On Monday night, the NBA announced the winners of its most important yearly awards live on TNT.
As you know, Russell Westbrook came home with the Most Valuable Player award, Draymond Green was named the Defensive Player of the Year, Malcolm Brogdon won Rookie of the Year, Eric Gordon won Sixth Man, Mike D’Antoni is now the reigning Coach of the Year, and Giannis Antetokounmpo won Most Improved Player.
As anti-climactic as it may seem to announce these honors two weeks after the last NBA Finals game and days after the draft, it is never too late to hold discussions over who should have won each award and why. Furthermore, it is a time-honored tradition in sports fandom and analysis to gather around and make one’s arguments about player performance and superiority until one is blue in the face or the keyboard jams. So, I say, let the discourse commence:
Did the right NBA players take home hardware this season? Who was robbed of his rightful award? Which snubbed players deserved to be finalists? We look forward to reading your thoughts and debate in the comments section.
Yes. The only award I think that could be up for debate is Defensive Player Of The Year. I think Gobert, Draymond, and Kawhi were all equally deserving.
Kawhi should have won his 3rd Defensive POY trophy … Green should have been (as John McEnroe stated) # 700 on the ballot
Kawhi had a down year, defensively. Be shouldn’t have been a top 3 finalist for DPOY. If Westbrook had finished lower than 6th in the Western Conference, I’d have said Kawhi should have won MVP though.
Johnny Mac don’t know basketball and you don’t either if you think Draymond isn’t top 3 DPOY
Saric should have been ROY he simply had better numbers. Plus he really didn’t take off until he got more time after Ilyasova was traded. Plus I feel like Embiid took some of his votes. If it was a two man race between Saric and Brogdan, Saric would’ve won.
This. People seem to forget that Ilya was on the team and took up a lot of minutes before he was traded. Its not like Saric got the workload, or replaced Embiid when we was injured. The kid had a hell of a season.
Go look at Saric and his on/off court numbers. The team was worse with him on the court than off. He is a negative when it comes to his numbers and how they effected the team. His numbers weren’t blow away numbers either. People need to get used to the fact that analytics get used more when the numbers aren’t exactly eye popping. If you want to say the end of the year gives it to him, then give it to Tyler Ulis. Or Willy Hernangomez.
James Harden shouldn’t have been top 4 in MVP. Kawhi shouldn’t have been top 3 DPOY. The winners made sense. Only really disputable thing was D’Antoni b/c he doesnt get that without Patrick Beverly and certain guys finally staying healthy. But I’m fine with him winning it. Spo has been overlooked a lot during his career, and will continue to be. It’s cool though. We know he’s a top 2/3 coach in the league with Pop and Rick Carlisle
Personally, Quinn Snyder would be my pick. I agree on Kawhi. The team was oddly a lot better without him on the floor. By the numbers, Chris Paul should have won as the team was 8 points worse on defense. However, considering they weren’t that good at defense I could see Gobert or Draymond being the logical choice. The issue is a lot of this is flat numbers based. Dray seduced people with his steals and blocks. He also had the hustle and analytics. It’s picks like Giannis and Kawhi this year that look bad when they were negatives to the team.
I like Bradley Stevens for coach of the year, Kawhi for MVP and Saric for rookie of the year.
Everything else I agree with.
I just don’t like he Westbrook getting MVP just because of raw stats and the triple doubles.
If you look at it, he shot 42% from the field and averaged over 5 turnovers a game.
Durant shot 54% this year….
How many triple doubles did Westbrook get in games where his team lost?
He and Harden hold the ball too much and this needs to be accounted for here.
I would have picked Kawhi, LeBron and Durant as MVP finalists but thats just me. These guys held the most “value” this year.
Fwiw I agree with you that Russell Westbrook shouldn’t have been MVP but I think the stats benefit him when it comes to team record when he has a triple double. I just don’t think he was that efficient. Shot worse and had the same amount of assists. I liked Kawhi as MVP but only cause Cavs underperformed in the East, and Steph and KD split the vote in GS. Kawhi is such a great 2-way player and got the Spurs to a superb with record this season. Saric for rookie of the year for me as well
I believe they were 32-9 this year when he had a triple double. So do the math on their winning percentage with how they fared the rest of the year.
The Thunder where 31-9 when Westbrook had a triple double so that doesnt make sense what your saying, Harden and Westbrook hold the ball too much? You do realize they are super stars right? They are far and away the best players on there team…they’re SUPPOSE to have and hold ball more then anyone else. You’re one of those people who takes the “V” in MVP literally. And thats fine if thats what you want to do, but value is so hard to quantify. Thats why most people use tangible numbers to determine their choice. And you conveniently knock Westbrook for having more then 5 turnovers per game when Harden actually averaged more! lol 5.7 per game. Kawhi should have finished 2nd thats maybe the only change I’d make. You can argue Lebron should win every year and I doubt any Warrior will win just because of how stacked they are. But are they better players?…yeah of course
Thunder 12-24 when Westbrook didn’t have a triple double
D’antoni put people in wonderful positions to succeed.
Pop did another masterful job winning 60 games — far more than the Celtics — in a much tougher conference.
Spo did more with Less Talent than anybody in the league.
Stevens is a nice coach but when you have a 30ppg PG, a $120m Center and deep, deep roster like that…it’s not in the same category. He deserves credit for building a great culture, but it wasn’t an exemplary performance by any stretch.
I don’t understand the Kawhi MVP logic. He simply doesn’t affect the game the way Harden and Westbrook do. And the next time I hear the “yeah he plays defense argument” yeah that’s why there’s a SPECIFIC AWARD for Defense called Defensive Player of the Year. There is no OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR so the MVP is LARGELY and always will be, about guys who add points, not prevent them. And Kawhi’s offensive contributions just aren’t as significant. By any metric. /
Saric put up meaningless points in meaningless games with a totally gutted roster. And he’s played professional basketball since 2012, so “rookie” eligibility has a lot to answer for.
Embiid
Saric