And Now for Some Completely Different NBA Awards
The NBA is a dynamic organism, and the most interesting parts of every season are the changes that arise.
That can mean anything from a coach trying a strange lineup we've never seen before, to a player flashing a completely new skill, to a startling league-wide strategic trend, to a halftime act that involves three sword-swallowing polar bears instead of just two.
It's rejuvenating to celebrate things in the league that are fresh and novel. We'll do that here, handing out awards to teams, players and coaches who are doing things that won't wind up in any record books. But we'll acknowledge them all the same for doing things a little differently.
The Finally, FINALLY! We Can Believe Again Award
Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves
Optimism and promise haven't resided in Minnesota for a while, though their close, dastardly cousins, false hope and broken dreams, have put down stakes plenty of times. Now, though, thanks to the can't-miss tandem of Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, it's safe for Minnesota Timberwolves fans to give in and believe without fear of being hurt.
Open your hearts, Minnesotans; Towns and Wiggins belong there.
Why is this different? Why do the Wolves finally have something real?
Because you can already tell Towns is a superstar legitimately capable of being the best player on a great team. He moves fluidly, defending in space and at the rim. He has phenomenal touch, on display inside and out and even on slick, intuitive passes. And the attitude/work ethic/makeup?
"Towns explained that he was angry at himself for failing to alert Minnesota's guards about incoming picks on defense," wrote ESPN.com's Zach Lowe. "As word of Towns' self-flagellation filtered through the organization, teammates and officials just shook their heads and laughed: 'This? This is what the dude is worried about? Holy crap.'"
That Wiggins, a future two-way superstar on the wing, comes in second behind Towns in the optimism-generating department says all you need to know.
The Maybe It's Not So Easy Award
Co-Winners: Fred Hoiberg, Billy Donovan and Alvin Gentry
Steve Kerr took a good Golden State Warriors team and made it great last year, and he did it in a way that looked almost unreasonably easy. No speed bumps. Minimal adjustment period. Championship.
As a result, it made sense to believe other good teams who'd fired their coaches could make the same smooth leap. Fred Hoiberg would add offense and sustain defense with the Chicago Bulls. Billy Donovan would pick up the pace and add some innovation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And Alvin Gentry would unlock the full potential of Anthony Davis with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Kerr didn't have any problems, and teams should take a shot at jumping from good to great if they can, right? Why not us?, they all thought.
It's rare that a new trend gets exposed this quickly, but one novel lesson from the young season is this: Kerr was the exception, not the rule.
Both Chicago and OKC are fine, but it's worth noting that the Bulls offense has cratered under Hoiberg, ranking 24th in efficiency, per NBA.com. Wasn't Hoiberg supposed to magically fix that? And the Thunder have been suffering from the same stagnation and offensive clunkiness that Scott Brooks used to get blamed for.
The Pelicans, well...let's just say Gentry hasn't been able to heal a roster full of the walking wounded or turn Davis into some kind of intergalactic overlord just yet.
On second thought, maybe this award belongs to the front offices that thought they could swap in a new coach and hit the ground running. Of course, we'd all have to share it because, admit it, you thought things would be easier, too.
The New Toy Award
Winner: Draymond Green's Alley-Oop Pass
Already one of the best defensive players in the league and the second-most-important player on a defending champ, Draymond Green has grown in new and exciting ways this season.
His three-point shot, for instance, is dramatically improved. And he's also pushing the pace in transition even more often than he did a year ago. But the newest, least expected source of joy has been Green's discovery of the short lob to center Festus Ezeli.
Because defenses frenziedly send two bodies at Stephen Curry in the pick-and-roll, Green routinely functions as the conductor of the resulting four-on-three attack. Last year, he'd either take the open three, drive and kick or try to finish the play at the rim on his own. But when Andrew Bogut's concussion allowed backup Ezeli to see big minutes with Green and the first unit, a whole new option was born.
He also looks for him in transition:
And even out of basic half-court sets:
Green loves the lob to Ezeli (who elevates much more quickly and presents himself as a much more willing finisher than Bogut does), and he hunts it relentlessly these days. The downside has been a few extra turnovers on overly enthusiastic alley-oop attempts. But the upside has been a whole new dimension in the offense—giving Golden State yet another way to victimize defenses who load up on Curry.
