By: Brandon Carr
The NBA has officially announced the finalists for every regular-season award. There are 6 major awards the NBA gives out that includes, the MVP, the DPOY, the ROY, the COY, the MIP, and the 6th MOY. In this article, I will be making my NBA writing return by giving my predictions on who will win each of these awards. So let’s get right into it!
6th Man Of The Year
Finalists:
Montrezl Harrell (Clippers)
Dennis Schröder (Thunder)
Lou Williams (Clippers)
Having a good 6th man that provides that spark off the bench is crucial to team success. Fortunately this season, we have three guys who are all deserving of this honor. I had thought coming in that I had a clear winner here for this award, but after doing research and comparing all three of these players seasons, I found that I had a new clear winner of this award.
The winner of the 2019-2020 NBA 6th man of the year award should be Montrezl Harrell. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but if you look at the numbers, Harrell far and away had the best numbers out of both Dennis Schröder and Lou Williams.
According to Basketball-Reference, Harrell had more total win shares and more defensive and offensive win shares than Williams and Schröder. What win shares are if you don’t know, tells you how many wins that player contributes via their offensive and/or their defense. Harrell was better than both of them in these categories despite playing fewer minutes per game than Williams and Schröder. Harrell also was second only behind Kawhi Leonard on his own team in win shares, which was even more than Paul George.
Harrell, if he wins this award, would be the first big man since Lamar Odom in 2011 to win the 6th man of the year award. I think it’s pretty clear that he should take home this award. If you want to look at win shares again, Schröder is 6th on his own team in total win shares and in offensive/defensive win shares. Williams was 5th in total win shares and offensive win shares on his own team and 7th in defensive win shares on his own team. I thought going in, Schröder was going to be the guy I would take but after my research, I am taking Harrell with no doubts.
Winner: Montrezl Harrell
Most Improved Player
Finalists:
Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Luka Dončić (Mavericks)
Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
The most improved player of the year award in the NBA is awarded to the player who has a huge improvement from the season they had previously. The NBA had a lot of improved players, some who were first-time all-stars due to their improvements. But they have narrowed it down to 3 guys.
I eliminated Luka Dončić from the equation because yes he improved a lot, but I think everyone expected this from him based on what we saw in his rookie year. We knew Dončić was going to be special right out of the gate and he proved that. Now with Brandon Ingram and Bam Adebayo, I don’t think we expected these two guys to be here when the season started.
Deciding who would win between the both of them was hard for me, but after research and thinking about it, I would have to go with Bam Adebayo as the 2019-2020 NBA most improved player.
Adebayo, unlike Ingram, wasn’t a starter last season in Miami. Adebayo only started in 23 games for the Heat out of 82 and only averaged 8.9 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game in 23.3 minutes of play. This was because of the presence of Hasaan Whiteside, who was the Heat’s starting center during the 2018-2019 season. Whiteside was traded in the offseason to the Portland Trail Blazers and this opened up an opportunity for Adebayo to insert himself in the starting lineup. With this opportunity, he proved why he was a first-round pick back in 2017.
Adebayo’s numbers shot up from 8.9 PPG to 16.1 PPG, 7.3 RPG to 10.4 RPG, and 0.6 BPG to 1.3 BPG which earned Adebayo his first NBA all-star selection of his career.
I won’t take anything away from Brandon Ingram who had himself an incredible season. Ingram improved in a lot of major statistical categories on a new team. He was the Pelicans’ leading scorer on the season and he became a first-time all-star himself which is nothing to scoff at. It was certainly a tough decision for me to make but based on how much they both improved, I think Adebayo improved a lot more than Ingram did by coming off the bench into an all-star starting power forward and center which was enough for me to give Adebayo the edge.
Winner: Bam Adebayo
Coach Of The Year
Finalists:
Mike Budenholzer (Bucks)
Billy Donovan (Thunder)
Nick Nurse (Raptors)
The coach of the year award might be the most sought after award in the NBA. It’s an award that doesn’t get enough recognition from fans, however, for coaches, this is a prestigious award to win. You think about some of the greatest coaches of all time like Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Gregg Popovich who have been multiple time winners of this award. You want your name to be with these all-time greats if your a head coach.
I like all three options for this year’s COY as they all have a compelling case to be made on why they should win this award. The one that I would say sticks out to me the most is Nick Nurse from the Toronto Raptors.
Nurse and the reigning and defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors had a lot of doubts if they could repeat their success from the season prior. They lost their finals MVP and one of the best players in the NBA in Kawhi Leonard to free agency. According to Pro Basketball-Reference, the Raptors were slated to finish as the 5th seed in the eastern conference with a 46.5 over/under win total. Well, the Raptors did go over that amount and are currently the number two seed in the eastern conference, showing that they still can be a good team even with the loss of their superstar small forward.
What also brought me to choosing Nurse over both Mike Budenholzer and Billy Donovan is first of all for Budenholzer, according to ESPN, there has never been a back to back head coach of the year in the history of the NBA which means history is against him for winning it again this year despite having the best record in the league. For Donovan, the Thunder have blown away expectations and they have gone from being a team that wasn’t going to make the playoffs in many people’s eyes, to currently the 5th seed in the western conference. But history is also not on Donovan’s side as a coach has not been named coach of the year with a seeding lower than the 4th seed since 2007 when Sam Mitchell coached the Raptors to a 47-35 record. If Donovan can get the Thunder to the 4th seed, then I would strongly consider him, but I think Nick Nurse as of right now should be named as the NBA coach of the year.
