Bleacher Report's NBA Expert Awards Picks
Can't we just give them all an award?
(Resounding "heeeeeelllll no" from audience.)
OK then. With that feedback in mind, we kick it to Bleacher Report's NBA national writers and analysts.
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The choices? Devastating. MVP? It's one of the following: A) The first player since 1962 to average a triple-double. B) The first player in NBA history to eclipse 2,000 points, 900 assists and 600 rebounds in a season. C) Maybe the greatest player of all time. D) A flawless cyborg sent from the future*.
Rookie of the Year? LOL! Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Malcolm Brogdon—you can't go wrong, so you can't be right.
Head coach? When a handful seems better suited for public office, the award almost seems to miss the point. Execs like Bob Myers, Daryl Morey and Masai Ujiri waved magic wands at spreadsheets.
Defensive Player of the Year was a tight two-man race, and while neither choice—Rudy Gobert or Draymond Green—was misguided, we had a clear-cut consensus when it came down to casting first-place votes.
We admit Giannis Antetokounmpo for Most Improved Player was easy—his name went from unpronounceable to household status in a matter of months. Please refer to him as Giannis now.
The NBA may make us wait for an official Oscars-style show to reveal the winners of each award, but we've got the best of the best on board naming the top option at each of the most prestigious categories.
Get ready, folks.
Awards season is upon us.
*Potentially
MVP: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder (Adam Fromal, Grant Hughes, Ric Bucher, Bryant Knox)
In the end, the triple-doubles, unfathomable clutch production and unforgettable game-winning moments were too much for a historically strong field to overcome.
Russell Westbrook earned our MVP award, but that's different than saying the other contenders—chiefly James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James—didn't deserve it. Each had a defensible case.
Maybe it'll help to oversimplify. If you remember one thing about the 2016-17 regular season, won't it be Westbrook's stat-stuffing, dagger-throwing one-man assault on the outer limits of individual production? Most unforgettable may not be exactly the same thing as most valuable, but it made the difference here.
—Grant Hughes
Runner-Up: James Harden, Houston Rockets (Kevin Ding, Dan Favale, Howard Beck)
I know we're supposed to agonize over this vote, but I considered it fairly straightforward. The MVP is about both individual excellence and team success. Harden checked both boxes.
He led the league in assists (11.2 per game), was second in scoring (29.1 points per game) and powered the Rockets to the third-best record in the NBA (55-27). And he was incredibly efficient—posting a true shooting percentage of .613. He took 408 fewer shots than Westbrook, whose true shooting percentage (.554) paled in comparison.
Westbrook's season-long triple-double is a fantastic achievement, but Harden was in range (8.1 rebounds per game), and I don't think Westbrook's extra 2.6 rebounds mean much. Harden made his own history, joining Oscar Robertson and Tiny Archibald as the only players to average at least 29 points and 11 assists.
Every MVP since 1983 has anchored a team that won at least 50 games and was among the best in its conference. That history means something, too.
Westbrook was surely the NBA's most captivating player this season. But Harden was the most valuable.
—Howard Beck
Also Receiving Votes: Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs (Josh Martin)
Contrary to popular belief, this year's NBA MVP race isn't (or shouldn't be) a two-man contest. For all that Westbrook and Harden have done to fuel the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, respectively, neither team has risen anywhere near the level of Leonard's San Antonio Spurs.
The Klaw's squad finished with 61 wins, well ahead of 55 victories for the Beard's Rockets and 47 for Brodie's Thunder. He's not the assist maestro that Harden and Westbrook are, but he's no slouch as a scorer (25.5 points per game with .485/.381/.880 shooting splits). What he lacks as a singular creative force, he more than makes up for as a defensive dynamo.
Dock Leonard marks for having the strongest supporting cast if you wish, but he was the only current All-Star in the Alamo City during a 2016-17 season spent surrounded by fading former franchise tentpoles.
—Josh Martin
Rookie of the Year: Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee Bucks (Hughes, Favale, Beck, Bucher, Knox)
Embiid will get votes here, and they'll be tough to discredit. He was one of the most impactful players in the league, let alone among rookies, through his 31 appearances.
And yet: He made just 31 appearances. It seemed like that wouldn't matter at first, but then you live through the whole season and realize just how much time he missed. In hindsight, he had a stronger All-Star case than Rookie of the Year argument.
Availability is a skill, and Brogdon appeared in more than twice as many games (75) while logging almost three times as many minutes (1,982 to 786). And he made quality contributions to a playoff squad. Among the 57 rookies to average 15 minutes per game, Brogdon ranked fifth in scoring, second in assist percentage, third in steal rate and first in three-point percentage.
Wire-to-wire, he was the NBA's most complete newbie. And since Rookie of the Year honors deal with one season, not one player's career trajectory relative to others, Brogdon deserves to take home the hardware more than Embiid or Saric.
