Official Results: 1) James Harden, 2) Louis Williams, 3) Jason Terry
How I Would've Voted: 1) James Harden, 2) Louis Williams, 3) Al Harrington
(Sue Ogrocki / Associated…)
For most of the year, James Harden was the favorite for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Last week, sportswriters and broadcasters cemented Harden's name in history as he ran away with the award. Though he wasn't unanimously picked for this honor, Harden did come away with 115 of a possible 118 first place votes.
I completely agree with James Harden being named the Sixth Man of the Year. In my opinion, he was the best player who regularly came off the bench this past season (I'm not including Ginobili since he missed his fair share of games). Not only did he post up really good numbers of 16.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 3.7 APG, while playing with the second unit, but he did so with great efficiency. Harden became one of the most difficult players to guard as he proved to be a threat from outside, shooting 39.0% from three, while also being capable of penetrating to the basket, attempting 6 free throws a game while knocking down 84.6% of them. For the season, Harden shot a fantastic 49.1% from the field, and was constantly referred to as the Thunder's best passer. Harden's elevation from being a solid guard to becoming a borderline All Star and offensive demon is why the Thunder ranked second in the league in offense, and had the second best record in the West.
While I do agree with James Harden being the best sixth man, I thought the race was closer than most people felt it was. I want to recognize and give credit to Louis Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers for having a fantastic year. I've always considered Williams as one who's kind of gone under the radar, but this year, with the early success of the Sixers, he kind of started being pushed into the spotlight. While his numbers aren't impressive as Harden (and he's not as good as Harden), he posted very solid line of 14.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 3.5 APG, while playing just 26.3 MPG. In fact, at the All Star break, I had Williams making the Eastern Conference team, while leaving out Harden from the West. This, though, had a lot to do with Philadelphia's blistering start, and the fact that they didn't really have any superstars. Either way, Williams and Harden were both terrific borderline All Stars who were great Sixth Men for their respective teams.
Rookie of the Year
Official Results: 1) Kyrie Irving, 2) Ricky Rubio, 3) Kenneth Faried
How I Would've Voted: 1) Kyrie Irving, 2) Kenneth Faried, 3) Isaiah Thomas
Soobum Im, US Presswire
This was perhaps the easiest award to pick for the 2011-12 season. How does this sound? 18.5 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 5.4 APG in ONLY 30 minutes a game. And for a rookie, how about a shooting line of .469/.399/.872. In my mind, Irving is not a star of the future; he's a star now. The only question is going to be just how good this guy will be. I personally had him on my ballot (I think I did at least) for an Eastern Conference All Star this year.
Aside from Irving, I think we can agree that Kenneth Faried had a great year for the Denver Nuggets. I love his energy, and he has continued his reputation from college as an elite rebounder. I think we can all agree that he was one of the best three rookies this year. The question now is what about Ricky Rubio? The Spaniard had a phenomenal, showing himself to be one of the most creative passers in the league. He ranked sixth in the league 8.2 assists per game, and Minnesota was actually 21-20 in games Rubio played. As well, Rubio showed himself to be a great ball hawk, averaging over two steals a game.
What works against Rubio, though, is that aside from his passing ability, he didn't really have much going from him. He was a poor scorer, averaging just over 10 points in 34.2 minutes per game, and he shot a dreadful 35.7% from the field. Despite his strong steal numbers, Rubio also wasn't known as that great of a defensive player. Also, it doesn't help that the guard missed over a third of the season due to injury/ Overall, Rubio's had a good rookie year, but he wasn't good enough and missed too many games for me to put him on my ballot as top 3 rookie.
Aside from Irving. Rubio, and Faried, it was hard to really pick anyone who stood out too much. After thinking hard about it, I finally decided to give my hypothetical third place vote to Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings. And no, this is not because we're both Washington Huskies. Thomas played in all but one game for the Kings, and managed to average double figures for the measly team. What really solidified Thomas as one of the best rookies was how he ended the season. Thomas worked his way into the starting line-up before the season's halfway point, and as a starter, averaged 14.7 PPG and 5.4 APG, while shooting over 40% from three. Being in the starting five allowed fans to see what Thomas was capable of, and he was able to capture two Rookie of the Month Awards.
Most Valuable Player
Official Results: 1) LeBron James, 2) Kevin Durant, 3) Chris Paul, 4) Kobe Bryant, 5) Tony Parker
How I Would've Voted: Same as above
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The voters got it right here. If I had a ballot to vote for MVP, it would have gone in the exact same order as the results.
Now, I would've been fine with either LeBron James or Kevin Durant as MVP, but I think James was the right choice. Some people may say I might be a little bias because as a life-long Sonic fan, I don't want to see a Thunder become MVP. Well, let me just say, I'm not a big fan of James at all. While I do feel resentment towards the Oklahoma City Thunder and its players, LeBron James is perhaps my least favorite player currently in the league. As much as I, or anyone, dislikes James, it's hard to deny that he's a heck of a player.
My reasoning for picking James as MVP simply has to do with the fact that he is easily the best player in the NBA. It's a little bit difficult to define what "most valuable" exactly means, and the definition does kind of vary from person to person, but a basic way of thinking about it is, if you are better, you are more valuable. Now, that's not always true because there are different contexts and situations, but when you're in James' case (meaning best player in the league playing for a team that had the fourth best record in the league), then you're the most valuable.
James led the Miami Heat and was third in the NBA in scoring, averaging about 27 a game. He had the best shooting year of his career, with career highs from the field (.531) and behind the arc (.362). With per-game averages of 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists, James was always a triple-double waiting to happen. He excelled on the defensive end as well, and was in contention for Defensive Player of the Year. James also showed himself more capable at taking over at the end of games, at least compared to last season, though how people view James' ability to perform in the clutch will mostly be determined by how far the Heat go in the playoffs. For the regular season, though, James was basically unstoppable, and early on, some people wondered if he was having one of the greatest years ever.
Kevin Durant turned in possibly the finest year of his young career, topping the league in scoring for the third straight year, while leading a Thunder team that held the number one seed out west for most of the year. I don't think anyone doubts that Durant will win an MVP in the future, and is probably James' biggest challenger for best player in the league.
While it was clear that James and Durant were probably the top two contenders for MVP, it was also pretty clear that Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, and Tony Parker were in the top 5. I put Parker at 5 because he played a lot less minutes than the other two, and I also felt that if you take Parker out of the Spurs, they still have enough depth to manage for some time. In the case of Bryant vs. Paul, I thought they both led teams that slightly underachieved, but I put Paul third because I felt he had a better year than Bryant.
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