milkyway21
04-18-2007, 05:19 AM
do you agree with this?
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION And the award goes to ...By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
What do you get when the final Friday of the regular season falls on Friday the 13th?
You get the award ballots I'll be turning into the league office, all the way down the left side of this page.
Lucky you.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Dirk Nowitzki
Maybe it's because we're asked in one forum or another (chats, radio and TV spots, etc.) to update our MVP views just about every week. Maybe it's because a whole conference has no one challenging for anything higher than No. 5 on a five-man ballot. Or maybe it's because this has clearly been a two-man race for months, as opposed to so many of these categories.
Whatever the reason, I found it strangely simple to reach a verdict here. For once.
Nowitzki simply has to be the MVP, as brilliant as Steve Nash has been in his bid to join Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird as the only three-in-a-row MVPs in league history. It has nothing to do with the ridiculous argument that Nash hasn't won a championship yet, since he has yet to go to the playoffs with his Suns at full strength. It has everything to do with the fact that this regular-season award is annually bestowed on the player who has the best all-encompassing season ... the most impressive combination of individual and team success.
Side by side, as usual, it's a serious strain to make a statistical call between them. The two-time reigning MVP has somehow managed to elevate his game to a higher-than-ever level of efficiency, but so has Nowitzki. The difference is where Dirk's production and leadership have taken his team, with Dallas wrapping up one of the most extraordinary regular seasons ever seen.
There's a reason that voters, since 1979, have picked only one MVP from a team that failed to win 50 games (Moses Malone from the 46-36 Rockets in 1982) and only two others from teams with less than 55 wins (Michael Jordan from the 50-32 Bulls in 1988 and Nash last season from the 54-28 Suns). It's because voters recognize that nothing is more valuable in team sports than winning.
Nash has generated more in-season support for another MVP triumph than he did in either of the previous two seasons, posting career highs in scoring (18.8 ppg), shooting (53.3 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from 3-point range) and assists (11.5 apg) and winning the last head-to-head showdowns with Dirk.
But Nowitzki is right there numbers-wise -- shooting 49.9 percent from the floor, 41.2 percent from long distance, 90.2 percent from the line and delivering a slew of decisive fourth quarters in averaging 24.7 points and 9.1 boards -- as the player who a) causes more matchup problems for opposing defenses than anyone else and b) ranks as the driving force for the team of the season.
Which makes him my player of the season.
Stein's ballot:
1. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
2. Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns
3. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
4. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
5. Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors
October prediction: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COACH OF THE YEAR
Jerry Sloan
It's a lighter load of candidates than usual. There's typically a logjam of Most Improved Player proportions in the COY chase, but this term offers only four realistic possibilities:
Toronto's Sam Mitchell, Houston's Jeff Van Gundy, Dallas' Avery Johnson and Utah's Jerry Sloan.
I suppose you can stretch it to six if we include a couple longtime Stein Line favorites who've rallied their injury-battered teams into contention for the final playoff spot in the West -- Don Nelson and Byron Scott -- but let's focus on the first four because lighter doesn't translate to easier. I struggled mightily to settle on a winner just picking from the first four.
Do you prefer Mitchell for overcoming a 2-8 start, calls for his early dismissal and an overhauled, experience-shy roster to win the Atlantic Division?
Or maybe Van Gundy for helping the Rockets return to the 50-win stratosphere in spite of having Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady together for a mere 39 games (28-11) as of Friday morning?
How about Johnson's role in the Mavericks rebounding from the worst Finals collapse ever seen to assemble one of the finest regular seasons in league history?
It's not often, furthermore, that the hard-nosed Sloan and the word sentimental wind up in the same sentence, but who doesn't rate him as the sentimental favorite here after coaching the Jazz for 21 seasons and never being named COY?
History says it's not Johnson who most threatens Sloan's ability to break through, since there has never been a repeat winner since the COY award was introduced for the 1962-63 season, but Utah's 1-5 start to April -- likely costing the Jazz home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against Van Gundy's Rockets -- could be a factor. Especially with the Raptors sporting a 32-15 mark in 2007 and still pushing for an unlikely No. 2 seed in the East.
With me? It wasn't.
In spite of Utah's recent fade, I didn't even have this Jazz squad as a playoff team coming into the season. I didn't have Toronto in the playoffs, either, but the Jazz have made the bigger leap, since they made their rise in the West. They're just two wins shy of 50 in spite of the recent slide and a sub-par season for Andrei Kirilenko, so Sloan clings to a vote that I'd turn in as a four-way tie for first if the league would let me.
Stein's ballot:
1. Jerry Sloan, Utah Jazz
2. Avery Johnson, Dallas Mavericks
3. Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors
October prediction: Don Nelson, Golden State Warriors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Brandon Roy
This was nothing close to the runaway seen last season when Chris Paul had the trophy locked up by Thanksgiving. But it's a non-race again.
