2014-15 NBA Awards: Handing Out the Hardware to League's Young Guns
These are lawless times we live in, folks.
The NBA handed all five of the Atlanta Hawks' starters Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors for January, showing a complete, albeit truly awesome, disregard for the rules. In the spirit of such ungoverned innovation, we're here to do the same by doling out (mostly) real end-of-season awards to youngsters who won't actually win them.
(Unless, of course, his name is Andrew Wiggins.)
Before we cover ourselves in war paint and begin rioting in the streets, there are a few rules to comb through.
Players must be 23 or younger and have played through no more than three seasons to receive consideration. Representation for Draymond Green and Hassan Whiteside should forward all complaints to retired NBA commissioner David Stern, who is bored and needs some pointless reading material to keep him occupied.
Winners can only receive one award, because variety is nirvana. Statistics, general improvement and team-wide impact will all play pivotal parts in deciding which young guns reap our hypothetical spoils.
With all this mind, let us now bask in the sweet embrace of superlative anarchy.
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves
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Formalities first.
Wiggins has already won Rookie of the Year. The chase for the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy is done. Finished. Kaput. Since the moment Milwaukee Bucks stud Jabari Parker went down for the season with a torn ACL, Wiggins has merely been doing victory laps.
As it turns out, he's pretty good at them.
Not only has Wiggins' jumper exceeded expectations, but his defensive potential is also through the roof. The Minnesota Timberwolves throw him on the opposition's best wing scorer, and while their defense ranks dead last overall, this 20-year-old doesn't flinch when it comes to pestering the NBA's James Hardens and Klay Thompsons.
Super quietly, Wiggins is putting himself in historic company. Assuming his numbers hold, he'll become just the third player to begin the season under 20 years of age and average at least 15 points, four rebounds, one steal and a usage rate higher than 20 percent.
LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are the only other late-teen talents to do the same.
So, yeah. Let's move on.
Sophomore of the Year: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
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Totally made-up distinctions second.
Last season, Giannis Antetokounmpo's hype surpassed his status. He was new, he was lanky, he was humble and he was genuine. He did not show constant flashes of being a future superstar.
Then came the offseason. He packed on some muscle, grew another 217 inches—give or take a couple—and began playing like a rising star without limits.
Parts of Antetokounmpo's game are still raw, most notably on the offensive end, where he has no concrete position and still cannot hit jumpers with respectable frequency. Head coach Jason Kidd is basically prohibiting him from attempting threes, and he's shooting just 31.3 percent away from the rim.
But he still projects as someone who will eventually defend all five positions, and he finds ways to contribute in every area of the game. More than an aesthetic phenomenon, he's an actual asset—a legitimate building block capable of headlining Milwaukee's fast-accelerating rebuild.
Most Improved Player: Evan Fournier, Orlando Magic
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Twenty-two-year-old Evan Fournier has been sneaky-good this season.
The Orlando Magic have not shied from using the third-year wingman, who's averaging 11 more minutes per game now than he did with the Denver Nuggets last season. Incidentally, he is rewarding Orlando for that additional playing time.
Tallying 11.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists won't win him any league MVPs, but he's showing his prorated contributions from seasons past are not the offshoots of insignificant sample sizes. He's really coming into his own as a tertiary offensive option, putting in 39.5 percent of his catch-and-shoot long balls.
Prior to Fournier's hip injury, interim Magic head coach James Borrego even developed a habit of using him as a point tweener. He'll spell Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton for possessions at a time, bringing the ball up the floor, serving as the primary offensive catalyst.
It's a role that will continue to suit him well upon returning to action. He's more aggressive at attacking the basket as the point man, which is huge, because he tends to fall in love with long twos and three-pointers; nearly half of his shot attempts are coming from outside 16 feet.
With Tobias Harris about to enter restricted free agency, Fournier's rise cannot be overstated. He's cheaper, comparably efficient and quickly playing himself into Orlando's future.
That's quite the improvement for someone who spent two years as an afterthought in Denver.
Sixth Man of the Year: Dennis Schroder, Atlanta Hawks
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Twenty-one-year-old Dennis Schroder is doing work for the Atlanta Hawks.
Although head coach Mike Budenholzer continues to limit his playing time, handing him only 18.7 minutes per game, he's making his presence felt.
“Dennis keeps working on his shot, getting better,” teammate Kyle Korver said, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Matt Winkeljohn. “He’s so tough when he gets his momentum going to the basket. He’s almost slinky around the hoop."
Korver's word is gospel.
Schroder gets to the rim at will, his three-point stroke has improved by more than 10 percentage points and he's proving he can coexist with Jeff Teague, despite a lingering inability to convert spot-up opportunities. The Hawks are outscoring opponents by nearly 10 points per 100 possessions when they share the floor.
Oh, and Schroder's per-36-minute lines are simply crazy.
Here's the list of players aged 21 or younger who have averaged at least 17 points, 3.5 rebounds, seven assists and one steal per 36 minutes while seeing at least 1,000 minutes of total playing time:
- Magic Johnson
- Isiah Thomas
- Dennis Schroder
If only all bench players were, you know, this historical.
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
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Rudy Gobert, a 22-year-old Godzilla-sized mutant, is a future Defensive Player of the Year winner. He won't win it this season, but he will take home the actual honor eventually.
Exploiting him on the defensive end is virtually impossible; he polices the paint without respite. He's constantly moving, reading and reacting to screens and dribble penetration, providing help at the right time.
Of the 79 players contesting five or more shots at the iron per game, not one is statistically better than Gobert. Opponents are converting just 38.0 percent of point-blank opportunities when he's in their face, an insanely low number that dwarfs prolific shot-blockers such as Serge Ibaka (41.1), Roy Hibbert (43.2) and Whiteside (46.5), among so many others—as in everyone else.
Gobert's 3.5 blocks per 36 minutes are also absurd. Seven players no older than 22 (minimum 1,300 total minutes) have done the same, putting the Utah Jazz's interior-roving monster in the company of guys such as Ibaka and Alonzo Mourning.
Not that Gobert is strictly a rim protector. No, no, no. He does everything.
Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley explains:
"With a 7'8.5" wingspan, per DraftExpress, attached to his already larger-than-life frame, Gobert has quickly emerged as one of the league's most intimidating interior defenders. ...
And Gobert is far more than a shot-blocking specialist. He challenges everything that comes within his vicinity. Opponents shoot just 38 percent against him at the rim, by far the lowest number among the 79 players who face at least five such shots per game. His matchups shoot 7.2 percent worse from the field when he's covering them than they do on average.
"
Consider Gobert's presence here a placeholder. The actual Defensive Player of the Year award will be his soon enough.
MVP: Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
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That moment when you forget Anthony Davis is still only 21 and in his third season because he's so darn good...
There is no other pick here. Davis is in the actual MVP conversation, but he won't win since his New Orleans Pelicans are clinging to slim playoff hopes.
League MVPs play for great teams, not fringe postseason squads. That's just how it goes.
But Davis has been mesmerizing this season, even after accounting for his intermittent absences. Never mind the alien-like stat lines. He ranks second in win shares per 48 minutes, trailing only Stephen Curry. That's it.
When he's on the floor, the Pelicans are outscoring opponents by 4.6 points per 100 possessions. That would rank as the sixth-best net rating in the entire league.
In other words, with Davis in tow, the Pelicans don't just play like a postseason-bound team. They register as a championship contender.
And if that's not MVP-worthy overall, let alone within this narrowed field, nothing is.
*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com and are accurate as of games played March 7 unless otherwise cited.
