NBA Midseason Awards Report: Who Are the Favorites for Each Award so Far?

Last year, Derrick Rose won the MVP. Who will win it this year?
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Believe it or not, we're already nearing the halfway mark of the NBA season. Sure, there is a pretty big difference between the lockout-shortened 66-game season as opposed to the standard 82 games, but there's no doubt that this season has really gone by quickly.

All-Star weekend is only a week away, and now's as good a time as ever to check in on the various award races around the league. Quite a large number of players and coaches have put together a strong case to win one of the six awards the NBA hands out at the end of each year. Those six awards would be the Most Valuable Player, the Coach of the Year, the Rookie of the Year, the Sixth Man of the Year, the Defensive Player of the Year and the Most Improved Player.

Some of the races are more competitive than others, with a few led by one player well ahead of the rest of the pack. However, many more have multiple contenders all neck-and-neck and working hard. I've made my early predictions for each of the awards. Some of my predictions are as close to a sure thing as there can possibly be halfway through the season, while others are less certain.

Without further ado, here are my midseason predictions for each award!

Most Improved Player: DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings

DeMarcus Cousins has really stepped his game up in his sophomore season.
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Each year, a large pool of players find themselves well-deserving of the Most Improved Player award. This year is no different, with Detroit's Greg Monroe, Oklahoma City's James Harden, Orlando's Ryan Anderson, Houston's Kyle Lowry, San Antonio's Tony Parker and others all putting together very strong cases for the award.

DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings has also come on strong, especially since Keith Smart took over as interim coach for the Kings. At this point in the season, he's my favorite to win the MIP.

In his second season in the NBA, Cousins is averaging 16.6 points, 11,4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals. Those numbers are noticeably improved over his averages from last year: 14.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 0.8 blocks and 1.0 steals. Cousins has also recorded seven games with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds, with multiple other games nearing those numbers.

Unlike some of the other MIP candidates, Cousins' higher numbers aren't brought about by an large uptick in minutes. Cousins is playing 29.7 minutes per game this season as opposed to 28.5 last year—not that much of a difference.

Simply put, Cousins looks much more confident and comfortable on the floor, which leads to his potential showing in the form of his dominance. What's more is that his production is coming without a true point guard to feed him the ball.

Though the Most Improved Player award race may be the most competitive one out of all the awards, Cousins is shaping up to be a real favorite. If he can keep playing like this for the remainder of the season, he should garner plenty of votes for the MIP.

Of course, if Jeremy Lin is able to keep playing the way he has been, expect him to run away with the Most Improved Player. A lot is still uncertain regarding him and his situation with the Knicks (Carmelo and Baron Davis' return, small sample size of games) and one can't possibly expect him to continue scoring 20 points every night. However, if he can take the Knicks to a top-four seed while maintaining solid averages, Lin may claim the Most Improved Player without too much competition.

Defensive Player of the Year: Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder

If anybody has a chance at taking the Defensive Player of the Year away from Dwight Howard, it's Serge Ibaka.
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Dwight Howard has been claiming the Defensive Player of the Year award for himself for the past couple of seasons. Sometimes, you have to wonder if anybody else will be able to seriously challenge him for the award before he's 40.

With that said, I think this year may be the year someone other than Dwight will take home the award. I can't say for sure about the consecutive years, but with the trade rumors mixing with the voters' inevitable boredom of voting for Dwight year after year, this season is as ripe as could be for somebody else to come in and snatch the award.

Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder is the one guy who has separated himself from the rest of the pack in the race to unseat Dwight. He is leading the league in blocks by a wide margin with 3.3 per game. JaVale McGee, who is second-place behind him, is only averaging 2.7. Impressively, Ibaka is managing to lead the league in blocks in only 27.5 minutes per game. Per 36 minutes, he averages a whopping 4.3.

As further proof of his shot-blocking prowess, Ibaka also had three games (one of which he triple-doubled in) where he swatted 10 shots. No other player has blocked 10 this season even once. McGee is the only player since the 2008-09 season to record at least 10 blocks in one game.

Ibaka isn't an elite rebounder, nor does he rack up steals. In that sense, he's only a one-trick pony. That may hurt his case some, but the fact remains that Ibaka is on a level by himself when it comes to shot-blocking. Blocked shots are often difference makers in a game, as they fire up a team on both ends of the floor, which in turn can flip the momentum of the game.

Ibaka can fire up his team better than almost everybody else in the NBA with his ability to get up and slam shots away from the hoop—he is the anchor for a Thunder defense that is fifth in the league in opponent field-goal percentage.

That's one key factor that separates Ibaka from Dwight. No matter how many shots Dwight blocks, his teammates know in the back of their head that Dwight isn't committed to the team, which in turn affects how hard they work for the team.

It will certainly be difficult for anybody to take the DPOY away from Dwight, but if anybody's going to do it (and this is the year to do it), put your money on Air Congo.

Sixth Man of the Year: James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder

James Harden has been a key component off the bench this season for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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The Oklahoma City Thunder sit atop the Western Conference with a 24-7 record (second in the NBA to the Miami Heat), and as great as Serge Ibaka has been, it's not all about their defense. Their offense has been equally great, if not even better. As always, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are lighting it up for the Thunder. However, the difference this season for the Thunder may be James Harden's scoring off the bench.

Harden is averaging 16.8 points for the Thunder, and has solidified himself as the third-best player on the team. He comes off the bench to give the Thunder energy when Durant and Westbrook start to get tired, and has excelled in that sixth-man role.

Outside of Harden, the Thunder bench is completely devoid of reliable scorers. This is the only reason why Thabo Sefolosha starts over Harden, as the Thunder need a guy with fresh legs that can give them scoring when Durant and Westbrook are tired. Harden fills an important niche for the Thunder as a scorer off the bench, and he actually sees more court time than Sefolosha (31.6 minutes as opposed to 20.9).

