Round The Game

Just like every year, I was able to watch all the NBA on Christmas matchups. It was a full 13 or so hours of basketball, and I feel like I have a pretty good idea of who is going to win the regular season awards this year, after only two games. I have a few candidates for each award, and I want to expound on the picks for a bit, so let’s just jump into it.

    Coach of the Year

Steve Nash

I know deep down in my soul, that the media voters are going to make Steve Nash the Coach of the Year. I don’t think it should be this way, but I don’t see anyway around it. He’s a rookie head coach, he has a brand new coaching staff, and most importantly, his team is like, super good. Scary good, if you will. After last night’s 28 point win over the Celtics, with KD and Kyrie looking as close to full strength as possible, it is very clear that even with a shortened schedule, this team might still win 60 games, for sure 55. The team is too deep, too talented, and apparently too driven to be denied this accolade. The media will eat this up and have no other choice but to give COTY to Steve Nash. Unless….

Stan Van Gundy

Yes. The Pelicans are 1-1 at the time of writing this piece, and yes, there were times in yesterday’s game where they looked dead in the water. I think some things should be put into context though. This team is ridiculously young. Their core consists of two 23 year old’s, and a 20 year old phenom. Zion put on a show yesterday with 32 points, shooting 11-20 from the field, and  10-15 from the line. Brandon Ingram had a pretty good outing as well with 28 points on 7-17 shooting, going 10-11 from the line. I’m willing to bet that if Lonzo Ball had been as aggressive as he was in the Pelican’s first game, they might have won this game against the Heat, despite the Heat’s great 3-point shooting. IF this team can somehow make it into the playoffs, I think Stan Van Gundy should get the nod for the COTY. He’s been known to help young talent flourish, and so far, that is exactly what it looks like is going down in New Orleans.

6th Man of the Year

Goran Dragic

I’ve noticed one theme so far with the bench players of all the teams I’ve watched, and it is “embracing your role.” Dragic did incredibly well with this last year, being a strong contributor off the bench, letting the younger talent grow with the Heat, and this year it appears we will get even more of that. Yesterday against the Pelican’s he was the definition of a “sparkplug” kind of player. As soon as he stepped on the court he just brought this energy and passion to the game, and it showed up in the stat sheet. 18 points, 9 assists, 4 steals. This coming after a 20 point and 7 assist outing against the Magic. If he is able to keep this kind of production up, he will be at the top of the ballot for the 6th Man of the Year award.

Caris LeVert

    Okay, look. I am fully aware that he did not have a great day yesterday. 10 points and 7(!) turnovers isn’t exactly something you want coming from your bench players, but it is clear that the Nets are going to be very good this year, and it is not just the KD and Kyrie show. LeVert was a starter last year, and it looks like he bought into the idea of leading the bench unit while playing starter minutes. Through two games, he’s averaging basically 23 points, 6 assets, and 5 rebounds. What a good stat line for someone so young off the bench. He’s getting ready to really hit his stride as a player, and I think this is the start of it. Playing behind KD and leading the Brooklyn bench with the numbers he’s putting up is making him a clear contender for the award.

Carlemo Anthony

This is more of a pipe dream than a reality, but I do believe that it is warranted. Anthony is another player that looks to have embraced his role off the bench. Most people never believed that it would happen, but he put up 15 points, on 41% shooting, with 4 rebounds in his only outing this season. I think it would be a nice bow to put on the top of Melo’s career, and if he’s able to continue lighting up bench players with his one dribble pullup game, I think he should be in the conversation for the award, not just for legacy, but for production too.

Most Improved Player of the Year

Jaylen Brown

    Call me a Boston homer all you want, but it is clear that Jaylen is at the very least, the second best player on this Celtics team, and most certainly the most important player. With the loss of Gordon Hayward this off season, more of the playmaking and facilitating had to fall on Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, and after watching both games so far, it seems like Jaylen is ready. Kemba Walker is out for the foreseeable future, and Jaylen has proven to be ready to take all the responsibility. For someone who is only averaging 13 points for his career, and 20 last year, Brown is going off for 30 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 47/37% shooting splits. I don’t think that Jaylen’s production should go unnoticed solely because he is on a good team. He belongs in this conversation because this summer, after his extension, he has put in the work, and it shows.

RJ Barrett

Well, talk about improvement so far. I’m aware that it is only one game, but it should also be made aware that this Knicks team, despite getting Obi Toppin in the draft (more on him later,) is a dumpster fire. Despite the train wreck that is the entire Knicks franchise, RJ went out against a good Pacer team and put up 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists on 73(!)% shooting and 100(!!)% from deep. RJ has the most to prove from last year’s rookie class, with Zion going to be dominant for New Orleans, and Ja Morant continuing to show improvement after his 44 point night against the Spurs. With some tweaking of the starting lineup for the Knicks, I think that RJ can really develop his game, and take the steps needed to win this award.

