It’s the main event of NBA’s unofficial midseason: the All-Star Game. All-Star Weekend itself often has tons of storylines. For example, who were the biggest snubs? At first it looked like it would be Damian Lillard and DeMarcus Cousins, but both for in due to injuries from other players. After Dirk Nowitzki (who is still having a good season, but has slipped a bit) got in, my thought now is that DeAndre Jordan is actually the biggest snub left. He’s been having a Tyson Chandler like season, only he’s a much better rebounder than Chandler ever was. His presence in the middle really might make a difference in April…unless these first 54 games from him was just a fluke. Other storylines involved a stacked three point contest (won by Stephen Curry) and Zach LaVine leaving Dr. J’s jaw on the ground after one of his dunks. It’s been a fun All-Star Weekend for sure.
Now that we’re at the “midseason”, it’s time to see who our front runners are for the regular season awards.
Most Improved Player
Jimmy Butler, SF Bulls
Normally I’d be all “of course it’s Jimmy Butler, who else could it be?!”, but Klay Thompson could easily win this award as well. I have to give the edge to Butler though, because this season he’s shown to be someone we didn’t know he could be. We knew Thompson was a very good shooter at least. I mean the Warriors wouldn’t part ways with him for Kevin Love (a genius move, I was sure wrong about that one) and he and Curry already had the “Splash Bros.” nickname going. But we already knew Thompson was good. Yes he’s even a better shooter than we thought, and yes he’s improved on defense quite a bit. And yes, he did score 37 points in one quarter.
But what did we really think of Butler before this season? He was an okay to good (depending on the night) wing that wasn’t a difference maker of any kind. The Bulls spent all summer trying to land Carmelo Anthony. Butler shot under 40% last season with 13 PPG and 5 RPG. Not really inspiring stuff. He had a PER of 13.5 (below average), a WS48 of .131 (solid rotation guy) and an offensive rating of 108 on 17% usage (good roleplayer). This year? 46% shooting, 20.4 PPG, 6 RPG, PER of 21.3, 123 ORtg on 21.5% usage. Those are some crazy jumps. He’s doing all this without an effective Derrick Rose no less. And Bulls fans don’t really seem to be talking about Carmelo anymore.
Sixth Man of the Year
Lou Williams, SG, Raptors
This comes down to three players for me so far. Williams, Jamal Crawford and Isaiah Thomas. I should probably rule out Crawford as this has been his worst LA Clipper year so far. He’s not quite the offensive sparkplug he was even last year, and if he’s not going to be a very good offensive guy then his horrid defense becomes a bigger problem. I’m in on Williams as he’s been part of a team that hasn’t had any chemistry problems since adding him and Toronto’s been near the top of the East for the entire year. Thomas and Williams are pretty close to the same player statwise (Thomas has a small edge), but trade rumors have been abundant in Phoenix ever since the idea of playing three guards came about. Sure, Goran Dragic’s contract is up soon, but you don’t see the Suns actively trying to keep him either.
Rookie of the Year
Andrew Wiggins, SG, Timberwolves
He started slow…played Cleveland in December and caught fire ever since. Since that game against Cleveland on 12/23, he’s averaged 18.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.5 APG and only 1.9 TPG on nearly 47% shooting. And he didn’t have Ricky Rubio for most of it. That’s….pretty good. Once Jabari Parker went down all Wiggins had to do was play well to win the award…and he has.
Defensive Player of the Year
Draymond Green, SF, Warriors
It’s not every day that a swingman has the lowest defensive rating in the league, but when one does it would be pretty hard for him not to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. The Warriors boast the best defensive team in basketball despite playing in the loaded West with an offensive first point guard in a point guard heavy league. Green manages to guard three different spots on the court effectively. Paul Millsap would be my 2nd choice here, followed by Anthony Davis.
Coach of the Year
Mike Budenholzer, Hawks
Yeah, I don’t even think the city of Atlanta had the Hawks winning 43 games by the All-Star break. In fact, 43 games total was a realistic total. Another Gregg Popovich assistant of course. Budenholzer has some competition though. Steve Kerr of course deserves credit for taking the Warriors to the next level, and Jason Kidd went from the ousted laughing stock rookie head coach of the Nets to somehow having the Bucks…without Jabari Parker…in the midst of the playoffs.
Still though, the Hawks are 43-11. What?
Most Valuable Player
James Harden, SG, Rockets
There are four cases to make for the MVP this season so far: Harden, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Let’s start with Curry, as to be him and Harden are 1a and 1b here. Curry has obviously been stupid good this seas. He’s shooting lights out (48-40-90%), he’s distributing the ball (7.9 APG), he’s leading the league in steals (2.2). He has a great MVP level WS/48 this season (.283, tied for the 18th highest in the 3 point shooting era with Shaq’s 2000 season). He’s on the best team in the toughest conference. So why didn’t I pick him? Harden’s close to him in most of these #s, better in some advanced metrics and is clearly working with a hell of a lot less. Curry has Thompson, Green, even Kerr as a coach. Harden has a banged up Dwight Howard who isn’t Dwight Howard anymore, Josh Smith who even when he is Josh Smith it’s not guaranteed it’s a good thing.
LeBron’s case seems dubious as this is arguably his worst season since his rookie year. But then you see the following:
Cavs With LeBron: 31-14
Cavs Without LeBron: 2-8
That’s a big difference. I won’t count him out as if he has a monster last 27 games where the Cavs win 22 or 23 of them, voters will notice and forget about November and December.
Anthony Davis’s case is insane. Despite what we mentioned about Curry’s WS/48…Davis actually has a higher one of .291 right now. That would be good for 12th in the 3 Point era. Only players above him? Lebron (’13, ’09, ’10, ’12), Jordan (’91, ’96, ’88, ’89), David Robinson (’94), Durant (’14), and Chris Paul (’09). That’s the list. It’s interesting to look at Robinson when thinking about Davis here. He too put up a lot of “holy shit” stats. But he only brought home one MVP as his teams were never really the best. In this case, the 27-26 Pelicans have to be better for Davis to win the MVP. Even if he has a record breaking PER. Yeah, it’s amazing that a team with Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday and Eric Gordon (three black hole All-Stars for sure) as their 2, 3 and 4 scorers is even remotely in the Western Conference playoff hunt. But that’s not enough.
So James Harden. He too has a ridiculous WS/48 (.275). He actually has the highest offensive win shares of anyone in the league. He’s carrying this Rockets team. Dwight Howard isn’t a great player anymore. He’s on a team where only two guys have higher than a 16 PER (him and Howard). Yet this team is 36-17. He’s leading the league in scoring. He’s averaging a 27-6-7 with 2 steals a game. He is your MVP.