—Dan Favale
Runner-Up: Dario Saric, Philadelphia 76ers (Ding, Martin)
Colleague Howard Beck and I did a preseason video in which he pegged Saric for NBA Rookie of the Year. I shrugged and somewhat scoffingly said I thought his own teammate, Embiid, had a much better shot at such an honor. In the end, both will be on most ballots, but Saric gets my official top spot because his season showed both elite ability and NBA career staying power.
Embiid's playing merely 31 games reinforces concerns about the latter and undermines the "Year" part of his case for Rookie of the Year.
Saric absolutely was the main man for the 76ers the second half of the season, the sort of lead role that no other rookie in the league—definitely not Brogdon, a role player in Milwaukee—shouldered. Saric (12.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.2 apg) produced instead of faltering under the responsibility, especially with 18.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in March—and he played all but the final one of 82 games despite a painful foot injury.
—Kevin Ding
Also Receiving Votes: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers (Adam Fromal)
Despite playing only 31 games, Embiid's impact dwarfed that of every other first-year player. Per NBA Math's FATS calculations, the Philadelphia 76ers played like a 27.7-win team without him and a 49.9-win playoff contender while he was on the floor.
The rookie center averaged a convincing 20.2 points per game while contributing in so many other areas. He was stifling around the hoop, holding opponents to 41 percent shooting—tops among everyone who faced more than 7.5 attempts per game, per NBA.com. He was a dominant rebounding force and a legitimate floor-spacer.
Put simply, he was the lone rookie who consistently looked like a star.
—Adam Fromal
Defensive Player of the Year: Draymond Green (Fromal, Hughes, Ding, Favale, Beck, Martin, Bucher, Knox)
Green spent the previous two seasons banging on the door for Defensive Player of the Year, only to be shut out by Leonard. This time, the Golden State Warriors' glue-guy-in-chief may have made his strongest case yet.
His career highs in steals (2.0 per game) and blocks (1.4 per game) are but the tip of Green's DPOY iceberg. He held together a Dubs defense that finished as the Association's second-stingiest, despite losing stalwarts like Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes this past summer and spending a month with Kevin Durant in street clothes. In fact, Golden State's defensive rating was not only slightly better than its season average during Durant's absence, but also the NBA's best over that span.
That uptick isn't to Green's credit alone, but as he's the Warriors captain on that end, it should serve as another impressive feather in his award-worthy cap.
—Josh Martin
Runner-Up: N/A
Coach of the Year: Mike D'Antoni, Houston Rockets (Hughes, Favale, Beck, Knox)
Before the 2016-17 NBA season, Mike D'Antoni's recent past was hardly a resume-booster. Despite being the architect behind the "seven seconds or less" Phoenix Suns, the man with the 'stache hadn't been to the second round of the playoffs since 2007 and had endured unfortunate tenures with the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, compiling a 0-8 postseason record in six seasons.
Luckily for the Pringles Man himself, none of that matters.
D'Antoni took over a Rockets team this offseason that had disappointed in 2015-16 and turned it into a top-three team out West. He took a squad that was both mediocre and aesthetically displeasing to watch and made it ready to compete for a Western Conference Finals appearance just a year after finishing eighth in the conference.
Making Harden the full-time point guard might have seemed like something straight out of a video game at the start of the year, but now it looks brilliant. The Rockets still have plenty to prove, and their season will ultimately be judged by what they do in the playoffs. But if exceeding expectations is part of the Coach of the Year qualifications (which it should be), look no further than the man roaming the sidelines in Houston.
Runner-Up: Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat (Fromal, Martin, Bucher)
Though he'll watch the playoffs from afar, Erik Spoelstra did everything you want from a Coach of the Year candidate. He helped individual players improve—Tyler Johnson, James Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters stand out as massive successes—and completely rebuilt the team.
Despite starting miserably after the offseason losses of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Heat weren't eliminated from the postseason until the campaign's final day. They bounced back from an 11-30 record to go 30-11 during the second half, thriving under the new-look stylings that featured a non-stop drive-and-kick offense.
—Adam Fromal
Also Receiving Votes: Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs (Ding)
Year after year, LeBron is overlooked as the NBA's MVP because we compare his performance to his own successes of the past—and because we (admittedly) like drama and can't give the award to the same man every season.
Everything we just said applies to Gregg Popovich if we replace "MVP" with "Coach of the Year."
Executive of the Year: Bob Myers, Golden State Warriors (Fromal, Hughes, Favale, Knox)
Getting Durant probably would have been enough, but Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers didn't stop there. He landed Zaza Pachulia and David West, picked JaVale McGee off the scrap heap and bought a second-round pick that turned into Patrick McCaw.
The result was a bench net rating of plus-7.4 that actually topped last year's plus-5.1. Myers, despite losing starters (Bogut and Barnes) and several key reserves (Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa and Brandon Rush) somehow deepened the bench behind his superstar free-agent acquisition.
