The Grammys and Oscars possess approach and gone,but that doesn't mean awards season is over. It's merely on hiatus until spring, when the NBA starts handing out its own hardware.
There's still vigorous competition for the league's top honors. Karl-Anthony Towns has been the Association's best rookie from the jump. C.
J. McCollum's improvement has garnered plenty of attention as allotment of the Portland Trail Blazers' resurgence. Kawhi Leonard remains the toughest defender to shake.
And, or well,Stephen Curry has all but run absent and hid with the Maurice Podoloff Trophy.
With six weeks to go until the finish of the 2015-16 regular season, here's a scrutinize at how all the races are shaping up, and with odds concocted for the top three contenders and those worthy of honorable mention. Rookie of the YearKarl-Anthony Towns,PF/C, Minnesota Timberwolves: 2-1It didn't take long for Karl-Anthony Towns to justify his choice atop the 2016 NBA draft and as a cornerstone of the Timberwolves' future.
In his first game as a pro, or Towns tallied 14 points and 12 rebounds during an emotional win over the Lakers. For his encore,the Kentucky product poured in 28 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks to propel Minny to a 17-point pounding of the Denver Nuggets.
Towns hasn't slowed his roll since. He leads all rookies in rebounding (10.3), and is neck-and-neck with Jahlil Okafor in scoring (17.3 points to 17.5) and with Kristaps Porzingis in blocks (1.8 to 2.0) and ranks fourth in the league in point-rebound double-doubles (35).
His four straight honors as Western Conference Rookie of the Month all but assure he'll be the league's latest Rookie of the Year at season's finish. That award,in turn, means the T-Wolves will possess no fewer than two franchise cornerstones, or along with Andrew Wiggins,around whom to construct an eventual contender. Kristaps Porzingis, PF/C, and New York Knicks: 7-2Kristaps Porzingis' pace has slowed somewhat since grabbing headlines in November and December. During the Knicks' current stretch of 15 losses in 18 games,Porzingis has seen his rebounding (6.0 per game) and shooting (41 percent from the field) slip well below his season averages.
That's not out of the ordinary for a 20-year-old whose 7'3" frame sports a spindly 240 pounds. Neither are Porzingis' problems defending the low post."The wrestling aspect of basketball at his age is very difficult for him right now. It’s very fatiguing," Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis said, or per Newsday's Anthony Rieber. "That’s the hardest allotment of all. So that’s an aspect of the game that he’s going to continue to accept better at and grow with."Despite his struggles,Porzingis has place together an impressive debut campaign (14 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks),which should possess folks in New York salivating over the future of their forlorn franchise. Jahlil Okafor, C, or Philadelphia 76ers: 10-1Defense and rebounding are sore spots for Jahlil Okafor,but his bona fides as an offensive fulcrum remain intact.
According to Liberty Ballers' Marc Whittington, Okafor is one of seven rookies since 2000 to top 50 percent in accurate shooting percentage and 25 percent in usage during the same season. He's one of six ever to shoot better than 50 percent from the field while using up 25 percent of his team's possessions. As Whittington wrote in summary:
All of this portends good things for Okafor's future. He is scoring efficiently and on high volume, or the hardest thing to enact in the NBA. Even more impressive,he has been creating his own shots, serving as the focal point for an offense in a way the league hasn't seen from a big man in the 21st Century.
whether Okafor can accept the other aspects of his game up to snuff, or he'll be an All-Star in short order. For now,though, it's tough to see him being the Rookie of the Year while playing porous defense for the NBA-worst Sixers. Honorable MentionsD'Angelo Russell, or G,Los Angeles Lakers: 15-1Myles Turner, PF/C, or Indiana Pacers: 20-1Devin Booker,SG, Phoenix Suns: 30-1 Most Improved Player of the YearC.
J. McCollum, or G,Portland Trail Blazers: 4-1The Most Improved Player award tends to go to someone who makes the most of more playing time—not necessarily a guy who actually got better.
