NBA Award Watch: Mike D'Antoni has Rockets on the rise
Some front-runners for NBA awards haven’t changed since last week, but there are a few interesting awards races heating up in this week’s NBA Award Watch.
We are only a couple of weeks away from the NBA calendar flipping from 2016 to 2017. Some of the front-runners for the NBA’s top end of season awards races have not changed, but some are very much up for grabs in mid-December.
There has been a lot turmoil in the middle of the pack in both conferences. It seems that this will be a trend hopefully for the rest of the season. The more teams vying for playoff contention, the more interesting the season will be in February, March, and April. As teams rise and fall, so do their stars, chasing end-of-season individual accolades. Without further ado, here are the six front-runners for the major end of season awards in this week’s NBA Award Watch.
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Most Valuable Player: Russell Westbrook
2016-17 NBA MVP feels like a two-man race in mid-December. While Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol has led a furious charge in recent weeks, NBA MVP will be between Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden and Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook.
Both ball-dominant guards in the Western Conference certainly have strong claims for their first NBA MVP, but as long as Westbrook is averaging a triple-double, this is his award to lose. Through December 14, Westbrook is averaging 30.5 points, 10.6 assists, and 10.5 rebounds per game for the Thunder.
Oklahoma City is not going to get back to the Western Conference Finals in 2017. Houston has an outside shot at meeting the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 Western Conference Finals depending on its first two playoff matchups.
Harden is asked to do a lot, but Westbrook might being asked to do more. Should Westbrook average a triple-double and the Thunder win 45 or more games, the voters will give him his first NBA MVP. However, Harden is a very close second to Westbrook in mid-December.
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Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert
If we’ve learned anything from the early part of the 2016-17 NBA season, it is that Defensive Player of the Year will be going to a center. Who says the center position is dead in the NBA? The league has so many strong big man and they are cleaning up on the defensive end.
While centers like the Atlanta Hawks’ Dwight Howard, the Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond, and the Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside have had their moments in the sun for Defensive Player of the Year, the honor would go to Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert halfway through December 2016.
Utah is 16-10 and in sixth place in the Western Conference. The Jazz play at a sluggish pace, but are stout defensively. Their anchor down low is the Frenchman Gobert. On the year, Gobert is responsible for 1.9 Defensive Win Shares and has a Defensive Box Plus-Minus of 4.5.
Gobert is blocking 6.8 percent of all opponent field goal attempts when he is on defense, leading the NBA in blocks at 72, averaging 2.8 per game. He is also doing great work on the defensive glass with 8.5 defensive rebounds per game. As the Jazz continue to improve under third-year head coach Quin Snyder, more people will learn about the overall defensive greatness of the Stifle Tower.
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Rookie of the Year: Joel Embiid
Whether he’s lying on the floor against the Atlantic Division rival Toronto Raptors or showing the internet the right way to make Shirley Temples, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid makes the NBA all the more interesting.
He plays intermittently for the 76ers, but Embiid is the best of the 2016-17 NBA rookies when he is on the Philadelphia hardwood. Embiid is averaging 17.6 points, 7. 5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game in his rookie season in Philadelphia.
While he has only appeared in 16 of the 76ers’ first 25 games, Embiid is an incredibly efficient player. He has a PER of 22.6 and responsible for 0.6 Win Shares. Embiid is a solid shooter from all areas of the court. He is 45.9 from the field, 42.2 from beyond the arc, and 76.8 percent from the charity stripe.
Embiid has created a 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson type of lead on the this awards race. Nobody is going to catch him. Do keep an eye on the Denver Nuggets sharpshooter Jamal Murray. He’s probably the second-best rookie in the early part of the 2016-17 campaign.
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Most Improved Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo
The NBA’s Most Improved Player had been one of the most interesting awards races in the NBA until very recently. While Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker and Utah Jazz point guard George Hill are solid second and third choices, this award belongs to Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo and Walker will likely end up being first-time Eastern Conference All-Stars. Walker frankly could have been one last season for Charlotte, but Antetokounmpo is becoming a superstar for Jason Kidd’s Bucks this year.
His season averages are 22.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game in his fourth year in the NBA. Antetokounmpo is responsible for 3.5 Win Shares and has a PER of 23.6. While he’s not great from beyond the arc (23.6 percent on 3-pointers), Antetokounmpo is still shooting 52.4 percent from the field on a Bucks team that is probably playoff caliber in the East.
He just turned 22 years old. It seems that Kidd and the rest of the Milwaukee faithful have a budding superstar in the Greek Freak. Milwaukee is very close as a basketball team to bursting through into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Antetokounmpo is the next great superstar in the NBA. He has ascended to that level in 2016-17.
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Sixth Man of the Year: Lou Williams
One of the most interesting awards races to keep an eye on the rest of the way in the NBA has to be Sixth Man of the Year. Will the NBA be getting another repeat winner in Los Angeles Lakers guard Lou Williams? Does Sixth Man end up going to a true center in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Enes Kanter?
These two have been battling back and forth for Sixth Man for the last several weeks. While the Lakers have stunk recently, Williams has not coming off their bench. Williams is averaging 19.2 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game for a Lakers team he started just one game for this season.
His PER of 24.2 is the best of any non-starter in the NBA. Williams is responsible for 2.5 Win Shares and is shooting the ball magnificently coming off the Los Angeles bench. Williams is shooting 45.3 from the field, 38.9 on 3-pointers, and 86.8 percent at the free throw line. This gives Williams a stellar 53.1 effective field goal percentage.
Since he has already won Sixth Man as a member of the 2014-15 Toronto Raptors, Williams looks poised to win his second Sixth Man in three seasons. The only thing preventing him from doing so would be a Lakers’ second season collapse, a lengthy shooting slump, and Kanter’s continued excellence in the Oklahoma City paint.
Coach of the Year: Mike D’Antoni
The NBA has 10 new head coaches in 2016-17. While many were in favor of most of the hirings, one of the few that was to some degree chastised was Mike D’Antoni to the Houston Rockets. Houston played no defense for Kevin McHale and later J.B. Bickerstaff.
D’Antoni was best known for his days of running the Seven Seconds or Less offense for the Phoenix Suns. His best player in Houston D’Antoni was going to inherit was Harden, an innovative offensive player that played no defense. Offensively, this team was going to succeed, but could it do anything defensively to be competitive?
Well, through the 2016-17 Rockets’ first 26 games, they are 19-7 and in third place in the Western Conference. Houston has been explosive on offense, as the Rockets are third in offensive efficiency at 114.6. No surprises here.
Shocking most, this team has been somewhat competent defensively. D’Antoni seems to have brought with him a strong defensive coordinator in Jeff Bzdelik. Houston is middle of the pack defensively, as the Rockets are 17th in defensive efficiency at 107.6 points allowed per 100 possessions.
If Houston can hover near the top-half of the NBA defensively while still being top-three on offense, the Rockets could be a serious threat to win the Western Conference. Yes, both Golden State and San Antonio are better, but D’Antoni has been largely responsible for Houston being third in the West.
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