Andrea Bargnani was the only second-half threat to Roy's ascendancy, only for the Italian to be felled by an emergency appendectomy. (Of course, compared to what happened to fellow Raps impact rookie Jorge Garbajosa, Bargnani's fate was pleasant.)
Roy had his own injury issues to deal with, like seemingly every rookie, but he comfortably held off the two Canadian-based rooks and Minnesota's Randy Foye, who couldn't turn a flurry of big fourth quarters into a full-fledged run at the guy (brace yourself for a bad word play you've heard at least a thousand times this season) destined to be the ROY.
Stein's ballot:
1. Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers
2. Andrea Bargnani, Toronto Raptors
3. Randy Foye, Minnesota Timberwolves
October prediction: Foye
SIXTH MAN AWARD
Leandro Barbosa
Never imagined, back in camp, how hard this one would turn out to be.
Manu Ginobili barely qualifies -- contest rules dictate that you have to be a sixth man in at least one more game than you start -- but undeniably helped alter the course of the Spurs' season when he went back to the bench in late January.
Barbosa's numbers, meanwhile, don't outstrip Ginobili's significantly, but the Brazilian speedster has operated as a sixth man for a greater majority of the season, making him a more natural selection ... and making his 43.5-percent shooting from 3-point range look especially impressive.
The decision?
Using my preseason forecasting as the tiebreaker -- not exactly unbiased, perhaps, but it's my ballot -- Barbosa sneaks in, with Jerry Stackhouse trumping the Knicks' David Lee for third place because Stack played more games and supplies serious doses of leadership and toughness for the team with the league's best record.
Stein's ballot:
1. Leandro Barbosa, Phoenix Suns
2. Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs :cry
3. Jerry Stackhouse, Dallas Mavericks
October prediction: Barbosa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bruce Bowen
If you're thinking that I'm going to keep voting for Bowen until he wins this thing, just because we went to school together, I can't blame you. But that's really not (totally) it.
Even without such biases, you have to conclude that a Spur wins this thing, given that San Antonio revived its status as a fearsome title contender in the second half with great defense serving as a big-time complement to Ginobili's return to the bench.
The choice, then, comes down to the perimeter ace (Bowen) and the famed rim deterrent (Tim Duncan). As good as Duncan looks again now that he's not being slowed by plantar fasciitis, like last season, I can't punish Bowen just because of our Cal State Fullerton connection.
I know, I know. Some of you believe that nonsense about him slowing down. Uh-huh. How many guys in this league are asked to guard Nowitzki, Bryant and Nash? Bowen is still doing it at 35 and at a time, remember, when defenders continue to be severely limited by the rules regarding how much they're allowed to use their hands on the perimeter.
This remains a deep field, even with a handful of perennial DPOY candidates (Ben Wallace, Andrei Kirilenko and Ron Artest) fading from contention. Denver's Marcus Camby, Phoenix's Shawn Marion and Atlanta's Josh Smith have all been stalwarts for teams with well-chronicled frailties on D, Tyson Chandler has emerged as a serious presence in New Orleans and Oklahoma City and Charlotte is unexpectedly carrying two worthy nominees: Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor.
Yet it only feels right to single out someone from the best defense in the league and no one feels more right than Bowen, who's running out of shots to win an award he deserves at least once.
Stein's ballot:
1. Bruce Bowen, San Antonio Spurs
2. Marcus Camby, Denver Nuggets
3. Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns
October prediction: Bowen
rest of the story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070414-15
------------------------------------------
Almost the same prediction from writers/analysts of CNNSi.com site
except Ian Thomsen did not write Tim Duncan's name for the MVP but instead
Kevin Garnett :D
- I am rooting for Jerry Sloan to win even if his team sucked in their last few games. My second choice is Toronto's Michell.
- I think Dirk & Kobe deserve to win the MVP. Kobe bec of his making an All-time 50-point games in 06-07 season record you just can't ignore:
Pts Game Date
65 Blazers @ Lakers 3/16
60 Lakers @ Grizzlies 3/22
58 Lakers @ Bobcats 12/29
53 Rockets @ Lakers 03/30
53 Rockets @ Lakers 12/15
52 Jazz @ Lakers 11/30
50 Sonics @ Lakers 4/15
50 Clippers @ Lakers 4/12
50 Lakers @ Hornets 3/23
50 Wolves @ Lakers 3/18
Bryant's ten 50-point games this season are the most in the NBA since Chamberlain scored at least 50 nine times in the 1964-65 season
-I really want Timmy to win a DPOY award just like the Admiral, i think he deserve to win it but I'd be happy if Bruce will win it this yr.
-I'm hoping there's still chance for Manu to win the 6th-man award.
-BTW, check the site, surprisingly Brent Barry's name is included and being considered for the MIP awards. Congrats to Brent. His efforts is recognized in the league.