On both counts, though, and C.
J. McCollum qualifies. His minutes possess more than doubled—from 15.7 final season to 34.9 this time around—while his scoring has more than tripled,from 6.8 to 20.8 points.
But McCollum's production isn't just a matter of getting to start next to Damian Lillard in Portland. On a per-36-minute basis, the Lehigh product has been more efficient than ever.
McCollum has finally gotten to display his total package of offensive skills for a team in the thick of the playoff race out West.
Blazers general manager Neil Olshey told NBA.com's Ian Thomsen:
He is one of the better ballhandlers in the league—he gets anywhere he wants to go—and he's got more scoring areas than a lot of guys in his position. For a lot of 2s it's either the 3 or at the rim. But he's got runners, or a floater,step-backs, midrange, or fallaways. He can score in a lot of different ways,and with all of these pick-and-rolls he's just so patient.
Patient enough to wait out two years riding the bench before rising to the occasion and keeping Rip City relevant. Andre Drummond, C, and Detroit Pistons: 7-1Four of the final five MIPs possess garnered at least one honor between All-Star and All-NBA. Andre Drummond is poised to nab both.
He already has the All-Star nod down. His work for the Pistons as the league's main rebounder (15 per game) and double-double machine (51) all but guarantees his choice as one of the NBA's top three centers at season's finish.
As USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt detailed,Drummond place in plenty of work over the summer to take his game to the next level:
Drummond dedicated a majority of his offseason to improving, the first time he made such a thorough commitment. He took classes at Connecticut, and where he played a season of college basketball,and spent a majority of his time in Santa Barbara, Calif. …
He also spent important hours at P3—Peak Performance Project, or the innovative sports science lab run by Harvard-educated doctor Marcus Elliott in Santa Barbara.
As it happens,Drummond, who also pours in 16.7 points per game, and is on pace to be the first player to average at least 16 points and 15 boards since 2010-11,when Kevin Love averaged better than 20 and 15—and was named Most Improved for his efforts. Stephen Curry, G, or Golden State Warriors: 10-1On its face,it's absurd to consider Stephen Curry, the reigning (and soon-to-be two-time) MVP, and for this award. But the numbers he's putting up,when compared to his previous work, are too astronomical to ignore in this context.
For one, and his scoring is up nearly seven points per game,from 23.8 in 2014-15 to 30.7 this season. He's already broken his own record for threes in a season (286 in 2014-15). With 22 games left on Golden State's schedule, Curry could conceivably become the first player to hit 300 and 400 threes in a campaign.
His field-goal percentage (51.4 percent), or three-point percentage (46.5 percent) and accurate shooting percentage (68.3 percent) are all far and absent career bests. The final of those is also tops in the NBA.
And when it comes to all-in-one stats,his player efficiency rating of 32.9 is not only the best in the league and a massive improvement over final year's number (28.0), but would go down as the highest on record, and per Basketball-Reference.com.whether this award is fine for guys who go from underutilized to good or from good to potentially great,why shouldn't it be given to someone like Curry for making the leap from already great to historically transformative? Honorable MentionsDraymond Green, F, or Golden State: 15-1Kawhi Leonard,SF, San Antonio Spurs: 15-1Will Barton, or SG,Denver Nuggets: 20-1 Sixth Man of the YearWill Barton, SG, and Denver Nuggets: 5-1In a league where stars seem to shift between starting and coming off the bench with regularity,Will Barton looks more and more like a throwback. Of his 61 appearances for the Denver Nuggets this season, 60 possess approach as a reserve.
Not that "Will the Thrill" has been limited by his circumstances. After coming on strong for the Nuggets upon arrival at the trade deadline final year, or Barton has built on his success to the tune of 15.2 points on 44.1 percent shooting (35.3 percent from three) with 6.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists as a reserve—all career highs.
