Author: Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards now.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re wrapping things up today with the award for Most Valuable Player. Here are our selections:

Chris Crouse: James Harden (Rockets)
This year’s tight MVP race features two players whose teams built an entire offense around them. The scheme in Milwaukee is designed around Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s play-making ability and lack of shooting. Harden’s masterful game is what powers Houston.

Giannis blossomed into a superstar during the 2018/19 season, blending his athleticism with a smart, fundamentally sound game. He led the league in win shares per 48 minutes and in player efficiency rating. Eight of the past 10 regular season leaders in PER have taken home the MVP award.

Harden, the reigning MVP, maintained his level of play this season, capping off a three-year stretch in which he realstically could have earned three Maurice Podoloff Trophies. In 2018/19, he led the league in win shares (15.2), points per game (36.1), and VORP (9.89, which ranks 12th all-time).

As I mentioned in part two of our “Contract MVPs,” Giannis played under 2,400 minutes this season, ranking 47th in the league (sandwiched between CJ McCollum and Nicolas Batum). The Bucks were able to regularly handle competition and let Antetokounmpo sit early. Harden finished second in the league in time accrued, behind only Bradley Beal.

Should we penalize Antetokounmpo for the Bucks being a much better regular season team than the Rockets? No, but we also shouldn’t discount what Harden was able to do, carrying a team plagued with instability because of injuries and a new cast of rotation players.

Both players are deserving, but Harden gets my vote.

Dana Gauruder: James Harden (Rockets)
I can’t fault anyone who votes for Antetokounmpo, but here’s the stat that tips the scale for me — Harden’s 36.1 PPG is the highest since Michael Jordan averaged a career-high 37.1 in 1986/87. Harden was a one-man band on quite a few occasions, as Chris Paul missed 24 games and Clint Capela sat out 15 due to injuries. Despite facing defenses completely geared to stop him, Harden rarely had an off night. When the situation called for him to be more of a play-maker, he notched double digits in assists 24 times.

Arthur Hill: James Harden (Rockets)
The MVP narrative favors Antetokounmpo, who was the best player on the team with the best record, but Harden deserves the honor for a second consecutive year thanks to a historically great season. Harden posted the 10th 2,800-point season in league history and won the scoring race by a margin of 8.1 PPG. He also became the first player ever to average 36 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the same season.

Harden rallied the Rockets to the No. 4 seed after a painfully slow start, putting up scoring numbers we haven’t seen in years while lifting his injury-riddled team up the standings. Antetokounmpo may have led the Bucks to 60 wins, but many of those came in an Eastern Conference that only had three other good teams once the Pacers lost Victor Oladipo. The Rockets were 53-29, so seven extra wins against weaker competition shouldn’t be enough for anyone to take away Harden’s trophy.

JD Shaw: James Harden (Rockets)
I was Team Giannis heading into the season and for roughly the first half of the campaign, but what Harden has been able to accomplish in 2019 is historically great — especially on the offensive end. He ended with 36.1 points per game on the year, the NBA’s highest mark in over three decades. He led his team to a 53-29 record despite dealing with injuries across the roster. You can’t go wrong with choosing either him or Antetokounmpo, really, but I’m sticking with Harden.

Luke Adams: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
There’s no doubt that Harden has posted historic numbers this season, but the same can be said of Antetokounmpo. The last – and only – player to match his 27.7 PPG, 12.5 RPG, and 5.9 APG was Oscar Robertson in his infamous triple-double season back in 1961/62, per Basketball-Reference.

Antetokounmpo put up those numbers while also helping to anchor the league’s best defense by net rating. Harden isn’t as bad defensively as certain YouTube compilations may suggest, but his impact on that end of the floor pales in comparison to Giannis’ — The Greek Freak ranked in the top 10 in the NBA in blocks per game (1.5) and in the top 15 in three-point shots contested per game (4.1), showing off a defensive versatility that allowed him to hound offensive players both on the perimeter and at the rim. He’s a legit Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

Antetokounmpo’s on/off court stats also reflect his value. The Bucks (+2.7) and Rockets (+2.4) had fairly similar net ratings with their respective stars on the bench, but Milwaukee was absolutely dominant when Giannis played (+12.8 net rating), while Houston’s numbers when Harden played were simply very good (+6.4).

The quality of competition argument in Harden’s favor isn’t a particularly compelling one to me, given that the Bucks had a better winning percentage than the Rockets against both Eastern Conference opponents (.769 to .700) and Western foes (.667 to .615). I’m not overly swayed by Harden’s role in the Rockets’ midseason resurgence either, impressive as it was, since it’s not as if he didn’t also have a hand in the team’s 11-14 start. That was the sort of slump the Bucks never experienced, thanks in large part to Giannis’ dominance over 82 games.