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION And the award goes to ...By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
What do you get when the final Friday of the regular season falls on Friday the 13th?
You get the award ballots I'll be turning into the league office, all the way down the left side of this page.
Lucky you.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Dirk Nowitzki
Maybe it's because we're asked in one forum or another (chats, radio and TV spots, etc.) to update our MVP views just about every week. Maybe it's because a whole conference has no one challenging for anything higher than No. 5 on a five-man ballot. Or maybe it's because this has clearly been a two-man race for months, as opposed to so many of these categories.
Whatever the reason, I found it strangely simple to reach a verdict here. For once.
Nowitzki simply has to be the MVP, as brilliant as Steve Nash has been in his bid to join Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird as the only three-in-a-row MVPs in league history. It has nothing to do with the ridiculous argument that Nash hasn't won a championship yet, since he has yet to go to the playoffs with his Suns at full strength. It has everything to do with the fact that this regular-season award is annually bestowed on the player who has the best all-encompassing season ... the most impressive combination of individual and team success.
Side by side, as usual, it's a serious strain to make a statistical call between them. The two-time reigning MVP has somehow managed to elevate his game to a higher-than-ever level of efficiency, but so has Nowitzki. The difference is where Dirk's production and leadership have taken his team, with Dallas wrapping up one of the most extraordinary regular seasons ever seen.
There's a reason that voters, since 1979, have picked only one MVP from a team that failed to win 50 games (Moses Malone from the 46-36 Rockets in 1982) and only two others from teams with less than 55 wins (Michael Jordan from the 50-32 Bulls in 1988 and Nash last season from the 54-28 Suns). It's because voters recognize that nothing is more valuable in team sports than winning.
Nash has generated more in-season support for another MVP triumph than he did in either of the previous two seasons, posting career highs in scoring (18.8 ppg), shooting (53.3 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from 3-point range) and assists (11.5 apg) and winning the last head-to-head showdowns with Dirk.
But Nowitzki is right there numbers-wise -- shooting 49.9 percent from the floor, 41.2 percent from long distance, 90.2 percent from the line and delivering a slew of decisive fourth quarters in averaging 24.7 points and 9.1 boards -- as the player who a) causes more matchup problems for opposing defenses than anyone else and b) ranks as the driving force for the team of the season.
Which makes him my player of the season.
Stein's ballot:
1. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
2. Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns
3. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
4. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
5. Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors
October prediction: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COACH OF THE YEAR
Jerry Sloan
It's a lighter load of candidates than usual. There's typically a logjam of Most Improved Player proportions in the COY chase, but this term offers only four realistic possibilities:
Toronto's Sam Mitchell, Houston's Jeff Van Gundy, Dallas' Avery Johnson and Utah's Jerry Sloan.
I suppose you can stretch it to six if we include a couple longtime Stein Line favorites who've rallied their injury-battered teams into contention for the final playoff spot in the West -- Don Nelson and Byron Scott -- but let's focus on the first four because lighter doesn't translate to easier. I struggled mightily to settle on a winner just picking from the first four.
Do you prefer Mitchell for overcoming a 2-8 start, calls for his early dismissal and an overhauled, experience-shy roster to win the Atlantic Division?
Or maybe Van Gundy for helping the Rockets return to the 50-win stratosphere in spite of having Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady together for a mere 39 games (28-11) as of Friday morning?
How about Johnson's role in the Mavericks rebounding from the worst Finals collapse ever seen to assemble one of the finest regular seasons in league history?
It's not often, furthermore, that the hard-nosed Sloan and the word sentimental wind up in the same sentence, but who doesn't rate him as the sentimental favorite here after coaching the Jazz for 21 seasons and never being named COY?
History says it's not Johnson who most threatens Sloan's ability to break through, since there has never been a repeat winner since the COY award was introduced for the 1962-63 season, but Utah's 1-5 start to April -- likely costing the Jazz home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against Van Gundy's Rockets -- could be a factor. Especially with the Raptors sporting a 32-15 mark in 2007 and still pushing for an unlikely No. 2 seed in the East.
With me? It wasn't.
In spite of Utah's recent fade, I didn't even have this Jazz squad as a playoff team coming into the season. I didn't have Toronto in the playoffs, either, but the Jazz have made the bigger leap, since they made their rise in the West. They're just two wins shy of 50 in spite of the recent slide and a sub-par season for Andrei Kirilenko, so Sloan clings to a vote that I'd turn in as a four-way tie for first if the league would let me.
Stein's ballot:
1. Jerry Sloan, Utah Jazz
2. Avery Johnson, Dallas Mavericks
3. Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors
October prediction: Don Nelson, Golden State Warriors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Brandon Roy
This was nothing close to the runaway seen last season when Chris Paul had the trophy locked up by Thanksgiving. But it's a non-race again.