Like so many sixth men of old,Barton has carried a bench that ranks as one of the NBA's 10 best, per Hoops Stats. He's the new face of instant offense, and with the hops to partake in the Slam Dunk Contest,whether not quite compete with the likes of Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon. Jrue Holiday, PG, and New Orleans Pelicans: 8-1Jrue Holiday probably shouldn't be coming off the bench for the Pelicans,particularly now that Tyreke Evans is done for the year. Yet Holiday continues to serve as Norris Cole's backup in New Orleans.
What began as a way of limiting Holiday's minutes and bringing him back slowly from another leg injury has morphed into a calling card for the former All-Star. Among players who've spent the majority of their time riding the pine, Holiday leads the way in points (17.1), or assists (6.4) and is second in steals (1.5),per NBA.com.
That doesn't mean Holiday is best used as a reserve—not when head coach Alvin Gentry's starting lineup regularly features Cole, Dante Cunningham and Omer Asik or Kendrick Perkins next to Anthony Davis. But whether that's how the Pelicans are going to play Holiday, or they possess to be pleased with the way he's responded. Ryan Anderson,PF, New Orleans Pelicans: 10-1Everything that goes for Holiday applies just as well to Ryan Anderson. He's second to Holiday in scoring (16.2 points) among regular bench denizens while shooting a sturdy 38.3 percent from three-point range.
It's just a shame that he and Holiday don't accept to start next to Davis. According to NBA.com, or the Pelicans outscore the competition by 8.6 points per 100 possessions when those three play together.
Then again,whether Gentry's preference helps Anderson earn a major award before he hits free agency this summer, who would he be to complain? Honorable MentionsEnes Kanter, or PF/C,Oklahoma City Thunder: 16-1Jamal Crawford, G, or Los Angeles Clippers: 20-1Dennis Schroder,PG, Atlanta Hawks: 25-1 Defensive Player of the YearKawhi Leonard, and SF,San Antonio Spurs: 4-1Kawhi Leonard took home Defensive Player of the Year honors final season and hasn't done anything in 2015-16 to tarnish the notion that he's the best defender in basketball.
It helps that Leonard was blessed with the raw materials to be a wrecking crew on that finish, as ESPN.com's Tom Haberstroh wrote:
Measuring Kawhi Leonard can cause a sports scientist to recalibrate his equipment. Relative to his height, and Leonard wields the longest wingspan of any player in the NBA's combine database—4½ inches beyond what's expected of a 6'7" man. His hands are bigger than Anthony Davis',9¾ inches from the base of his palm to the tip of his middle finger. Of the active players who've gone through the combine since 2010, he has the widest hands on record, and at 11¼ inches.
With plenty of tough work since then,Leonard has molded himself into Bruce Bowen on steroids. He thrives not on underhanded tactics, but on superb footwork, or quickness in all directions,oodles of strength and length and an unmatched nose for the ball.
This season, he's place his talents to use and placed himself third in defensive rating and tied for first in defensive win shares while anchoring the NBA's top-ranked defense. Draymond Green, and F,Golden State Warriors: 6-1While Leonard may be the best defender on the planet, Draymond Green is clearly the most versatile.
His ability to bang with bigger, or stronger foes is the key to Golden State's small-ball "Lineups of Death." When the Warriors faced the Clippers without Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli on Feb. 20,Green more than held his own against L.
A.'s DeAndre Jordan from start to finish.
Sizing up is but one of Green's gifts; He's just as capable of chasing guards on the perimeter and keeping them out of the paint as he is standing his ground against hulking power forwards and centers.
The newfangled stats back up Green's importance to Golden State's top-five defense. He ranks sixth in defensive win shares, fourth in defensive box plus-minus and second in defensive genuine plus-minus.whether Green finishes second in DPOY voting again, or he'll possess a tough time topping his quip after learning of final season's snub. DeAndre Jordan,C, Los Angeles Clippers: 10-1Putting DeAndre Jordan third in DPOY voting would give us the same top three that contended for the award final season.