Clark Crum: James Harden (Rockets)
This is a tough decision for me between The Beard and The Greek Freak, but I think Harden is closing the gap between himself and LeBron James as the greatest player in the world (sorry, Kevin Durant). That opinion, combined with Harden’s ridiculous ability to put the ball into the hoop this season (his 2,818 total points scored are the most since Kobe Bryant in 2005/06, when The Black Mamba scored 2,832 points in two more games played) has me giving the slight edge to Harden.

Yes, I know Antetokounmpo had an all-time great stat line as well, and that his team had a better record. But the Western Conference is still better than the Eastern Conference and Harden had to carry the Rockets on his back for a large portion of the season due to injuries to key teammates. If Giannis wins, it would be well-deserved, but if I had to pick one of the two, I’d pick Harden.

Austin Kent: James Harden (Rockets)
It’s physically painful for any sane basketball fan to say that Antetokounmpo shouldn’t be named the 2018/19 MVP, but year-end awards are imperfect traditions.

To put it simply, Antetokounmpo is a 24-year-old marvel who just recorded one of the most mind-blowing seasons in NBA history. Unfortunately, there’s only one name permitted on the ballot and while Antetokounmpo’s 2018/19 campaign may very well have been worthy of the award in countless previous seasons, it just missed the cut in, well, 2018/19.

Here’s why I’ve given Harden the nod: While both Harden and Antetokounmpo have reached unprecedented levels of dominance, Harden is the one that has reinvented and refined his game to single-handedly drag a ho-hum roster to title contention. Harden’s ability to adjust his game to execute Mike D’Antoni‘s offense deserves more recognition than it gets.

Antetokounmpo’s method is a relatively simple one: be gigantic, mythically athletic, and one of the hardest working players in the NBA. Harden, in contrast, has taken a relatively pedestrian NBA body, choreographed his footwork to the rhythm of a geometry text book and somehow established himself as one of the most potent point catalysts in NBA history.

In an era of padded stats and data-driven efficiency, Harden has Moneyballed the actual physics of the sport. He’s not Shaquille O’Neal dunking with an opposing team’s frontcourt hanging off his back; he’s not LeBron James running like a train in transition; he’s a portly combo guard who exploits weaknesses and studies angles like a teenager who makes $100K per year destroying people in Counter-Strike.

Harden has always been an All-Star caliber guard but now he’s an All-Star caliber guard who draws fouls better than any player in the league – to the chagrin of everyone – and has perfected a step-back that renders anybody with less than a seven-foot wingspan helpless.

I eagerly await what comes next from Antetokounmpo – there’s no question that he’s the NBA’s Best Asset – but if limited to one pick for MVP, I’m going with the mortal who figured out a new way to play a 100-year-old sport. I think in the tome of NBA history, that’s a more valuable chapter.

Who is your pick for Most Valuable Player? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

• Executive of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth Man of the Year
• Most Improved Player
• Rookie of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards now.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Defensive Player of the Year. Here are our selections:

Arthur Hill: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
Utah’s defensive identity is built around Gobert, who once again ranked among the league’s best shot blockers at 2.3 per game. He won the Defensive Player of the Year award last season despite playing just 56 games, but this year he was on the court virtually every night, acting as an intimidating rim protector who allows Utah’s perimeter defenders to stay at home on 3-point shooters. The Jazz have become one of the league’s best defensive teams, and it all starts with Gobert.

Chris Crouse: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
Gobert continues to impress on the defensive end year after year and the 2018/19 season was no exception. He anchored the Western Conference’s best defense, invoking fear into opposing play-makers and swatting away 2.3 shot attempts per game. He finished in the top five in defensive win shares and defensive rating, and no player had a better defensive box plus/minus than Utah’s center.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paul George and Joel Embiid should all be considered for the award — it’s fair to wonder how many awards Embiid would have this year if he had played closer to 82 games. Gobert isn’t head-and-shoulders above any of these candidates, but he gets the nod for his body of work this year.

JD Shaw: Kawhi Leonard (Raptors)
To me, he’s still the best defender in basketball today. It’s that simple. He’s able to guard multiple positions for extended periods of time, has great length, anticipation, athleticism, and large hands to disrupt the top offensive threats on each team every night. Despite sitting some games earlier in the season, he was able to do just that with Toronto.

Dana Gauruder: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
Gobert posted a career-high 24.6 PER, according to ESPN’s rankings, and a league-high 5.1 Defensive Box Plus/Minus rating, according to Basketball-Reference. Utah’s defense revolves around Gobert’s ability to protect the rim and switch onto a variety of players. The Jazz also gave up the second-fewest 3-point makes in the league because their perimeter players can stick close to shooters while Gobert patrols the lane.