Andrea Bargnani was the only second-half threat to Roy's ascendancy, only for the Italian to be felled by an emergency appendectomy. (Of course, compared to what happened to fellow Raps impact rookie Jorge Garbajosa, Bargnani's fate was pleasant.)
Roy had his own injury issues to deal with, like seemingly every rookie, but he comfortably held off the two Canadian-based rooks and Minnesota's Randy Foye, who couldn't turn a flurry of big fourth quarters into a full-fledged run at the guy (brace yourself for a bad word play you've heard at least a thousand times this season) destined to be the ROY.
Stein's ballot:
1. Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers
2. Andrea Bargnani, Toronto Raptors
3. Randy Foye, Minnesota Timberwolves
October prediction: Foye
SIXTH MAN AWARD
Leandro Barbosa
Never imagined, back in camp, how hard this one would turn out to be.
Manu Ginobili barely qualifies -- contest rules dictate that you have to be a sixth man in at least one more game than you start -- but undeniably helped alter the course of the Spurs' season when he went back to the bench in late January.
Barbosa's numbers, meanwhile, don't outstrip Ginobili's significantly, but the Brazilian speedster has operated as a sixth man for a greater majority of the season, making him a more natural selection ... and making his 43.5-percent shooting from 3-point range look especially impressive.
The decision?
Using my preseason forecasting as the tiebreaker -- not exactly unbiased, perhaps, but it's my ballot -- Barbosa sneaks in, with Jerry Stackhouse trumping the Knicks' David Lee for third place because Stack played more games and supplies serious doses of leadership and toughness for the team with the league's best record.
Stein's ballot:
1. Leandro Barbosa, Phoenix Suns
2. Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs :cry
3. Jerry Stackhouse, Dallas Mavericks
October prediction: Barbosa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bruce Bowen
If you're thinking that I'm going to keep voting for Bowen until he wins this thing, just because we went to school together, I can't blame you. But that's really not (totally) it.
Even without such biases, you have to conclude that a Spur wins this thing, given that San Antonio revived its status as a fearsome title contender in the second half with great defense serving as a big-time complement to Ginobili's return to the bench.
The choice, then, comes down to the perimeter ace (Bowen) and the famed rim deterrent (Tim Duncan). As good as Duncan looks again now that he's not being slowed by plantar fasciitis, like last season, I can't punish Bowen just because of our Cal State Fullerton connection.
I know, I know. Some of you believe that nonsense about him slowing down. Uh-huh. How many guys in this league are asked to guard Nowitzki, Bryant and Nash? Bowen is still doing it at 35 and at a time, remember, when defenders continue to be severely limited by the rules regarding how much they're allowed to use their hands on the perimeter.
This remains a deep field, even with a handful of perennial DPOY candidates (Ben Wallace, Andrei Kirilenko and Ron Artest) fading from contention. Denver's Marcus Camby, Phoenix's Shawn Marion and Atlanta's Josh Smith have all been stalwarts for teams with well-chronicled frailties on D, Tyson Chandler has emerged as a serious presence in New Orleans and Oklahoma City and Charlotte is unexpectedly carrying two worthy nominees: Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor.
Yet it only feels right to single out someone from the best defense in the league and no one feels more right than Bowen, who's running out of shots to win an award he deserves at least once.
Stein's ballot:
1. Bruce Bowen, San Antonio Spurs
2. Marcus Camby, Denver Nuggets
3. Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns
October prediction: Bowen
rest of the story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070414-15
------------------------------------------
Almost the same prediction from writers/analysts of CNNSi.com site
except Ian Thomsen did not write Tim Duncan's name for the MVP but instead
Kevin Garnett :D
- I am rooting for Jerry Sloan to win even if his team sucked in their last few games. My second choice is Toronto's Michell.
- I think Dirk & Kobe deserve to win the MVP. Kobe bec of his making an All-time 50-point games in 06-07 season record you just can't ignore:
Pts Game Date
65 Blazers @ Lakers 3/16
60 Lakers @ Grizzlies 3/22
58 Lakers @ Bobcats 12/29
53 Rockets @ Lakers 03/30
53 Rockets @ Lakers 12/15
52 Jazz @ Lakers 11/30
50 Sonics @ Lakers 4/15
50 Clippers @ Lakers 4/12
50 Lakers @ Hornets 3/23
50 Wolves @ Lakers 3/18
Bryant's ten 50-point games this season are the most in the NBA since Chamberlain scored at least 50 nine times in the 1964-65 season
-I really want Timmy to win a DPOY award just like the Admiral, i think he deserve to win it but I'd be happy if Bruce will win it this yr.
-I'm hoping there's still chance for Manu to win the 6th-man award.
-BTW, check the site, surprisingly Brent Barry's name is included and being considered for the MIP awards. Congrats to Brent. His efforts is recognized in the league.