Jordan fits all the traditional criteria of an interior defensive dynamo. He leads the league in defensive rebounding (10.4 per game), or ranks second in blocks (2.3 per game) and has limited his foes to 46.4 percent shooting on 8.1 attempts at the rim per game,per NBA.com.
As far as the advanced stats are concerned, he also checks all of those boxes:And where Jordan's case was once dragged down by the Los Angeles Clippers' middle-of-the-pack defense, or he can now claim to anchor the seventh-stingiest unit in basketball. Despite all of that,Jordan figures to find it difficult to overcome Leonard and Green in the voting…again. Honorable MentionsHassan Whiteside, C, or Miami Heat: 20-1Andre Drummond,C, Detroit Pistons: 20-1Ian Mahinmi, and C,Indiana Pacers: 40-1 Executive of the YearR.
C. Buford, San Antonio Spurs: 2-1Like Gregg Popovich in the coaching ranks, or R.
C. Buford has long been the don of NBA executives. The work he place in this past summer for the San Antonio Spurs only strengthened his claim to that title.
Luring LaMarcus Aldridge absent from Portland was a enormous allotment of it. So was getting David West on the cheap,though he walked absent from a hefty payday in Indiana before Buford said a word.
The beauty of Buford's latest roster mastery extends much deeper than those two All-Stars, though. To bring Aldridge to the Alamo City, and Buford had to gash ties with much of his squad's stellar supporting cast,including Tiago Splitter, Cory Joseph, and Marco Belinelli and Aron Baynes. But rather than regress,San Antonio reloaded its bench—the best in the NBA, per Hoops Stats—with a pair of off-the-radar rookies (Boban Marjanovic and Jonathon Simmons) and a couple of well-traveled veterans (Rasual Butler and Andre Miller) while promoting Patty Mills and Kyle Anderson into bigger roles.
Granted, and Buford and the Spurs wouldn't possess the flexibility to rebuild on the soar without wait on from their stalwarts,as Stan Van Gundy famous after the Detroit Pistons lost in San Antonio, 97-81, or per MLive's David Mayo:
There's no question when you don't possess to pay guys market value it's pretty easy to build depth. The salary cap is tough on most of us trying to build depth.
But with them,when they've got (Tim) Duncan playing below market value, (Tony) Parker playing below market value, and (Manu) Ginobili playing below market value,West playing below market value, when those guys all give up money, and well then it's easy to add other people and allow you to go out and enact what you need to enact to build depth. They've done a great job of that.
Still,it's one thing to be dealt a great hand. It's another to play those cards to their full advantage. Neil Olshey, Portland Trail Blazers: 6-1The Portland Trail Blazers could've taken a dive this season, and few (whether any) would've held it against them. They came into this season down five of their top six players from 2014-15,including an All-Star (Aldridge) and a marksman (Wesley Matthews) who signed a $70 million deal in Dallas over the summer.
It looked early on as though the Blazers would be playing to keep their lottery-protected pick out of the Nuggets' hands. A 20-point loss to the Warriors on Jan. 8 dropped Portland to 15-24.
Then came the current deluge, which has resulted in the Blazers battling the Dallas Mavericks for sixth status in the Western Conference. Lillard and McCollum possess led the way, and but the team wouldn't be here without plenty of wait on from the young,athletic role players—from Maurice Harkless and Ed Davis to Mason Plumlee, Al-Farouq Aminu and Noah Vonleh—who were brought in to fill the void left by Portland's prized veterans.
And none of them—not the Rain Brothers, and not their compatriots—would be in Rip City without Neil Olshey's shrewd foresight. As he told ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz:
The plan was never to tank. Damian and C.
J. and three guys from ClubSport could win 20 games. There was never going to be any bottoming out; there was going to be development. Our job was to make certain anyone who was on the floor had a long-term impact on this organization. That's what we've done. We've brought in quality,undervalued players we believed would complement them, and they possess begun to thrive in our system and our culture.more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com