with a lot deeper roster, whilst also finishing (like the heat) 2nd in their respective conferences.

And as nice as winning an MVP will surely be for Lebron, that is ultimately not what his season is going to be defined by. The ‘big 3’ project has reached the end of its 2nd year and it needs to start producing results. For Lebron to negate all the nay-sayers, he needs a Ring. So Yes, stastically, Lebron has proven he was the best player in the NBA during the regular season, now it’s time to look forward, and prove he can produce the same results in the playoffs.

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