NBA Season Awards: The Year Of The Mostly Obvious

He's a Happy King

With the NBA season coming to a close tonight, I thought I'd weigh in with my picks for the NBA's regular season awards. Feel free to agree or chastise, as always, in the comments.

MVP: LeBron James, and it's not close. (Sorry, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and, shockingly, Carmelo Anthony; you are all playing in the wrong era.) James is the best player in the league at both ends of the court, and makes a 50-win Heat team the odds-on favorite to win it all again this year, next year, and for three to five years after that. Assuming a lack of injury or boredom, this is how it's going to be for a while, provided Durant doesn't develop point guard skills and has Russell Westbrook killed. Enjoy it, I guess, if only because future generations are going to ask you a ton of questions about what it was like to watch the best player ever. (Yes, I'm going there, if only to make Michael Jordan come back again and hurt himself.)

Rookie of the Year: Damian Lillard, and it's even less close than the James for MVP pick. This is the first time that the Rookie of the Year also takes up the entire first team All-Rookie Team. (Well, OK, no, but you get the idea.) Runner up is Anthony Davis, who will probably be the better long-term pro, in that I suspect Lillard has already hit his ceiling, but so be it.

Sixth Man: J.R. Smith, who seems to have, all of a sudden, completely forgotten how to be a head case. I can't tell you how disappointing that is, really. Runner ups include Jamal Crawford, which is kind of silly given how deep the Clipper bench was, and Kevin Martin, under the theory that the Thunder need to have a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in the back court every year, since they start Thabo Sefalosha and win a lot of games. (Please, everyone, stop dissing Thabo. He's good!)

Most Improved Player: Finally, something with a hair of intrigue to it. MIP is always hard to determine, because it hardly seems fair to give it to a guy who just gets minutes due to trade or return from injury (aka, Brook Lopez), and it's way too easy to give it to a guy who just goes to a weak team where he becomes a volume player (Greivis Vasquez). You also have to discount for being a teammate of a guy who will get you overrated (the Steve Nash Effect), or just being a guy on a team that's good, but won't win any other awards. Last and not least is the fact that most of the candidates aren't good from start to finish, because they aren't ready for this kind of minutes.

So... with all of that said, I'm going with Paul George of  Indy, with apologies to Jrue Holliday and, shockingly, Kevin Durant. Without George's emergence on both ends of the floor as the Pacers' best player, Indy falls apart and doesn't emerge as everyone's ugly pick to lose to Miami on the road to the Finals. You can improve and still not be good enough, folks.

Coach of the Year: Tom Thibodeau of the Bulls, and to me, this one also isn't close. Thibs kept his team focused through the year-long Derrick Rose Sideshow, never let them get down to the point of even having a 4-game losing streak, and broke the Heat and Knicks' streaks with little more than home court, Nate Robinson and duct tape. The streaks will get this award in the hands of Erik Spoelstra, Mike Woodson or George Karl, and you can vote for Gregg Popovich every year for no other reason than the abuse he doles out to sideline reporters, but no one did more with less this year than Thibodeau.

Defensive Player of the Year: There seems to be a lot of movement to give this to either Tony Allen or Marc Gasol of the Grizzlies, under the theory that you can't have their record without some kind of recognition. There's also always some temptation to give it to the defensive anchor on the best slowdown team; this year, that's Joakim Noah and Tyson Chandler. But I'm giving it to James, under the theory that there is no else in the NBA who can provide a lockdown cover on any player, 1 through 5, and the stuff that he's doing now in transition is straight out of a video game. I always judge DPOY under the guise of who I'd pick if I needed a one on one stop. That's James.

And now, some awards of my own.

Least Valuable Player: Andrew Bynum. Oh, dear God in Heaven, where to begin? It wasn't just the off-again off-some-more-again injury hijinks, of course. Had it just been that, this would have just been tragic. Rather, it was how, with each passing day, this trade got worse and worse, and Bynum's only answer was to do something stupid with his hair. As a Sixers fan, I've lived through Roy Hinson, Jeff Ruland, Shawn Bradley, Chris Webber and Jerry Stackhouse: I *know* disappointment. Bynum brought it to another level, to the point that I can't compare him to athletes, only real life tragedies. (The MOVE debacle, specifically.) If news came down today that he had been hit by a bus, Sixer Fan would beg for the footage, then yell at the driver for not going faster the first time, or neglecting to put it in reverse and come back for more. Runner ups: Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Joe Johnson.

