Weird NBA Awards: End-of-Preseason Edition
Oh, you have an NBA MVP sleeper pick and a solid lock for Executive of the Year?
Great. Keep them to yourself. Nobody's interested.
This is where we honor the unsung winners; the victors who won't get official hardware; the alternatives.
Voted on by an exclusive one-person committee (me) and not technically sanctioned by any governing body, these awards recognize and appreciate things you may have missed in categories you didn't know existed (because they don't).
This time, the focus is on the latest developments in the league as the preseason winds down.
The "Seriously?!?" Award
Winner: Golden State Warriors
With the cap spike turning funny money into the NBA's chief currency, the Golden State Warriors found one hell of a way to spend $2.4 million.
They used it to buy the Milwaukee Bucks' second-round pick back in June and then turned it into Patrick McCaw—who has not only made an irrefutable case for rotation minutes, but who has also shown the potential to be something more than that.
McCaw is tearing it up statistically, as Mike Schmitz of Draft Express illustrated:
And he's doing it conspicuously, hitting game-tying triples at the end of regulation and game-winning floaters in overtime...in the same contest. He did that to the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 14, and head coach Steve Kerr's reaction was that of a man certain he'd already gotten away with too much luck in his coaching life but who now seems to be getting away with even more:
McCaw's game looks like it was created in a lab with the eventual decline and departure, respectively, of Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston in mind: He's all smarts, ranginess and craft.
Still just 20, the UNLV product is a ball-handling guard with phenomenal hands and a 6'10" wingspan. His court sense is uncommonly advanced, he's a ball-hawking steal magnet who made the Mountain West All-Defensive Team last year, and he's taking over games on offense now.
Getting a rotation player in the second round is hard. Getting one who can contribute immediately is almost impossible.
Getting more than that when you're already a 73-win monster that added an MVP over the summer is...well, it's stupid and unfair and ridiculous and absolutely award-worthy—that's what it is.
The "Get Yours" Award
Winner: J.R. Smith
J.R. Smith's career is a study in poor impulse control.
But the guy whose admitted mantra is "when in doubt, shoot the ball" just got over on the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers by exercising restraint. He ignored urgency as if it were a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy. He held fast to his negotiating leverage through nearly the entire preseason like it was a bottle of Dom Perignon.
And then, the Cavs relented, ending the free-agency stalemate with a four-year, $57 million contract offer, per Marc Stein of ESPN.com—one they had no choice but to make.
Capped out and unable to replace Smith's offense from the outside, the Cavaliers also lost Matthew Dellavedova and Mo Williams over the summer. With Iman Shumpert's inconsistency making him an unsafe bet, Cleveland needed Smith to prop up its backcourt and wing rotations. The immediacy of a title window that remains open only as long as LeBron James is superhuman was a factor, too.
Cleveland isn't in a position to be a penny pincher.
Smith and his reps had to know all of this, grasping the profoundly advantageous bargaining position they were in. And they also had the benefit of seeing Tristan Thompson cash in last summer by utilizing the same patience.
Go ahead and celebrate some more, J.R.
You won again.
The "Shout Out to Sam Hinkie" Award
Winner: Sam Hinkie
Whenever something goes right for the Philadelphia 76ers over the next few years, don't forget the guy who laid the groundwork.
The Milwaukee Bucks traded Michael Carter-Williams to the Chicago Bulls for Tony Snell, according to Stein. Carter-Williams, you'll recall, was the first draft pick of then-76ers general manager Sam Hinkie. He went 11th overall in 2013.
Thanks to a weak draft class and a stat-inflating pace, MCW won Rookie of the Year before Hinkie flipped him for a protected top-three selection from the Los Angeles Lakers at the 2015 deadline.
Carter-Williams fell out of the Bucks rotation, and the Lakers remain bad—which makes owning their lottery selections a good thing. Considering Carter-Williams' current market value is a straight-up swap for Tony Snell, who may or may not be a viable NBA player, Hinkie effectively committed basketball robbery.
Charitably, we'll call it "selling high."
This won't be the last time we shout him out.
The "How to Retire Properly" Award
Winner: Kobe Bryant
It's fun to imagine Kobe Bryant waking up at 3 a.m., and instead of taking his helicopter to the practice facility to shoot 1,000 jumpers in the dark, he spends the pre-dawn hours screaming "Grow, you coward!" at his beard in the bathroom mirror.
"The Black Mamba is in the house for Game 4 of the WNBA Finals pic.twitter.com/J4Wx2pX2T7
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) October 17, 2016"
It's tough to turn off legendary intensity—even in retirement—but the likelier scenario is that Bryant is just letting a few things go. He's relaxing and embracing the freedom of not grooming. This is how you're supposed to enjoy those post-grind years.
The beard's a good look.
And I miss Kobe.
So he gets an award.
The "Is More Really More?" Award
Winner: Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers ranked 10th in pace last season, but the guiding principle over the summer seemed to be some combination of "do it faster" and "more points."
Team president Larry Bird laid out the mandate in July, telling Reggie Miller on The Dan Patrick Show (h/t Wheat Hotchkiss of the Pacers' official website), "We want a style where we can score. I'd like to score 105 points a game or maybe 106, but still defend the way we have."
Indiana's summer—which principally saw Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young and Al Jefferson replace George Hill, Ian Mahinmi and Solomon Hill—was a clear signal Bird's directive resonated. That talent swap was a pure defense-for-offense exchange. And even if it felt a little odd for the 10th-fastest team in the league to focus on scoring volume and not efficiency, at least the Pacers stuck to the plan.
This group should get more buckets.
The problem? It's as if that second part of Bird's statement—the bit about defending the way they have—slipped through the cracks.
Hill was an ideal partner for Monta Ellis. His defensive focus and size allowed him to guard whichever backcourt matchup was more dangerous. Teague and Ellis may now comprise one of the least versatile and physically overmatched guard tandems in the league.
And without Mahinmi in the middle to defend the rim (Myles Turner, stepping into starting center duties, is still young and extremely thin), the perimeter breakdowns will hurt more.
If you're a real skeptic, you could make the case that the Pacers' moves won't do much to improve their 23rd-ranked offense. Though Turner's development should make a difference, losing George Hill's established shooting and Solomon Hill's emerging skills as a floor-stretcher will be an issue. Spacing could be a weakness, and generating efficient points without the floor-expanding effect of good shooting is almost impossible in today's NBA.
The defense will be substantially worse without Hill and Mahinmi, not to mention departed head coach Frank Vogel, whose teams defined themselves on that end.
Marginal offensive improvement won't offset the decline there.
Unless Indiana scores significantly more—and does it much more efficiently—an offseason of change may not wind up being for the better. More may wind up being less.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com unless otherwise indicated.
