It's that time of year again. Playoff basketball is almost over and all of the individual awards have been handed out except for 1: the most important one, Finals MVP.
Every year the crop of recipients seems to change. It's because players get better and situations change, but that bias has definitely not come into account this season. All of the major award winners this season fully deserve the award, even though for most it is the first time they can be in the categories.
If you are a die-hard LeBron or John Wall fan then you might be upset by some of the selections. However, the voting committee got it all right this year. So you need to sit down and listen to why these guys deserve their awards.
Most Improved- Kevin Love
My boy, K-Love. Even though I have a heavy bias towards him there is room to argue this award selection. When you think of Derrick Rose, Russel Westbrook, and Dorrell Wright it's easy to see the massive improvement from the prior season. Especially considering Wright is the only one of those 3 that didn't make it to the playoffs. But the bottom line is K-Love broke records, made history. He is doing things we haven't seen for a good 20 odd years. The man shoots 3's, posts up, and rebounds like a monster. He made the all-star team and he has officially become a superstar. Russ and Rose were superstars already. Thus, K-Love is the most improved.
Sixth Man- Lamar Odom
Finally, Lamar gets a trophy. Maybe not statistically, but Odom is the most important sixth man every year. The Lakers are back-to-back champs and most of that is because they are a huge match-up problem for most teams. Two seven-footers in the post and a 6-10, ball-handling, 3 point shooter as a bench 4? Unfair. Finally he got credit for it.
Rookie of the Year- Blake Griffin
The Blake Show. Enough said. John Wall has had a fantastic rookie year, and probably would have won the award any other year than this one. Too bad Griffin dominated the league as arguably the most productive power forward. He broke rookie records, team records, dominated stats sheets, and most of all he dominated the highlight reel. Not only is he the rookie of the year, but he probably put together one of the most impressive rookie campaigns ever.
Defensive Player of the Year- Dwight Howard
No argument here. Nobody in the league changes the game defensively quite like D-12 does. He dominates the boards and makes any slasher think twice before entering the paint.
Coach of the Year- Tom Thibodeau
Year in and year out this award has the most viable contenders. There might be 3 guys you could argue to receive every other award but this one. This one has about 6. Doug Collins? Scott Brooks? Gregg Popovich? Well they didn't win, Thibodeau did, and it was much deserved. The Bulls were an 8th seed in the weak East last year and now they have the best record in the league. It might even have more to do with the coach then the franchises first MVP since MJ in Derrick Rose.
MVP- Derrick Rose
This award is obviously the most popular award and thus is talked about the most. That's why I'm glad the voters on the award came through with some integrity. They looked at the definition of MVP to decide. Most valuable. That's the key right there. It's not an award to the best player, to the highest scorer, or the best closer. If it were like that then the award would go to LeBron, KD, and Kobe respectively. But D-Rose made an average team the best in the league. When Boozer or Noah were injured (which was basically the entire year) the Bulls didn't skip a beat.
Finals MVP? LeBron James
At much as kills me to say this, the Heat will win the championship. Just thinking about it makes me die inside, but Wade, James, and the way Bosh is playing right now is too much for any team to handle. And with James actually making clutch plays, he is solidifying his place atop the league. If this blog were on paper, this would be the part of the page where you see wet spots from tears, but sometimes life is hard.