Winner: Nick Nurse
Defensive Player Of The Year
Finalists:
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
Anthony Davis (Lakers)
Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
Defense is a part of basketball that a lot of players pride themselves on to be good at. It sometimes is scarier to your opponent that you are a good defensive player rather than a good scorer. They say defense wins championships all the time in sports, but right now we’re going to talk about which one of these three guys’ defense should win them the NBA defensive player of the year.
The three names on this list are all according to Pro Basketball Reference, top 3 in the NBA in defensive win shares. Rudy Gobert is looking to be the first player since Dwight Howard to win the defensive player of the year award, three times in a row while Anthony Davis and Giannis Antetokounmpo are looking for their first defensive player of the year awards of their careers. Although Antetokounmpo is the NBA’s leader in defensive win shares, he is not the guy I am taking to win this award.
Anthony Davis is number two on this list, but for Davis, him coming over to the Lakers caused them to improve significantly on defense. The season prior, they were ranked 12th in the NBA in defensive rating which is still above average, but now adding Davis has them currently ranked 3rd in the NBA in defensive rating. Davis between Antetokounmpo and Gobert had averaged more blocks and steals per game as an added incentive to his chances of winning.
Antetokounmpo may have finished number one in the NBA in defensive win shares and Milwaukee may have finished number one in the NBA in defensive rating in 2019-2020 as a team, but if you take a look at where Antetokounmpo’s teammates finished in defensive win shares compared to Davis’ teammates, you can see that it wasn’t just Antetokounmpo who made Milwaukee a defensive juggernaut. According to Pro Basketball Reference, Milwaukee had 5 players, including Antetokounmpo, finish 21st in the NBA or higher in defensive win shares. Most notably center Brook Lopez finished 4th in the NBA in defensive win shares. Davis only had one teammate in the top 30 with LeBron James finishing 6th in defensive win shares. So essentially, Antetokounmpo had more help defensively than Davis did and the Lakers still were 3rd in defensive rating despite only 2 players in the top 30. I will give Davis the edge over the Greek Freek for this award.
Winner: Anthony Davis
Rookie Of The Year
Finalists:
Ja Morant (Grizzlies)
Kendrick Nunn (Heat)
Zion Williamson (Pelicans)
The rookie of the year in the NBA, an award that so many all-time greats have won. All-time greats like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, and Larry Bird to name a few, have won this award. The award this year has had some buzz around it with the number one and number two overall picks in the 2019 NBA draft in Ja Morant and Zion Williamson. I have had many debates with who should win this award, and as of today, I still stand by my pick.
Ja Morant was made the number two overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft when the Memphis Grizzlies selected him. Morant has shown throughout the season that he has lived up to the hype as the #2 pick. Morant led all rookies this season in points per game (min 40 games played) with 17.8 PPG and in assists per game with 7.1 APG, while currently having the Grizzlies in position to grab the 8th seed in the western conference.
Why I would take Morant over Zion Williamson is very simple. Williamson as of today has only played in 23 games in his rookie season and he projects by the end of the season to have only played in 26 regular season games as a rookie. Morant has played in 41 more games than Williamson has and no matter how much better Williamson has been than Morant when he has played, he doesn’t have enough games to win this award. I am not taking anything away from Williamson, he has been nothing short of spectacular when has played, but he has missed too much of the season to be named over Morant.
Winner: Ja Morant
MVP
Finalists:
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
LeBron James (Lakers)
James Harden (Rockets)
The NBA MVP, the most prestigious individual regular-season award in all of basketball. The award that represents who the best player in the NBA was for that season. An award that every all-time great has won and this season, we happen to have all former MVPs as the three finalists to add another MVP to their trophy room.
This year, I think you can make an argument for all three finalists for this award. There however can only be one winner of the MVP award, so it has to go only one of these superstars. That guy for me, goes by the nickname of the Greek Freak.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was the winner of this award last season, and rightfully so. Antetokounmpo took the Milwaukee Bucks to the number one seed in the eastern conference with an NBA best 60 wins in the 2018-2019 season. Antetokounmpo happened to do the same thing this season. The Bucks are the number one seed in the eastern conference with the most wins in the NBA. Well, you may be thinking to yourself, Antetokounmpo’s numbers can’t possibly have gotten better from last year’s MVP season. But you are mistaken because he got better.
Antetokounmpo’s stat line from his 2018-2019 MVP season looked like this, 27.7 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 5.9 APG, and 57.8% FG. Antetokounmpo’s stat line this season looks like this, 29.7 PPG, 13.7 RPG, 5.8 APG, and 55.5% FG. Now yes, his assist numbers did take a slight dip and so did his field goal percentage from last season, but with an improvement in points per game and in rebounds per game, I think it’s safe to say that he did improve from the season prior. Even his three-point percentage went from 25.6% to 30.8% which is what you don’t want if you are any opposing team is to see Antetokounmpo hitting threes. His win shares have gone down which is expected with his team winning fewer games than they did the previous year, but at the end of the day they are still the number one team in the NBA in terms of team record and the biggest reason is because of the Greek Freak.
LeBron James and James Harden both had tremendous seasons and if you pick any of them I will have no problem with it, but when you improved upon the MVP season that you just had with really the same narrative last season in your favor once again as to why you won the award, then how could the Greek Freak not be the league’s MVP again?
Winner: Giannis Antetokounmpo
I would love to hear your predictions on these awards! My Twitter is @bcarr_13 and you can let me know if you agree or disagree!
Brandon's Breakdowns 