Rookie of the Year

Obi Toppin

I think this is going to be an easy pick for the media. He plays in New York, he is super athletic, he’s going to get a lot of opportunities to score because of how bad the Knicks are, and I think the media secretly want to keep the Knicks relevant, so giving the award to a player from New York, playing for the Knicks would be a really good narrative to pursue. However, I think Toppin will make a case on his own merit to win the award. He is so clearly talented and gifted with incredible athleticism, that it will translate to his game to warrant the award. If he is able to demonstrate the ability to score at this level, along with his highlight reel tendency, and the fact the House of Highlights and other outlets will always have coverage to anything incredible he does, it’ll be an easy pick for Toppin.

James Wiseman

    I’ve talked before about how I think that Wiseman landed in the perfect situation with the Warriors. He gets to play with the greatest shooter and point guard of all time in Steph Curry, he gets to play in a smooth motion offense under Steve Kerr, and he gets to be mentored by Draymond Green on defense. I believe that being in a system is one of the most important things in developing a young player, and with a skillset like Wiseman has, it should be an achievable goal to win ROTY. Through two games, he looks REALLY good with 18.5 points, 7 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 1 steal per game while shooting 50% from the field and 80(!)% from deep, albeit a small sample size. Through the first two games, it looks like the Warriors are going to struggle again, so expect Wiseman to get even more opportunities to show what he has.

Defensive Player of the Year

Karl-Anthony Towns

    First of all, let’s send some love his way. This man has been through a lot this year, and if he didn’t want to play at all this year, I would totally understand. The fact that he is playing shows a lot of toughness, and it looks like he is on a mission. KAT has always been drug through the mud when it came to his defensive ability and effort, but after 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal against the Pistons, we might be in for a different version of KAT. There is a different look in his eyes, and I think that might translate into some hardware for him this year.

Anthony Davis

He very much deserved the award last year, after putting up 9 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game, and I don’t think that the media will allow him to not win the award again. He hasn’t had a block so far this season, but after having what felt like four days of rest since winning the championship, I’m sure Davis will come back to his full power eventually, and continue to be the anchor of the Laker defense. I look for him to come into his own this year, getting even more opportunities to showcase his abilities than he did last year, which could mean even more ridiculous stat lines for Davis in the future.

Most Valuable Player

Kevin Durant

It would be poetic, right? Having one of the most dominant players in recent history, come back after a gruesome Achilles injury, and win the award for the second time would certainly make for an amazing story. The only thing that could throw a wrench into this would be another injury, but what I will say is that KD looks great. There were points in the game against the Warriors that I completely forgot that he was injured all last year. Even more so against the Celtics, having 29 points on 56/75% shooting splits. Right now he’s averaging 25 points per game, which admittedly given recent history is low, even low for KD, but he is doing so on 50/67/93% shooting splits. KD has not missed a beat. I saw a stat on the TNT broadcast against the Warriors that he hadn’t played a regular season game in something like 560 days, and there was absolutely no rust on this man at all. I’m hoping for continued health for KD, and if he’s able to do that, I think it is very likely he ends up with his second MVP award.

LeBron James

First and foremost, I am LEGALLY not allowed to like LeBron because of what he did to my guy Jason Terry. So, take that into consideration with what I’m about to say. Much like Anthony Davis, I think LeBron deserved the award last year too. At 35 years old, and his 16th year in the league, he was able to put up basically 25 points, 8 rebounds, and a career high 10 assists per game. He hasn’t looked like the LeBron that we’ve grown accustomed to in the past… *checks calendar* … 17 years, but again, he has barely had any time off from winning the championship, and the season is a marathon, and not a sprint. LeBron will turn it up again soon, and dominate the league. It would be fitting for LeBron to be the first ever player to win the regular season MVP award for three different teams, after doing so with the Finals MVP just last season. If we are being completely honest with ourselves, LeBron could have 10 MVPs in his trophy case right now, but there is such a thing as voter fatigue. Since we haven’t seen LeBron hoist that trophy since he was playing in Miami (dear god I feel like I’m 100 years old just thinking about that) I think it might be high time that LeBron gets the award again, not for legacy, because he already has that. Simply because he has been the undisputed best player this entire decade, and arguably the greatest player of all time. I’m a fan of giving people their roses while they are still around; LeBron wants his damn respect too, and I think this year, he’ll get that respect with his 5th MVP.