The 'And Now for Something Completely Different' Awards: Volume 3
Any honest assessment of the 2015-16 NBA season has to start with the admission that, almost halfway in, we still don't know what's going on.
We have our crop of four clear title contenders: the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers. And we have our hapless outfits on the other end of the spectrum: the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns.
But it's hard to recall a time when so much of the rest of the league (a full two-thirds of it in this case) was such a chaotic mess. Are the Bulls really any good? Will the West end up with two sub-.500 teams in the playoffs? Which of the dozen half-decent teams in the East will hold up? Which will fall off?
It's a little nutty out there right now, and when it's so hard to get a handle on the bigger picture, we sometimes don't even bother to appreciate the little things. Weird, novel and exciting minutia make the long grind of a season more fun.
So let's focus on those for a while. The important things—playoff berths, rings, MVP honors and the like—will sort themselves out in the end. For now, why not celebrate the fringier stuff we've been missing?
The Singularity Award
Winner: Manu Ginobili
You know all the usual reasons to get fired up about the Spurs. They've coasted to the league's top net rating, crushed opponents with ease since Dec. 1 and fashioned themselves into a mostly new (and definitely more dangerous) version of an old classic.
It's been impressive.
Again, you know about all that. You can read the standings and look up the stats.
But we sometimes lose sight of the soul in San Antonio's mechanical, systematic brilliance. Too often, we think of the Spurs like a processor executing a program. The good stuff, though—the stuff that makes the Spurs the Spurs—is when they break protocol and show us basketball art.
Like when Manu Ginobili fires a perfect improvisational pass while sitting on the floor.
There's nothing mechanical about that. That's the basketball equivalent of free jazz, an unstructured, inspired riff born of joy—not programming. Ginobili channeled that joy again a couple of days later, too, opting this time for a tip pass from his stomach instead of the seated, half-hook heave.
Same result: a layup for Kawhi Leonard.
Clearly, the Spurs are a machine that feels, that intuits.
We need to celebrate that, and fast. Because this San Antonio team is a sentient robot. We have been watching artificial intelligence reach its pinnacle. The singularity is upon us, and it is a balding, 38-year-old Argentine.
The That Looked Like Basketball Award
Winner: Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers are watchable now, which is probably an award-worthy achievement on its own.
And all it took was a couple of measly second-rounders to get there. That's what Philly gave the New Orleans Pelicans for Ish Smith, and the journeyman point guard has the 76ers offense looking functional and, incredibly, kind of exciting.
The effects have reached the other end of the floor as well, where Philadelphia has played some better defense—perhaps because it now knows runouts (which happen after stops) can be fun.
I mean, when's the last time we saw any end-to-end action like that from the Sixers?
Smith averaged 14.3 points and 8.0 assists in his first seven games with the team, leading it to a decidedly un-tanktastic 3-4 mark in that span. He has energized the whole operation, and even if a 27-year-old castoff probably isn't a big part of the Sixers' rebuilding plans, he's at least made things bearable in the short term.
The Ain't Nothin' Gonna Break My Stride Award
Winner: D'Angelo Russell
It would have been so easy for D'Angelo Russell to give in.
Intermittently benched, consistently belittled by head coach Byron Scott and saddled with the impossible task of running an offense that barely exists and gets usurped by Kobe Bryant whenever the living legend takes the floor, Russell could have just signed off. Mailed it in. Given up and waited until some semblance of sense and leadership emerged in L.A. next year.
Now we know why he didn't succumb to any of that stuff: He's delightfully, theatrically confident.
After scoring 27 points as part of a stirring but ultimately incomplete comeback against the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 7, Russell gave us a sound bite that fell somewhere between a Lex Luthor inner monologue and Stephen A. Smith's "You do not want to make an enemy out of me" high-comedy screed against Kevin Durant:
You know what? Good for Russell!
Either he's had this defiant self-assuredness all along, absorbed it from Bryant or developed it as a shield against Scott's pretentious machismo.
Whatever the explanation, Russell's confidence bodes well for the Lakers, who'll be leaning on him as a leader long after Scott's time with the team is over.
The Better Late than Never Award
Winner: Carmelo Anthony's Passing
A lot of what's going on with the New York Knicks lately falls into the feel-good category, but Carmelo Anthony's evolution into the well-rounded, unselfish player so many of us wanted him to be tops the list.
Well, it's on the list, anyway. The first 38 feel-good Knicks entries are just Kristaps Porzingis' name written in all caps.
When on the floor this season, Melo has assisted on just over 20 percent of his teammates' field goals—a figure he's only eclipsed over a full season once in his 13-year career. And he's not just out there assist hunting; his usage rate hasn't been this low in more than a decade, which suggests Anthony's passing is more about keeping the ball moving than seeking out stats.
He's also shown better commitment to playing defense and generally doing the little things, as Yaron Weitzman's piece for SB Nation highlights nicely.
Head coach Derek Fisher is pleased, per Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal:
Exactly why it took until Carmelo turned 31 for this to happen is hard to say. Maybe he realizes he's not physically capable of scoring all on his own anymore.
Maybe Clyde Frazier explained to him that facilitating is liberating. Or that he wished he'd dish. Or that a passing hand is the mark of a classy man. Or that...OK, I'll stop.
The Knicks have been playing some good team ball lately, and Anthony deserves a lot of credit for that. The playoffs aren't out of the question yet, and if the Knicks get there, it'll be interesting to see if Melo's newfound unselfishness holds up.
The Transition Is Real Award
Winner: Chicago Bulls
Maybe all that offense that was supposed to show up with head coach Fred Hoiberg just got delayed a couple of months.
Because it sure seems to be here now.
As K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune points out, the Bulls, long known as a defense-first outfit, have been scoring big lately:
Caveat: Chicago's offensive efficiency on the year still ranks just 24th in the league, per NBA.com. On balance, as usual, defense has defined this team for most of the season. But in those nine games Johnson mentioned, the Bulls have gone 7-2 with an offensive rating of 108.6, far better than their overall number of 100.9 and good enough to check in at No. 4 in the league during that span.
It bears mentioning that much of the scoring surge happened with Derrick Rose sidelined and Jimmy Butler handling an increased load. But it could also just be a result of the roster gradually getting more comfortable with how Hoiberg wants it to play.
And if that's the case, this growth feels sustainable.
The Bulls are changing, and it's clearly for the best. Quietly, they've moved up to the No. 2 spot in the East.
Heads up, Cavs; that team everyone thought would pose your greatest threat in the conference has arrived. It just had to tweak itself a little to get here.
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Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com. Current through games played Jan. 7.