Luke Adams: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
In a tight race that featured at least three or four viable Defensive Player of the Year candidates, Gobert gets the edge as much for his quantity of play as his quality of play. What does that mean? In addition to appearing in 17 more games than fellow rim protector Embiid, Gobert was asked to take on greater defensive responsibilities than players like Antetokounmpo and George.

As ESPN’s Zach Lowe detailed earlier this month, the Jazz surrendered the fifth-lowest share of shots at the basket, thanks in large part to Gobert, who still managed to challenge approximately 27 shots per 100 possessions, per Second Spectrum’s data — Antetokounmpo and George challenged about 15.5 apiece. While the other candidates had terrific years, Gobert’s impact on the defensive end was – in my view – more substantial.

Who is your pick for Defensive Player of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

• Executive of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth Man of the Year
• Most Improved Player
• Rookie of the Year

Still to come:

• Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Rookie of the Year. Here are our selections:

Arthur Hill: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Trae Young rallied to make the race interesting, but Doncic stands atop a very talented rookie class. He arrived from the EuroLeague with more experience and poise than most first-year players and quickly proved to be as good as his reputation. He was the top rookie scorer at 21.2 points per game to go with 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists, making him the first rookie to reach that combination since Oscar Robertson. Triple-doubles should become common for Doncic in the future as the Mavericks improve.

JD Shaw: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Just like the MVP award, this is widely viewed as a race between two select players: Doncic and Young. While Young made a strong late-season push, Doncic’s impressive production lasted all year long for the Mavericks, with the 20-year-old proving he can play multiple positions and lead a young team for the future. His wizardry with the basketball, impressive court vision, willingness to rebound, and mature scoring abilities help him stand out at such a young age, giving him the edge to be my pick for this year’s award.

Chris Crouse: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Doncic wasn’t held back by the learning curve that typically accompanies rookies. Showcasing command of the Mavs offense early in the season, he built a Rookie of the Year award candidacy that would be hard for any player to overcome.

Young, Deandre Ayton, and Jaren Jackson Jr. are among those who deserve recognition for their respective rookie seasons and each should have a bright future in the league. However, Doncic’s debut was more deserving of the award.

Dana Gauruder: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young made a spirited run after the All-Star break, but Doncic’s numbers also rose as the year went along. Even after posting 21.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 6.0 APG in his first NBA season, he’s still younger than many college juniors — the Mavericks’ future is bright with Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis as their franchise cornerstones. Doncic also racked up eight triple-doubles, tying for fourth in the league, and he’ll likely rank second to only Russell Westbrook in that category over the next few seasons.

Luke Adams: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young’s second-half stats (22.8 PPG and 8.9 APG in 40 games) made this race more interesting than it had any right to be, given that at least one sportsbook paid out Rookie of the Year bets on Doncic in mid-February. Still, the gap between the two rookies’ early-season performances make this an easy choice.

Before they slumped during the holiday season and then traded away half their team early in 2019, the Mavericks got off to a 15-11 start – capped by a win in Atlanta – with Doncic looking like their MVP. Meanwhile, during the Hawks’ first 26 games, Young was putting up a shooting line of .373/.243/.781 with a league-worst turnover rate. Young’s second-half run wasn’t enough to overcome that slow start.

While a number of players from the 2018/19 rookie class should go on to have long, productive NBA careers, Doncic has been the best of the bunch so far.

Who is your pick for Rookie of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

• Executive of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth Man of the Year
• Most Improved Player

Still to come:

• Defensive Player of the Year
• Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Most Improved Player. Here are our selections:

Luke Adams: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
In a season littered with breakout performances, nearly half of the NBA’s rosters feature at least one legit candidate for this award. None has a stronger case than Siakam.

Grouped together with young Raptors role players like Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby a year ago, Siakam has raised his ceiling significantly since then, improving every aspect of his game, from his ball-handling to his outside shooting to his defensive versatility. The Raptors leaned on Siakam as one of their primary play-makers on offense and asked him to defend point guards, centers, and everything in between on the other end of the floor. He responded admirably to every challenge, emerging as an indispensable part of a 58-win team and as a future All-Star.

Dana Gauruder: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Siakam only started five games last season before blossoming into the second-best player on a prime playoff contender in 2018/19, his third NBA campaign. The 25-year-old averaged nearly 10 points more than last season, was one of the Raptors’ top rebounders (6.9 RPG), and improved his assist totals as the season went along (4.1 in the month of March). Even if Kawhi Leonard leaves in free agency, Siakam may be primed to step into a starring role.

JD Shaw: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
This is the easiest award for me to vote on, mostly because Siakam’s improvement on both ends was so clear this season that you really don’t have to look at the stat sheets. He was tasked with a much larger role under head coach Nick Nurse and accepted the challenge, cementing his role as starting power forward and helping lead the Raptors to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 58-24.