Head Case Of The Year: DeMarcus Cousins. How do you pull down 17 and 10 while leaving everyone wondering what's wrong? Be DeMarcus, who has single-handedly achieved the ability to personify the end-times Maloof Goof Era in Sactown through indifferent play, fighting with teammates, coaches, refs and, seemingly, himself. If Cousins worked in a metro market where people paid attention, he'd have been put in an institution by now. Runner ups: JaVale McGee and Westbrook.

Anti Coach Of The Year: Doug Collins. It's too easy to give this award to a guy who has a terrible team, or whoever Jordan or Donald Sterling is paying right now. (Yes, Vinny del Negro is still a terrible coach. Luckily for the Clips, Paul does that job along with point guard.) Instead, let's go to the man who buried his young players in a waste year, pined for the young players who were dealt away worse than a WIP caller, devised an offense that would have seemed ill-suited for any era of the pro game, let alone one with a three point line, and kept his team playing hard enough to even ruin any chance of collecting lottery balls. Thank God he's leaving. Runners up: Portland's Terry Stotts (somehow went the whole year without figuring out anyone's minutes, and the team quit on him) and LA's Mike D'Antoni (way to not adjust your scheme to your talent).

Most Fun Teams To Watch: Denver, Golden State, OKC

Least Fun Teams To Watch: Philly, Boston, Dallas

First Team All-NBA: Stephen Curry, Paul, Anthony, Durant and James

Second Team: James Harden, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge

Third Team: Kyrie Irving, Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Al Jefferson and Noah

All Rookie: Lillard, Davis, Harrison Barnes, Jonas Valanciunas and Bradley Beal

All Defense: James, Allen, Marc Gasol, Noah and Andre Iguodala

Tomorrow, we'll get into playoff predictions. Come on back?

A Brief And Obvious Point About Working Out While A Hobbit

Hobbit Workout

Folks, I'm not outing myself to the longtime readers of the blog when I post my vitals: 5'-4", 141 (yes, one stubborn pound over my goal, it doesn't matter how much I don't eat or how much I exercise, seemingly), 43 and painfully white. I've never been the kind of guy who racks a ton of weight and grunts my way through a set that you can hear from the parking lot; instead, I just go and do my work, and try to get there every other day and slowly but surely add weight over time. The goal isn't to Get Huge (and have to buy new clothes to fit My Hugeness); instead, it's to maintain my weight without denying myself the food and drink that I want to consume, and to never have to buy clothes before they flat out wear out. Besides, my kids keep getting bigger, and might still need to be carried someplace. So I'm gonna do that.

Which means that I don't have a ton of moments like this one, but when I do, it's pretty great.

You go to a machine which has been used by someone bigger and younger and much more grunty than you... and find that you need to up the weight from what was left on the machine, because it's just that much less than your usual reps. And you do that, then calmly and quietly lift the bigger weight, then wipe down the machine and rack the weight back down, because, well, manners.

It doesn't happen all that often. But when it does, it's all kinds of nice. Beware the strong old hobbit...
'

There Is A Very Real Chance That The Braves Have Already Won The NL East

They Hit The Ball Real Hard

Tonight in Atlanta, the Braves won their 10th straight game with a late power barrage -- Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla -- to move to 12-1. Their only loss this year was to Cliff Lee; they've beaten everyone else they've faced. And the thing about hot starts like this is that they frequently speak to a team that really is at a different and higher level of talent and performance.

Consider this: the Braves have the record that they do with their starting catcher, Brian McCann, not on the active roster. Their best set up man, Johnny Venters, is also on the shelf. Uggla is hitting .178, and Heyward is at .116. BJ Upton is at .152. And sure, some of this is always going to happen, even in streaks, and it's not like Justin Upton is going to stay at .340 all year... but we're talking about a third of the lineup pretty much being auto-outs, and they've still won 12 of 13. That just should not happen, really.

They are doing it, of course, with pitching: the team's collective ERA is 1.82, and the WHIP is an ungodly 1.01. Paul Maholm has been one of the best pitchers in the NL, but with the exception of Julio Teheran, they really have't had a bad start from anyone. But with a rotation where Teheran is no more than #5 starter, assuming Maholm stays above the median, that's far from fatal. Mike Minor looks like a post-hype stud, Kris Medlen isn't giving too much back from his breakthrough year, and Tim Hudson has always been a  quality innings eater, along with a guy who's putting together a very nice under the radar Hall of Fame career. (He's currently 199-104, with a 3.41 ERA, 25 CGs and 13 SOs, which in this day and age is downright amazing. At 37, he doesn't have a ton of time to rack up another 100 wins, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility.) And if you are behind to this team, you lose, since Craig Kimbrel is downright inhuman right now.

