The REST!!!

And speaking of the 2008 NBA Individual Awards, we've got three major award announcements down (A belated Congratulations gos out to Antonio McDyess for the Sportsmanship Award). I thought I'd take this time to give my picks for the rest of


the awards yet to be given away this year. I completely agree with SMOY going to Ginobili and DPOY going to Garnett. So with out further delay...

THE REST!

Coach of The Year - Byron Scott
Runners up: Doc Rivers and Phil Jackson
Honorable Mention: Jerry Sloan and Rick Adleman

This was a tough one. I got tired of people saying that a guy who took not one, but TWO teams to the finals was a bad coach. And people have been crediting CP3 with Tyson Chandler and David West's emergence this year, but I say that a lot of that credit lies with the coaching that they're receiving. Especially Tyson Chandler. As for the runners up, it's difficult to not recognize a 66 win season in every category. Especially when they have a +10 point differential. And with all that the Lakers have been through, for them to end up with the Number 1 seed, I think Phil definitely deserves a nod there. Rick Adleman changed his coaching style on the fly twice this year, which was very impressive to me, altering the way his team played and what players he played along the way to keep that Rockets team in the hunt. And, uh... Poor Jerry Sloan. He might never win it.


All Rookie Team:
PG: Rodney Stuckey
SG: Al Thornton
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Al Horford
C: Luis Scola


Rookie of the Year - Kevin Durant
Very Close Runner Up - Al Horford
Honorable Mention: Al Thornton, Luis Scola.

This award is closer than a lot of people think. Sure, Durant averaged almost 10 points more than any other rookie. Sure, he shows one of the most complete and finalized offensive games of any rookie since Lebron James. But seriously, he led his team to the second worst record in the West. Our runner up helped push his team into the playoffs and was a monster on the boards - especially over the last half of the season. He was 25 total rebounds away from averaging a double-double, even though Mike Woodson kept him on the bench for most of the game from October to December. In the Last 2 months of the season, 25 rebounds was about 2 games for him. And his Defense is a lot better than most people will realize because he plays for the Hawks - So most people don't even realize he's in the league.

This Scola Pick here is a litte unfair for Center on the Rookie team for two reasons: First, he's listed as a forward/Center, but he's a forward. Not a Center at all. Secondly, he's a rookie, but he's been one of my favorite international players for about 5 years now, ever since seeing him on Tau Ceramica against Cska Moscow for the Euroleague Title. He was unstoppable in the post half a decade ago. Now he's a cerebral, high-IQ guy with a list of post-moves to rival even his Low-Post teammate, Yao Ming. And still, he's not in the same class as Kevin Durant and Al Horford. That's just how good those two guys are.

All Defensive Team

G: Chauncey Billups
G: Kobe Bryant
F: Shane Battier
F: Kevin Garnett - Defensive Player of the Year
C: Tim Duncan

Second Team:

G: Chris Paul
G: Raja Bell
F: Tayshaun Prince
F: Marcus Camby
C: Dwight Howard

I changed the teams up just a little bit so we could put the underated Duncan in the first team with a crowded mix at center and forward. Then Raja Bell becomes a guard and Marcus camby becomes a forward in the second team to put Dwight Howard in there. Chris Paul only gets the nod here for leading the league in steals and because of a lack of quality defenders at the point. I wanted to put Ron Artest in there, but he just missed too many games for me. So it was a toss up between Paul and Chauncey Billups for me. I know that you will notice an absence of marquee defensive names like Bruce Bowen. Honestly, Ime Udoka played better than Bowen this year. Bowen has lost more than a step this year. More like three steps. And while that still makes him a better defender than 80% of the league, 90% of the 20% better than Bowen play forward. It's a tough position to get formal Defensive recognition at.


Bizzaro Executive of the Year - Chris Wallace (Not the Chris Wallace from Fox News)
Runner Up - Kevin McHale.
Dishonorable mention - Pat Riley and Isaiah Thomas

Obviously, Kevin McHale and Chris Wallace helped to turned the Celtics and Lakers, respectively, into title contenders with little to no regard for their own franchises. At least McHale got Al Jefferson Back! Pat Riley gets the almost-stern-finger here for turning a Champion into a worse team than the Knicks. Isaiah Thomas had to be there just because I used the Knicks to measure how bad the worst team in the league has gotten and you didn't even blink.

I really think that this should be an award. It should only be given out when teams are GawdAful-Bad to the point that they're not even competitive and the fans throw rotten fruits and vegetables at the bench (Like Pat Riley's Team) or when people do amazingly stupid things (Like the other three).

Executive of the Year - Mitch Kupchak, Lakers
Runner Up - Danny Ainge, Celtics
Honorable Mention - Steve Kerr, Suns

Let's review Mitch's Season: First, he did NOT trade KOBE! Then, he DID NOT trade Kobe again. Finally, he did NOT TRADE KOBE!!! That alone was worth something. Then he did not trade Andrew Bynum, traded Brian Cook (a guy who was hurting the team with his lack of defense and shoot-first mentality) and Maurice Evans (A good shooter and alright defender with zero percent body fat, but who wasn't getting many minute playing shooting guard behind Kobe and who isn't as good a defender or shooter as Sasha Vujacic, who also plays Shooting Guard) for Trevor Ariza (A Marvelous Defender at small forward who can get into lanes, is a good ball handler and can give the Lakers a defensive lineup of Sasha, Kobe, Ariza, Odom and Bynum. That's pretty damn good. Then, Mitch Traded a center, but not the one who looks like the next franchise center for a franchise known by its centers. Instead he traded Kwame Brown. Yes, that Kwame Brown! The one who can't catch, shoot, only defends sometimes and has a tendency to forget that there's a basketball game going on. The guy who Kareem Abdul Jabar described as "Already knowing how to play Basketball". In other words, he's uncoachable and doesn't feel like he needs to get better. They traded him for a guy who fits seamlessly in with what the lakers do on offense and, though he's not great defensively, he works at it EVERY SINGLE POSSESSION. And he's good at it, just not great like Bynum will be.
Mitch Kupchak obviously has some dirty photos of Chris Wallace somewhere. I'm sure of it. But as a Lakers fan, I can't fight the feeling that one day Chris will ask Mitch to do a favor he can't refuse. Like Swapping the Number 1 pick in the draft for the number 27 pick in the draft, straight up. That is literally the caliber of trade that went down here. It is of an historic nature.

Danny Ainge, on the other hand, accepted Kevin Garnett - a no brainer, from an ex-Celtic who got Al Jefferson in Return. And once that happened, the likes of Sam Cassell, James Posey and Everybody else were just Aching to put on the green and white and lace 'em up in that lineup. But he also pulled off the Jeff Green for Ray Allen Trade and Kept Rondo out of the deal with Minny. Not a bad year for him at all. Oh, and Kerr gets honorable mention because he constructed a trade that dropped the Phoenix suns from number 2 in the west to number 6. Now there's no guarantee that the Suns wouldn't have ended up there anyway, but because of the trade, I think the Suns have a better chance of getting out of the 3-6 matchup than if they had Shawn Marion. And gave us two great games so far, even though they lost both of them. But at least now they're going back to Phoenix for the next two close games. Kudos to him.

Most Improved Player - Beno Udrih
Runner Up - Jose Calderon
Honorable Mention - Ime Udoka & Sasha Vujacic

(This one is long so take a deep breath... and GO!)

Two of our top spots have San Antonio Connections. And it's no accident. MIP is an award that usually goes either to people who GMs took a chance on, or to someone who flew way under the radar. Greg Poppavich has a knack for finding these guys. Beno Udrih was a rediculously good pick in the second round a few years back. It was clear right away that the guy could play. It was also clear right away that last year's final's MVP, Tony Parker, could also play. And that Udrih would be hard up in finding minutes behind him. I remember the day Udrih was traded. I said to one of the guys in my fantasy league, "Hey! Beno Udrih got traded to the Timberwolves! I should pick him up soon before somebody else sees that he's not playing behind Tony Parker anymore!" and my friend replied with a solemn "Who?" That's kind of the way it's been for Beno Udrih's young career so far. Anyone who's had a chance to watch him play loves his game. But no one had gotten a chance to see him yet. By Year's end, he had nearly trippled his averages for scoring, assists and rebounds while nearly doubling his percentages for three point shooting, Steals, Blocks and Minutes played. He hasn't really improved much from last year to this year. He's just gotten a chance to play in Sacremento. Let's call this the Player With the Most Improved Stats (PWTMIS) and give him the award anyway.
Jose Calderon has a similar story to Beno Udrih's. Only Calderon's emergence came because of an extended injury to T.J. Ford, not because of a trade. Honestly, Calderon should be the starter and Ford should be sitting on the bench. He could easily lead the league in assists if he played 35 minutes a game. Playing 16-20 minutes behind Ford is holding him back, and I don't know why. Toronto is better with Calderon on the floor than with Ford. The only reason Ford is playing is because they gave him so much money... ok, he's pretty good too. Just not as good as Calderon.
Ime Udoka is the only guy you might look at and say "Huh"? Comparing this year to last year, Udoka averaged fewer Points, Steals and Rebounds and shot lower percentages from the field and from three point range. And all of the drops were huge! So why is he here? His Defense. He and the next guy I'm going to talk about have improved their defense to the point that it wouldn't even be that much of a stretch to see them on next year's All-Defensive teams (They've been good this year, but without gaudy steal and block numbers, you have to make your reputation as a defender in the Post Season, then get recognized the following season. Udoka's offensive stats have struggled because last year he played in Portland in a me-first-scheme-team. That meant that he only had to worry about his individual stats and not getting injured. This year, he played alongside Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. They get the ball, they get the stats. If you want to play with them you play good, hard Defense. And that's what he's done this year. He's really defended everyone from small forwards (and small power forwards) to point guards and he's learned from Bruce Bowen's tricks. He's a joy to watch on the defensive end.
Sasha Vujacic... I have the benefit of watching him all year long, so I'm hoping that this isn't just a homer nod to him. He's increased all of his key stats except for assists and that's because he doesn't pass much. He puts the basket in the bucket. Over and over and over. And like Udoka for the Spurs, his defense has been tremendous for the Lakers this years. I can think of at leat 3 games this year that the Lakers won BECAUSE of Sasha's defense. I'm talking about last-posession "If I don't make this defensive stop, we lose because we're already down and we need another score after the stop" situations. If the Lakers had lost those three games, they'd be 6th in the west instead of 1st. That is HUGE. Good Job Sasha.


All NBA Teams

3rd Tem
G: Allen Iverson
G: Tracy McGrady
F: Al Jefferson
F: Antawn Jamison
C: Rasheed Wallace

2nd Team
G: Deron Williams
G: Manu Ginobili
F: Carmelo Anthony
F: Tim Duncan
C: Amare Stoudemire

1st Team
G: Kobe Bryant
G: Chris Paul
F: LeBron James
F: Kevin Garnett
C: Dwight Howard

I don't think that any more needs to be said about the first team. Dwight Howard is a freaking MONSTER and his was the only one that was a close decision (him or Amare there, hmmm?) The other four are collectively the MVP. I feel like I need to justify putting Al Jefferson on the Third Team, but how many other people averaged 20 and 10 this year? Go ahead, I'll give you a minute to guess. Give up? A grand total of five. That's right, over three hundred players and 5 accomplished that feat this year. Only one who lasted most of the season isn't on my list. I had to leave one of them off. Dwight Howard, Antawn Jamison, Al Jefferson, Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer all played great. But, as one Utah fan complained, "Why does EVERYONE have a career game against Carlost Boozer? It's like whoever he's playing just happens to be having the game of his life!" So yeah, A-J got the Spot. Guards are really good in the NBA. I could make a fourth team with nothing but guards. It would include Chauncey Billups, Baron Davis (who was on there at first, but I took off because I couldn't keep Tracy McGrady off since his team made the Playoffs and Baron's only had like 49 wins...), Richard Hamilton, Paul Pierce and Tony Parker... and maybe Brandon Roy... and Steve Nash. Whew. Good thing Dwayne Wade and Gilber Arenas were injured this year, huh?

MVP

Kobe Bryant.

No Further Explanation needed. Read one of my older posts comparing him to Lebron James. You'll get it.