Harden actually made a case for himself as an All-Star this year despite being a reserve. Regardless of the minutes he gets, it's not very often a reserve gets serious All-Star consideration. The first guy to come to mind from recent years is Manu Ginobili, and indeed, Harden is similar to Ginobili in both role and playing style.

Without Harden, the Thunder wouldn't be the first seed in the Western Conference. Instead, they'd be fighting with everyone else in the very competitive conference for the other seeds, and you'd have to figure the Thunder may only be the fourth or fifth seed.

Very few guys coming off the bench make the impact Harden does, and that's why he is my odds-on favorite to win the Sixth Man of the Year award. Only a few other players (Philadelphia's Lou Williams, Portland's Jamal Crawford, the LA Clippers' Mo Williams) come close to matching Harden's impact, but in none of those cases is it quite the same as what Harden does.

Rookie of the Year: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers

There has been no better rookie than the first overall pick, Kyrie Irving.
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Ricky Rubio has been the center of attention this year, but as impressive as he has been, no rookie puts forth a stronger Rookie of the Year case than the Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving does.

Irving, who was selected with the first overall pick of last year's draft, has proven himself worthy of that selection. His play has been stellar for Cleveland, and many Cavs fans pin their post-LeBron hopes on him.

On the court, Irving is doing everything for the Cavaliers. He is their leading scorer with 18.2 points per game, and doing it very efficiently. Irving is shooting 49.1 percent from the floor, 42.6 percent from the arc and 83.8 percent from the line—all remarkable averages for a rookie.

Despite the lackluster team around him, Irving also averages a decent 5.0 assists per game. For a guy who is responsible for scoring a lot of his team's buckets, he's also shown passable playmaking ability. You could actually single out Irving as one of the main reasons Anderson Varejao (before his injury) was having the career season he was experiencing.

Irving is also closing out games for the Cavs, showing the ability to come up in the clutch for his team. How many times have we seen Irving driving and spinning to the rim to score important points for his team with under two minutes left in a tight game?

As fun to watch as Ricky Rubio has been, nobody at this juncture can legitimately challenge Irving for the ROY. Irving is showing a level of comfort on the court that's incredibly rare in a rookie, and we're talking about a guy that only played a total of 11 games in college. Unless Ricky Rubio puts in a Jeremy Lin-esque effort during the second half of the season, it's hard to imagine Irving not winning the Rookie of the Year.

Coach of the Year: Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs

Gregg Popovich has led the Spurs to a 22-9 record despite the absence of Manu Ginobili, and is in a good position in the Coach of the Year race.
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Coach of the Year is one of those awards that, year in and year out, multiple coaches are deserving of. This year is not different, with Philadelphia's Doug Collins, Minnesota's Rick Adelman and Miami's Erik Spoelstra (among many, many others) all legitimate contenders for the award.

However, Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs may be the most deserving coach out there.

As always, the San Antonio Spurs are chugging along. At the time of writing, the Spurs have won 10 straight and sit second in the Western Conference with a 22-9 record. However, what makes that so impressive (or more impressive than it already is) is that the Spurs have compiled that record down one member of their Big Three (and possibly the best player on their team) in Manu Ginobili.

Ginobili injured his hand in the Spurs' fifth game of the season, and missed the next 25 games before returning in the Spurs' most recent game on Saturday against the Clippers. Incidentally, Ginobili re-injured his hand, but the injury does not seem to be as bad as initially feared and he is currently day-to-day.

Even if Ginobili were to miss extended time with his newest injury, the Spurs have nothing to fear. Popovich has been able to get his team motivated to play even without one of their most key players, and the team's outlook right now is great.

Popovich has point guard Tony Parker playing great and working his way towards MVP consideration., which is one of the main reasons the Spurs have been able to weather Ginobili's absence. He's also working in multiple younger players into his rotation (Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green) to help out Parker and the aging Tim Duncan. It's been a gamble that's turned out very well for the Spurs, and they have played excellently as a unit this season.

Other coaches have legitimate claims to be named Coach of the Year, and it's not hard to imagine somebody else taking home the award when it's all said and done. However, what Pop has done for his Spurs to help them get through obstacles such as injury and age cannot be overlooked either, and he has to be considered one of the front-runners in the COY race.

Most Valuable Player: LeBron James, Miami Heat

If things keep up like this, LeBron's not going to have much of a problem winning his third MVP.
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I'd be lying if I said that I thought anybody other than LeBron James was going to win the MVP. It's not even all that close, really.

Kevin Durant's played great and has led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the first seed in the Western Conference. Chris Paul is doing everything the Los Angeles Clippers need him to do, and has them looking like a contender for the first team ever. However, nobody can touch LeBron on his throne.

The King is doing it all for the Miami Heat, averaging 27.9 points (on a very efficient 54.8 percent, I might add), 8.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists. James looks great on the court, and is fighting his way to the rim as he's always done. He's also shown an improved post game, and is taking less long-range shots while taking more high-percentage shots in and around the paint.

LeBron's putting up great lines night in and night out, and has not scored less than 16 points in a game this season. He has yet to record a triple-double this season, but has double-doubled 12 times.

With his stellar play, LeBron has taken the Heat to a 25-7 record, which is the best record in the NBA. Even when Dwyane Wade missed 10 games earlier this season, LeBron wasn't fazed. He stepped up to the plate with Chris Bosh to lead their motley group of veterans to a very impressive 9-1 record without D-Wade. Now, the Heat have won six straight.

James is virtually unstoppable right now. He's on track to win his third MVP, possibly by a landslide.

Who knows, maybe his strong play will cross over into the playoffs and this will be the year LeBron finally gets that ring.