It's not supposed to work that way, but Myers led the front office that made it happen.
—Grant Hughes
Runner-Up: Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets (Beck, Martin)
The Rockets were dead in the water last spring—a joyless, rudderless .500 team with two feuding stars. That they just finished with the NBA's third-best record, without adding a single All-Star, is a minor miracle.
Credit Morey. He hired D'Antoni (an unpopular move at the time), let Dwight Howard walk, signed Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson, picked up Nene for peanuts and snagged Lou Williams at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, three recent draft picks—Clint Capela, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell—blossomed into valued rotation players.
The Warriors won the biggest prize last summer in Durant, but no GM did more to reinvigorate his franchise than Morey.
—Howard Beck
Also Receiving Votes: Masai Ujiri, Toronto Raptors (Ding)
Most of the hard work for NBA executives happens in the offseason, and then we see during the season if they gained enough in both quality and depth of talent. Post-Christmas injuries to Kyle Lowry and Patrick Patterson made it look as if Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri fell way short in making sure Lowry and DeMar DeRozan had teammates to help them flourish, as Jared Sullinger wasn't giving the team anything.
Then free-agent signee Cory Joseph kept things moving forward, and a bunch of young guys some people might have never heard of but Ujiri saw great potential in (Norman Powell, Lucas Nogueira, Bruno Caboclo, Pascal Siakam, Delon Wright and Jakob Poeltl) kept contributing. Then Ujiri won the trade deadline by getting sure-thing veteran playoff contributors Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker without compromising significant future assets.
—Kevin Ding
Also Receiving Votes: Ernie Grunfeld, Washington Wizards (Bucher)
With pressure from everywhere to break up his backcourt duo of Bradley Beal and John Wall after a summer of turmoil and years of the combo not living up to expectation, Grunfeld stood pat—and his patience paid off. Instead, he put the necessary complementary pieces around them—and he did it on the fly as the season unfolded.
Ian Mahinmi, signed last summer, is the rim protector they've needed since Gheorghe Muresan retired. The big-bodied wing shooter they needed, Bojan Bogdanovic, was acquired from the Nets at the trade deadline. The back-up point guard they needed, Brandon Jennings, was picked up off the free-agent heap. Sometimes the best moves aren't the flashiest ones, they're just the ones that work.
—Ric Bucher
Sixth Man of the Year: Andre Iguodala, Golden State Warriors (Hughes, Ding, Martin, Knox)
Slowly but surely, even casual basketball fans are coming around to the understanding that the best players aren't simply the ones who score the most points. We so-called experts who have official ballots for NBA postseason awards should definitely be ahead of the curve, but we've usually still given the Sixth Man trophy to whoever has the highest points average. (That's partly because the nature of the award is kinda bogus: If the dude was that worthy of honoring, he probably would be starting for his team.)
That's a roundabout way of setting up Andre Iguodala's compelling case at this time. He's flat-out better at basketball and was more useful to Golden State this season than simple scorers Eric Gordon (his 37.2 three-point percentage was worse than his career average!) and Lou Williams.
Did you know Iguodala led the league in assist-to-turnover ratio? That's amazing for a non-point guard, and Iguodala (4.5) crushed runner-up Chris Paul (3.8).
—Kevin Ding
Runners-Up: James Johnson (Fromal, Favale)/Eric Gordon (Beck, Bucher)
Spoelstra probably won't win Coach of the Year after the Miami Heat failed to make the playoffs, but that team, which posted the NBA's second-best record for half the darn season, needs to be recognized in some form.
And it just so happens Johnson is a more than deserving Sixth Man of the Year.
Yes, SMOY is typically shorthand for PPG, but it's time this award moved beyond that. Johnson packed a starter's punch while coming off the bench. He brought the ball up the floor, orchestrated pick-and-rolls, exploded off screens, came close to shooting at a league-average clip from beyond the arc (.341) and defended everyone from wings to centers.
Iguodala matches Johnson's versatility, but there is no comparison between their roles. Antetokounmpo, Durant and Marc Gasol were the only players to rival Johnson's across-the-board output per 100 possessions. That has to mean something.
—Dan Favale
Most Improved Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks (Fromal, Hughes, Ding, Favale, Beck, Martin, Bucher, Knox)
Most Improved Player honors typically go to the promising talent or fringe star who busts into the megastar conversation.
So we might as well rename this award after Antetokounmpo.
He is the first player to ever close a season in the top 20 of total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. His per-game production and functions can't be coded into video games. He isn't so much a guard, or forward, or big, as he is a whatchamacallit. And according to NBA Math's Total Points Added for 2016-17, this ineffable master of all trades grades out as a top-five player.
In any other season, Antetokounmpo would be in the MVP conversation. This superlative should be a formality.
—Dan Favale
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