COLUMN: NBA Midseason Awards
The NBA season is almost halfway over, which means it’s time to hand out some mid-season awards. ESPN analysts and sports guys everywhere love to talk about who’s been the best through the first half of the season, and since I like to consider myself a sports guy, I like to do it too. So here are the players that I feel deserve some hardware for their performance in the first half of the season.
MVP: Five times in the past nine seasons, the MVP has been the best player on the team with the best record. The MVP in those years arguably deserved the title, but this past decade the award has been awarded to the best player on the best team rather than the Most Valuable Player to their team. The problem with that theory in this particular year is that all of the top teams in the league don’t have one best player, they have two or three. The Spurs are the best team in the league, but are Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker really MVP worthy? I don’t think so. The Heat have the ultimate trio with LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, but it’s hard to justify why one should get it and not the other. The Celtics with their big four of Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, and Allen face the same dilemma. This year’s MVP should go to somebody who really is the Most Valuable Player for their team, and that player is Amare Stoudemire. Amare is second in the league in points per game, scoring 26.2 and helping the Knicks average over 107 points per game, tops in the league. And the most impressive part about Amare? The Knicks went 29-53 last year without him, whereas this year they’re on pace to win 49 games. If Amare keeps it up and the Knicks win 50, Amare Stoudemire will be your MVP.
Defensive Player of the Year: After winning the last two Defensive Player of the Year awards, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic looks poised to bring home his third-straight trophy. Howard is second in the league in rebounding with 13.1 per game, fourth in blocks with 2.3 per game, and averages 1.2 steals a game – highest of any center in the league. Almost solely because of Howard’s inside presence the Magic are the fifth-best defense in the league in terms of points allowed, enough to make him the Defensive Player of the Year
Rookie of the Year: This one is by far the easiest of all the awards to give out. Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is playing his rookie season this year after missing 2009 because of a broken knee, and so far is an absolute lock to take home this award. Griffin is averaging 21.8 points and 12.6 rebounds, setting himself up to join a very elite group of players including Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and David Robinson as the only players to ever average over 21 and 12 in their rookie seasons. Stats aside, his high-flying alley-oops and dunks are almost incredible enough to win him the award.
Most Improved Player: Well, go ahead and call me a Knicks fan, but this year’s Most Improved player has to go to New York’s Raymond Felton. Felton was drafted fifth overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2005 and played in Charlotte for five seasons, but never really seemed to find his groove. He played well before, but this season he has exploded onto another level, and is reason number two why New York is actually good.
Sixth Man: The sixth man award was one of the tougher ones to decide, but I got to go with the Mavericks’ Jason Terry. Averaging 15.6 points and 4.6 assists a game, Terry is instant offense off the bench. He is second in scoring on the Mavs, and when it comes to the fourth quarter he is arguably one of the most clutch players in the league.
Coach of the Year: This one is tough, with two coaches who have convincing arguments for the award: Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs and Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat. Now you may be thinking, “Spoelstra?! The Heat?! What?!” But let me explain. The Heat started this year 9-8 and a lot of people in the Heat organization were on the verge of pushing the panic button. But Spoelstra calmly handled the issues and since then has led the Heat to a 21-1 record (as of Wednesday), giving them the best record in the East and the second best in the league behind only the Spurs. That’s pretty good coaching. Speaking of the Spurs, Gregg Popovich and his team have once again surprised everyone with a 33-6 record. What makes Popovich’s role in this so much more impressive is the fact that Tim Duncan is averaging 7 points and 2 rebounds below his career averages, yet the Spurs continue to win. So despite the how close this race is, I’m giving the nod to Pop.
Will these guys actually end up winning the awards? Maybe, but who knows. All I do know is that if the second half of the season is like the first, we could be in for some surprises and anything could happen.
MARK ISRAELSEN is a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering and a lifelong Jazz fan. Comments can be sent to mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu.