The awards thread

[GoHornets]

Soon the the playoffs will start and the players awards will be anounced.
I created this thread to share our ideas about who should win the awards.

This would be my awarded players:
MVP: Kobe Bryant
Rookie of the year: Kevin Durant
Most improved: Chris Kaman
6th Man: Manu Ginobili
Defensive player: Chris Paul or Marcus Camby

[Lamrock]

Okay. Maybe we can make a contest out of this. Deadline: April 1?

MVP: Kobe Bryant
ROY: Al Horford
Most Improved: Jose Calderon
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Byron Scott
Executive: Danny Ainge

[wade_03]

MVP: Kobe Bryant/Chris Paul
ROY: Al Horford
Most Improved: Chris Paul/Chris Kaman/Jose Calderon
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Byron Scott/Doc Rivers
Executive: Danny Ainge

[Lamrock]

Only one person wins each award.

[mvpshaq32]

MVP: Kobe Byrant
ROY: Kevin Durant
Most Improved: Hedo Turkoglu
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobli
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Byron Scott
Executive: Danny Ainge

[mAgoTT50]

MVP: LeBron James
ROY: Al Horford
Most Improved: Brendan Haywood
Sixth Man: Linas Kleiza
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Doc Rivers
Executive: Danny Ainge

[Oskar]

MVP: Chris Paul
ROY: Kevin Durant
MIP: Chris Kaman/Anthony Carter/Linas Kleiza
6th Man: Manu Ginobli/Linas Kleiza
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Byron Scott

[Cornerthree]

MVP - Kobe Bryant
DPOY - Marcus Camby
MIP - Jose Calderon
ROY - Al Horford
6th man - Manu Ginobili
COY - Byron Scott
Executive - Mitch Kupchak

[Donatello]

MVP: Kobe Bryant
ROY: Kevin Durant
Most Improved: Hedo Turkoglu
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Nate McMillan
Executive: Danny Ainge (or Steve Kerr if Suns win it all )

[shadowgrin]

MVP: LeBron James
Statistically, he's superior to anyone (30 PER ) and also most important to his own team compared to stars in their respective teams. KG? When he was out Celts still won with Pierce and Allen. Kobe? Lakers winning because of post presence (Bynum then Gasol) plus one of the more productive bench in the league. The only player that I could think of that is second in terms of importance to a team is Dwight Howard, without Dwight, Hedo and Rashard wouldn't be that free from defenders to shoot and no one would rebound most of their misses.

DPOY: Chris Paul
If the Hornets finish on top of the West and/or Chris Paul doesn't win MVP, the media will probably just give him the DPOY as a consolation for his effort this season. He should win it because it's his consolation for being screwed out of the MVP award, along with LeBron.

6th Man: Manu Ginobili
Drops his usual stats except this season he does it coming out of the bench.

MIP: Al Jefferson
Option was just between Kaman and him but my homer pick is Jeffe.

ROY: Kevin Durant
Al Horford? IMO, Atlanta's record is because of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Marvin Williams, I still think they would have a similar record if their bigman is Pachulia and played well this season. Durant is "used" by his team more compared to Horford.

COY: Byron Scott
It's just between him and Adelman. Even though a 22-win streak is impressive, Scott has been consistently winning with his team all through out the season, they didn't need the motivation of losing their star player just to get the W.

EOY: Danny Ainge
One of the best records in the league. Turning a disaster of a lottery into acquiring the Big Three.

EDIT: Damn benji.

[L10]

MVP: Chris Paul
ROY: Kevin Durant
Most Improved: Hedo Turkoglu
Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili
DPOY: Josh Smith
COY: Byron Scott

[SpaceFlare]

MVP: Kobe Bryant
ROY: Al Horford
MIP: Hedo Turkoglu
6th Man: Manu Ginobili
DPOY: Marcus Camby
COY: Rick Adelman
Executive: Danny Ainge

[benji]

It would be fantastic if people actually posted reasons why...

I refuse to choose with 15-20% of the season remaining. Especially considering the first of the awards will not be known until around game 4 of the first round. (Aside from Kobe, who is stupidly winning MVP this year anyway. Provided he doesn't screw up and be unfriendly in interviews in the next month.)

And I hate all of you for not keeping the same order on your awards listings.

[ultimateplaya]

MVP: LeBron James
I believe that the MVP award should go to a player that a team can't play without. Cleveland are 0-7 this season when LeBron doesn't play, so it goes to show that they need him a lot.

ROY: Kevin Durant
Speaks for itself.

MIP: Andrew Bynum
Even if he is injured, earlier in the season this guy has improved a lot IMO.

6th Man: Manu Ginobili
He's the Spurs' leading scorer and he give the Spurs that extra edge over most teams in having a quality player of the bench.

DPOY: Marcus Camby
Again speaks for itself.

COY: Byron Scott
He (and Chris Paul) is the reason why the Hornets are as good as they are this year and they will have a great future if he continues to stay there.

[Lamrock]

Sorry that this topic fails to meet your standards benji. That being said, I'll include reasons.

MVP: Kobe Bryant - Will win MVP by default.

ROY: Al Horford - I live in Seattle, and I like Durant, but Al Horford is playing better, and his team is likely going to make the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.

Most Improved: Jose Calderon - With Kaman already having a semi-breakout year in 2006, and his team's poor record, and frontrunner Bynum missing a third of the season, the award falls to Jose Calderon, who went from serviceable sixth man PG to a possible all-star and one of the best players at his position.

Sixth Man: Manu Ginobili - He is playing at an all-star level.. and he comes off the bench.

DPOY: Marcus Camby - The Nuggets would be on the receiving end of 168 point games on a regular basis without Camby; 13.5 RPG, 3.7 BPG

COY: Byron Scott - Has coached the Hornets from mediocre (last year) to top-tier in the West. Granted, his team being consistently healthy (as opposed to last year), and Chris Paul being possibly the best player in the NBA, but still, Sam Mitchell won it last year.

Executive: Danny Ainge - The Celtics were 24-58 last year. They are on pace for 65+ wins this season.

[benji]

Well, the forum was having a good run, fewer threads of people just posting lists. It would be great if that continued. Posting picks without reasoning is easy, any moron can do that, which is why ESPN does it that way.

Also, I question if this is this really a "prediction" thread? The original post asks who "should" win the awards, not who "will" win them.

Anyway, why I wanted reasons, is because it is much more fun to actually discuss things with reasons, such as follows:

the award falls to Jose Calderon, who went from serviceable sixth man PG to a possible all-star and one of the best players at his position

Did Calderon really make a huge jump? It appears his three point shooting is the only major change from last season. Look at his "big" numbers:
Calderon0607: 14.9 pts 8.6 asts 19.1 PER
Calderon0708: 13.9 pts 9.7 asts 21.2 PER

I do not know if I support Kaman as the pick yet, especially considering his 2005-06 season indicating last year was more or less a fluke, but from last year to this year he certainly seems to have made a bigger jump than Calderon, at least in the "big" stats:
Kaman0607: 12.5 pts 9.7 rebs 12.9 PER
Kaman0708: 15.1 pts 12.4rebs 17.5 PER

[Lamrock]

Its that time of year... get ready for more prediction dominance.

I did not notice the "who should" thing. My bad there. I would change my MVP to CP3 and COY to Adelman in that case.

As for Calderon, his stats do look a lot better when put into per minute. However, I look into that less than you do simply because his increased amount of minutes means that he gives more to the team, but yes, his PER stats aren't much improved.

Chris Kaman's stats should be compared to 2005-06, but even then, his stats wouldn't be so hot if Elton Brand wasn't out for the whole season. He is just in a different situation. If Brand is still a Clipper by next season, expect Kaman's numbers to slip again.

[benji]

The award is "most improved" though, so why do we give it to people who didn't improve, but got more minutes because of various reasons? His increased amount of minutes is irrelevant to his improvement asa player. If we're going by who saw a biggest increase in minutes or role, let's rename the award then. Then we can happily give it to guys like Isaac Austin, Zach Randolph and Jose Calderon.

Something like "Player who the media didn't previously notice because they watch three games a year and who didn't get gaudy per game stats, or player who had a flukey shooting season."

The only reason I even care, is because so many people use awards as "proof" of something in arguments. As if the opinion of a bunch of sportswriters somehow decides things.

[Lamrock]

Well, in playing more minutes, Calderon must play against starters more often (before when he was a sixth man he often just had to face second string players) and also somewhat deal with fatigue. It is easier to maintain 20 points per 48 when you play 10 minutes a game off the bench as opposed to 30 minutes against starters. Also, who would you pick as Most Improved?

[benji]

I have not seen any strong evidence it is harder to maintain production over more minutes per game. And there is strong evidence it is far easier to maintain play with consistant minutes than inconsistant ones. For these reasons, you see far far more players maintain or increase production with minute increases than drop it. Provided of course, the original sample size was valid. (Not guys who played like 35 total minutes in a season.) All studies I have seen of the starters vs. bench players changes have been less than 1-2% of production alteration.

I do not know who I would pick yet, I have not evaluated all the players for this season in comparison to their previous seasons yet.

Earlier in the season discussion is here: http://www.nbaliveforums.com/viewtopic. ... 54&start=0

[J@3]

MVP - Kobe

I'm a Kobe fan and I'm sick to death of him not winning it. My sole reasoning for thinking he deserves this award is the fact that the MVP means nothing and is a shallow title at best, but I would like that shallow title to belong to my favourite player. Unfortunately Andrew Bogut won't be in contention, so I vote Kobe.

ROY - Al Horford

I like the way Durant looks on the court and he will be fun to use in NBA 2K8, unfortunately for me I have only seen Horford play once and that was the rookie game. He looked awesome thus I pick him here. Plus he's efficient and has a low usage rate which is my pet stat of the season.

MIP - Chris Kaman

6th Man - No vote

I know everyone's going for Ginobili but we all know he's not a bench player... he comes off the bench, fine, but he also plays starter minutes and has started for stretches of the season. The Spurs are cheating to try and win this award, those sons of bitches.

Defensive Player - Marcus Camby

This award is stupid because you can either award it based on stats (steals/blocks) or you can "watch the games" with the 50 billion different interpretations of what constitutes "good D"... I like Camby, I think he is a good player so I'm giving him an award here.

[Abctest123]

I have not seen any strong evidence it is harder to maintain production over more minutes per game. And there is strong evidence it is far easier to maintain play with consistant minutes than inconsistant ones. For these reasons, you see far far more players maintain or increase production with minute increases than drop it. Provided of course, the original sample size was valid. (Not guys who played like 35 total minutes in a season.) All studies I have seen of the starters vs. bench players changes have been less than 1-2% of production alteration.

I do not know who I would pick yet, I have not evaluated all the players for this season in comparison to their previous seasons yet.

Earlier in the season discussion is here: http://www.nbaliveforums.com/viewtopic. ... 54&start=0

I would think that fatigue HAS to play a factor, as your legs become more tired, blowing by a defender is not as easy and you can't get the lift you want in your jumpshots, leading to missed shots. There's also a difference in playing as a starter (mind you, if it's consistent minutes, and not starting for the sake of starting and still playing very limited minutes) as in general, if you come off the bench and play against bench guys, the level of play isn't as "high" than playing against the opposing team's starters.

[benji]

Yes, that both may be logical sounding thesis. But is there any evidence to support them?

[deihatein]

MVP= No Vote

Their are lot of players deserving to win the award and its hard to pick one and since my favorite player is not even at the top of the MVP Ranking i would not pick anyway

ROY= Al Horford
Consideration: Al Thorton

I like this guy, even though he is not a offensive type player, he is great on rebounds which keeps him on the game. I dont like Durant because of his "too many shot taking and only few are going in". I would vote for Thornton though.

MIP= Hedo Turkoglu
Consideration: Al Jefferson

Having carrer numbers, didn't get the way he deserve in the All-Star.

6th Man= Ben Gordon
Consideration: Jason Terry

I would have to agree on what Jae said here. Wandering on why pick on Ginobili being a 6th man if he starts on the team? I pick Gordon because despite the stacked of SG on their team his numbers his still great. If only Terry manage to play great on the bench

Defensive Player= No vote

Coach of the Year= Byron Scott

[grusom]

MVP - Kobe.
ROY - Durant
MIP - Hedo Turkoglu
6th Man - Manu Ginobili
Defensive player - Shane Battier
Coach of the year - Byron Scott