It also doesn't hurt their chances that the rest of the NL East looks very mediocre right now. Washington is 8-6 with a negative run differential, and have a terrible problem in the middle of their rotation in Dan Haren. The Mets are 7-6, but look like a night and day team, depending on which pitcher is on the mound. Philly is 6-7, but haven't hit at all on the current road trip, and might need Kyle Kendrick and John Lannan to pitch above their slots if Roy Halladay can't reinvent himself. And Miami is, well, a team that screams out for relegation.

Atlanta does have, of course, a history of outright chokery in this century, and the pitching isn't likely to stay at this level all year... but, well, the hitting could get better, and the bullpen's capable of staying at this level all year. If the rest of the division doesn't start taking some games from these guys, and fast, the current 4.5 game lead may not ever tighten up. That's what teams with a margin for error do, and right now, Atlanta is the only team in the East that is so blessed.

Top 10 reasons why the Spurs signed Tracy McGrady

Jersey Number Seven, And Counting

10) Needed a fresh bitter old guy, since Stephen Jackson had passed his expiration date

9) Will add to the self confidence of the rest of the bench players, who will enjoy blowing past him in practice

8) His 25/7/5 in the Chinese Basketball Association totally translates to the NBA, provided you are sniffing glue

7) Want to make sure that a first round loss to the Rockets cause their fans to fall over with the irony of it all

6) Anybody who's on his seventh team, and fifth in five years, stands a good chance of being able to give you inside information on whoever the opposing team is

5) Any time you can add a guy who used to be an All Star, then lost his athleticism but not his ego, you pretty much have to do that

4) After watching Gregg Popovich rehabilitate Boris Diaw, had to give him a fresh challenge

3) Half of this roster is over 30, so signing T-Mac is something of a youth movement

2) There's one game left in the regular season, which is plenty of time to teach him all of their sets, plays, and how to play defense

1) Really want to lose in the first round to get rest for their aging stars, and there's no better guy to ensure that than to employ the most famous Guy To Never Win A Playoff Series

A Simple Paen To Stephen Curry

One more to tie the record

Tonight in Oakland, in a game that the Warriors needed to avoid the Spurs (and certain doom) in the first round, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry was within deep striking distance of Ray Allen's all-time three-point record. The Spurs did their usual routine of substituting liberally in a game they did not need to win, which is to say they threw in the shock troops, and watched said troops acquit themselves, because the Spurs' bench and coaching is just like that. And then the fourth quarter started, and Curry did his Human Torch impersonation, and when it was all over, the Warriors had ripped off a 19-0 run and gotten a gift from the Suns in their game over Houston, and might wound up with a hobbled Denver team in the first round instead.

So a star came up big, in a home game they needed to have, against bench guys. Big deal, right? And this is where not watching Game just ruins things for you, because anyone who watched Curry in this game saw A Show. His release is from another world; it goes in a blink, to the point where guarding him with a guy who has size doesn't really work, because the size just means the defender can't move fast enough to stop the attempt. When Curry is really on his line, and the fact that he shoots 45% -- 45%! -- from the arc this year, you know that's been happening a lot, he's just unlike any other shooter in the game, and maybe even any that you've ever seen.

It's just that pure, it's just that pretty, it's just that explosive. If you don't like to watch Curry shoot, it's not that you don't like hoop. It's that you don't like beauty.

I guess Dale Ellis or Kevin Durant or Andrew Toney rang down the same echoes for me, but Ellis and Durant both had space and an ability to unravel their long arms to create space, and Toney didn't really have three point range; he lived in a time where the open mid-ranger jumper was a good play. Allen's form is flawless, but he's something of a machine; every shot is more or less the same, and his heyday in Seattle is so long ago that it's hard to remember just how perfect of a machine he was. Curry's dad could shoot it, of course, but pretty much needed to spot up and get the good pass. Curry can cross a guy, draws fouls, passes well, drives solid, and looks for his offense in the flow of the game, rather than changing it. He makes Klay Thompson better, along with his bigs, and honestly, when you shoot it like he does, the temptation is to just take over, rather than facilitate. Curry's going to wind up with around 7 assists a game, too, and he doesn't even have main point guard responsibilities when Jarrett Jack is on the floor.

For all of this, Curry's not perfect; he's injury and turnover prone, doesn't rebound all that well given the number of minutes he plays and the tempo that Golden State runs at, and could finish better at the rack. But he's still just 25, seemingly healthy despite 38 minutes a game, ready to get the national spotlight in a must-see series with Denver, and one of the five best reasons in the league to buy a ticket. Check him out while you can; he's worth your time. And would be, alone in a gym, so long as he had a hoop and a rim.