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With the NBA regular season finishing today, it is time to nominate who should win the 2014-15 NBA awards.
Though it’s always tough to select the winners, this season was even trickier, due to the large number of quality candidates in almost each of the categories.
However, I’ve painstakingly selected my deserving individuals, so drum roll please…
Most Valuable Player
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we legitimately have five candidates for the Maurice Podoloff Trophy. Heck, it might even be six if you include Chris Paul’s second half of the season.
So, now that we’ve reached the end of the regular season, has my mind changed from James Harden as the winner?
Russell Westbrook deserves consideration for his mind-boggling finish to the season. LeBron James is still the best player on the planet, and a victim of his own high standards. Anthony Davis finished with a player efficiency rating (PER) of 31.0, making his one of the greatest regular seasons of all-time.
However, Steph Curry represents the biggest danger to Harden’s MVP candidacy.
Curry deserves more than just credit for leading his Warriors to the best record in the league. In fact, his ridiculous shooting, ball handling and passing over the last few weeks may now give him the edge over Harden.
Harden has had less to work with from a teammates point of view, but Curry lifted Golden State to transcendent levels this season, and finished the season ever so slightly stronger than ‘The Beard’.
So yes, I’ve flipped, and would now name Steph Curry the MVP for 2014-15.
I think.
Defensive Player of the Year
Another cluttered field for this award.
Consider the following list of names: DeAndre Jordan, Draymond Green, Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis, Andrew Bogut, Chris Paul, Marc Gasol, Rudy Gobert, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Tony Allen.
I’ve probably forgotten someone too.
Seeming as there is so much competition, I needed to get really harsh and eliminate players based on them missing games through injury, or playing fewer minutes than other contenders. It’s not entirely fair, but it does help whittle the list down to Jordan, Duncan and Green.
Of those three, Jordan has the most impressive stats, and Green is the most versatile, but Duncan gets my vote. He blocks shots, he rebounds, he locks his man down, he rotates, he’s vocal, he’s consistent, he’s brilliant in the clutch, and he does a number of other things that will never show up in a stat sheet.
Incredibly, at age 38, old man Timmy Duncan should be the Defensive Player of the Year.
Rookie of the Year
The much vaunted rookie class of 2014-15 ended up being somewhat disappointing, mainly due to a number of devastating injuries, but also because it’s evident that many of the young players will take a little longer than expected to develop.
There was some late-season noise that Nerlens Noel was making a strong case for the Rookie of the Year award, but I suspect that was simply a case of journalists attempting to create a story that didn’t exist.
Though Noel had a solid first year, posting stats of 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.8 steals per game, this award is only going one place, and that’s Minnesota.
The Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins should win in a complete landslide.
Statically, only his scoring average was truly impressive, but it was the growth and improvement Wiggins showcased over the course of the season that should ensure he’s named the NBA best first-year player this season. And I suspect it won’t even be close.
Coach of the Year
Perhaps my favourite NBA gong, and always a hotly contested category; this year being no different.
Greg Popovich remains as great as ever, and the Spurs will once again – amazingly – enter the playoffs as a championship contender. Tom Thibodeau overcame upheavals and injuries to guide his Bulls into the top four in the East.
Jason Kidd’s performance on the sidelines with the Bucks this season is criminally underrated. In Portand, Terry Stott’s runs some of the best plays in the league. Even Brad Stevens did an amazing job getting so many wins out of an underwhelming roster in Boston.
Also, LeBron James did a good job in Cleveland. Oh sorry, I mean David Blatt. (Zing!)
However, this season it’s really a two-horse race between Golden State’s Steve Kerr and Atlanta’s Mike Budenolzer.
Coach Bud has done a wonderful job implementing a system in Atlanta, and considering the lack of big names on the Hawks roster, you need to give a lot of credit to the coach for the way the team executes, both offensively and defensively. He’s done a truly outstanding job.
Yet Steve Kerr deserves to win, because he took a good team and made them great, primarily because of his coaching.
The foundations were already there for a fantastic Warriors team, and previous coach Mark Jackson deserves credit for instilling some defence into a franchise that has never been known for it.
Kerr – in his first year as a coach – maintained that fantastic D, but it was always puzzling that the Warriors weren’t a great offensive team over the last few seasons, considering the weapons at their disposal. That’s where the new coach made the biggest impact.
Kerr made a number of adjustments on offense.
For example, early on, he understood the rare talent he had at centre, and immediately began using Andrew Bogut’s passing skills to their full potential, with the Warriors running some awesome dribble hand-offs from their big man to their elite-level shooters.
The Warriors have an undeniably talented roster, but Kerr propelled this squad to a historically great regular season team; they’ll probably finish with 67 wins, and they beat teams by an average of over 10 points per game.
They were great, Kerr was great, and he was the standout coach this season.
Sixth Man of the Year
Lou Williams’ performance against Miami last weekend sealed the deal: the Toronto Raptor is my best reserve for 2014-15.
In an 82-game regular season, it would be stupidity of the highest order to reward a player based upon just one game, but Williams’ 29-point effort against the Heat typified what he’s done for the Raptors all season.
He’s the epitome of a ‘sparkplug off the bench’, and provides Toronto with some funky types of scoring when he enters the game. He’s also won them a handful of games almost single-handedly.
Isaiah Thomas, Marreese Speights and perennial favourite Jamal Crawford will all poll strongly, but it’s Williams’ award to lose.
Most Improved Player
The popular picks here are Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gobert, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson or Hassan Whiteside, and all would be deserving winners.
However, I’m going slightly left field and nominating Anthony Davis.
‘The Brow’ put up ridiculous numbers this season and established himself as an NBA superstar, while also laying claim to being the league’s future poster child.
In one year, he made the leap from ‘promising young player’ to ‘potential MVP’.
If the award is about recognising those that have improved, how do you go past that type of development?
Executive of the Year
It should be banished Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry.
One can only imagine the level of awkwardness that would be generated by presenting Ferry with the Executive of the Year award, considering no one has seen him since September due to his unfortunate racial comments about Luol Deng.
The Hawks have avoided an uncomfortable scenario by instead nominating head coach Mike Budenolzer, who has presided as the Head of Basketball Operations in Ferry’s enforced absence.
Yet it’s Ferry that deserves the accolades, having assembled a great roster and coaching staff that finished with the best record in the East, despite the absence of a true superstar.