In fact, the lob's effectiveness has been so transformative that Bogut has even been on the receiving end of a couple since returning to the rotation.
Good times.
The What's Old Is New Is Old Award
Winner: James Harden
Remember two years ago when we all used to sit and giggle at those infamous James Harden defense gag reels? Where he'd lazily reach for the ball before letting the offensive player dart past or turn his head and allow cutters to zip right by him?
And then, remember last year when we agreed he'd shaken some of that defensive indifference?
Well, through a few ugly weeks, Harden's D has regressed toward its 2013-14 lows, and it's a real bummer. He's getting Vined again, guys:
Houston has been a mess so far, falling short most notably in its effort and commitment to simply running back on defense. It's hard to watch the Rockets play these days and pretend they're not taking cues from their leader.
This only-kind-of-new award is one nobody should want.
The Fire Away Award
Co-Winners: Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins
Two guys who've already proved they could dominate from almost anywhere inside the arc have stepped outside it this year, creating one of the newest and most exciting wrinkles in the league: the rise of the sharpshooting superstar big man.
Davis has hit seven threes in 19 attempts this year after connecting on just three of his first 27 career tries, while DeMarcus Cousins (shooting 44.8 percent on a career-high, already, 29 attempts) has been even more remarkable.
This is in step with the league's ongoing embrace of efficiency and spacing, but it's still a little jarring when a dominant roll man and a post-up savant sacrifice possessions closer to the hoop for long bombs. But with results like these, who can argue?
The I Dare You to Beat Us Award
Winners: Smart Defenses Everywhere
Losers: Guys Who Can't Shoot
The NBA's strategic cruelty has reached an all-time high this season, as more and more defensive schemes simply ignore non-shooting threats, begging the likes of Tony Allen, Andre Roberson and Willie Cauley-Stein to do something, anything, on offense.
Just look at the way Doug McDermott ignores Roberson in this image captured by ESPN.com's Royce Young:
And note, as analyst Nate Duncan did, how Allen has become frequently unplayable:
The idea of shading away from a nonthreatening perimeter player isn't new, but the Warriors' decision to blatantly ignore Allen in last year's Western Conference semifinals pushed the tactic to an extreme.
It won't be long until non-shooting players, regardless of their other attributes, simply can't stay on the floor. Unless, of course, they perfect the Dwyane Wade ghost cut.
The Everything Is As Expected Award
Winner: Los Angeles Lakers
Sorry, how'd this make it into a story rewarding the fresh and exciting things going on in the league this year? Nothing about what's happening to the Lakers has been surprising or new.
Kobe Bryant keeps aging, Byron Scott keeps questioning the manhood of his team, and the losses keep mounting.
Not new. Not fresh. Not interesting.
Next.
The Lineup That Needs Way More Love Award
Winner: The Utah Jazz's Three-Wing Unit
The Utah Jazz have struggled to generate efficient offense all season, and there's no single fix that'll suddenly turn this defensive monster into a scoring machine. But taking the point guard off the floor for long stretches could certainly help.
Because when going to an all-wing unit of Rodney Hood, Alec Burks and Gordon Hayward alongside Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, the Jazz have posted a net rating of plus-40.6 points per 100 possessions in 26 minutes this year, per NBA.com.
That's a tiny sample, and Trey Burke's shooting off the bench has been improved enough to possibly warrant just sticking him back in the starting lineup ahead of the struggling Raul Neto. But this bigger, rangier group would feature three capable shot creators who all stretch the defense as standstill shooters.
We haven't seen many teams take the conventional point guard out of the lineup entirely in a while, and we haven't seen anyone do it for huge minutes since those old Ron Harper-Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen Bulls teams employed it to great effect.
The Jazz have dipped a toe in the water with a new, unconventional lineup this year, so they're deserving of the award. But let's hope they just dive in headlong.
Who knows? Embracing a three-wing unit could turn the Jazz from a one-way beast into a two-way fringe contender.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com and accurate through games played Nov. 17.
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