If you do check the numbers, you’ll see Siakam raised his shooting marks drastically. He shot 55% from the floor, up from 51% last season, and 37% from 3-point range, up from 22%, to go along with an average of 16.9 points per game, good for the second-most on his team.

Arthur Hill: D’Angelo Russell (Nets)
Injury-free for the first time since his rookie season, Russell developed into the leader the Lakers were hoping for when they drafted him second overall in 2015. His stats didn’t improve as much as those of other candidates (21.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 7.0 APG this season, compared to 15.5/3.9/5.2 last year), but he became the top crunch-time option for a Nets team that reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Russell was Brooklyn’s leader in scoring, 3-pointers, assists, steals, deflections, games played, minutes played and PER, and appears ready to be one of the top point guards in the East for years to come.

Chris Crouse: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Russell took a huge step forward this year, while Siakam took a Giannis-from-the-free-throw-line style leap.

Siakam’s improvement came in ever-changing circumstances. The Raptors only saw Leonard and Kyle Lowry suit up together in 43 games. Siakam played in 80 contests and was part of 19 different starting lineups for Toronto. His role routinely fluctuated from top defensive stopper to floor-spacing third option to isolation play-maker to in-transition tempo-setter.

Due to injuries, Russell also had to deal with a rotating cast beside him, but he consistently was the No. 1 option. He led the Nets to the playoffs first the first time since Paul Pierce was in Brooklyn, scoring 4.6 more points and dishing out nearly two more assists per game than he did last season without increasing his turnovers. His player efficiency rating skyrocketed from barely above league average to 19.4.

Russell’s year-to-year usage in Brooklyn remained steady and he deserves credit for becoming more efficient with his opportunities. Siakam expanded his game and earned additional opportunities, upping his scoring by nearly 10 points per contest with a completely new offensive game. Brooklyn’s first-time All-Star appears to want the award more than Siakam, but the Raptors’ utility knife has the better case for 2018/19’s Most Improved Player.

Who is your pick for Most Improved Player? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

• Executive of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth Man of the Year

Still to come:

• Rookie of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards over the next two weeks.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Sixth Man of the Year. Here are our selections:

Clark Crum: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Williams has (once again) put together one of the greatest regular season performances of any reserve in NBA history.

If you limit the definition of “reserve” to only those players who started 5 games or less during a season (i.e. true reserves) while playing 20+ MPG, Williams’ 2018/19 numbers rank third all-time in PPG (behind Ricky Pierce in 1989-90 and 1990-91) and APG (behind Hall-of-Famer John Stockton in 1986-87 and Jarrett Jack in 2012-13) and ninth all-time in PER. And while his numbers last season were even better, Williams was able to help lead his team to the playoffs this year.

There are certainly other candidates who had fantastic seasons, including – but not limited to – Williams’ teammate, Montrezl Harrell, and Pacers’ big man Domantas Sabonis, but Williams’ impact on the game is still unmatched in today’s NBA.

Arthur Hill: Lou Williams (Clippers)
The reigning Sixth Man of the Year is an easy choice to win the award again. He averaged better than 27 points per 36 minutes and provided the Clippers with enough scoring punch to  reach the playoffs after trading away Tobias Harris. Williams fits the instant offense role as well as anyone ever has and may contend for this award every year until he retires.

Luke Adams: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Williams’ eligibility for this award, which I expect him to win unanimously, seems almost unfair. But the fact that the Clippers can bring their most talented scorer off the bench is a testament to their depth, which allows Doc Rivers to run out a solid starting five before plugging in Williams and Harrell to pound teams’ second units.

Of course, it’s not as if Williams was padding his stats against bench players all season — he was a key closer for the Clippers in crunch time, finishing third in the NBA in total fourth quarter points, behind only James Harden and Kemba Walker.

Dana Gauruder: Lou Williams (Clippers)
At the rate he’s going, Williams will be averaging 30 points per game when he turns 40. He’s getting better as he gets older. Not only did he average 20 PPG, but his assist total was a career best 5.4 APG. He also led the Clippers on some crazy second-half comebacks. His $8MM salary is one of the league’s biggest bargains.

JD Shaw: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Several people have privately questioned why the Clippers choose to bring him off the bench, but the one-two punch of Williams and Harrell (another deserving Sixth Man of the Year candidate) has taken teams by surprise all season long. Williams averaged 20 points per game, his second straight season of scoring 20 or more, shooting 42.5% from the floor and 36.1% from 3-point range. It would be the third Sixth Man of the Year award in his 14-year career (2015, 2018).

Who is your pick for Sixth Man of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

• Executive of the Year
• Coach of the Year

Still to come:

• Most Improved Player
• Rookie of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.