Participants (18 total)
- Jonny: The Lakers Nations
- Andrew Feinstein: Denver Stiffs
- David Arnott: Rufus on Fire
- David Clark: The Dream Shake
- Alex Boeder: BrewHoop
- Michael Schwartz: Valley of the Suns
- Jeremy Schmidt: Bucksketball
- Jordan: Liberty Ballers
- Don: With Malice
- Mookie: A Stern Warning
- Rob D: nbamate
- John: Red's Army
- Royce Young: Daily Thunder
- Dan Feldman: Piston Powered
- Jeff Sack: Slam Dunk Central and Le Basketbawl
- Ben Q Rock: Third Quarter Collapse
- Franchise: RaptorsHQ
- College Wolf: TWolvesBlog
MVP
1. LeBron James (176 points)
John (Red's Army): Kobe is a better scorer, but LeBron is a better everything else.
Jordan: He's doing it without having a player like Paul Pierce or Pau Gasol as a sidekick.
Don: Being able to distinguish between Bryant and James is mere sophistry. Nigh on impossible, but for the sake of the rankings, James #2.
2. Kobe Bryant (154)
Royce Young: Simple - a sick Kobe beat a healthy Lebron. So what that the star was Lamar Odom. MVP goes to the dude that is awesome and wins most. Lakers 2. Cavs 0.
David Cark: LeBron didn't score 60+ this week. Or ever.
Rob D: No player has ever scored 60 points with as little fuss and as little fanfare as Kobe did at MSG. He looked completely zoned out, focused but disinterested. Kinda how I look when I'm doing my laundry. That's how mundane scoring points has become for Mamba.
3. Chris Paul (120)
David Arnott: Chris Paul is quickly entering the Shaq Zone, otherwise known as a Pujolsian Vortex, in which a player is so consistently good that everyone forgets and loses perspective on just how awesome he is.
Rob D: "Dear God, please don't let me be stuck in the MVP race behind Kobe and Lebron again. It happens every season, and I'm the greatest point guard of the last twenty years. I don't mean to be impatient, but really, this is bulls**t. Yours always, Chris Paul"
Don: This is going to upset some people, but Paul's statistics are better than they should be. He is definitely the beneficiary of less than stellar definitions in regards to what is actually an assist. He's good, but he's not as good as they'd have you believe.
4. Dwight Howard (117)
David Clark: Yao is still better. Howard more valuable this year though.
Rob D: The conundrum of being 7-foot and built like a small mountain: you make 20-20 games look easy, not because you're valuable, but because you're built like a small mountain.
5. Dwayne Wade (100)
David Arnott: My favorite bit of trivia about Flash: This year, he's blocking more shots per minute than LeBron, Gerald Wallace, or Amar'e, and the same number as Garnett.
Don: Any other year, Dwayne Wade could well be your MVP. But this year, he has other-wordly competition. At some stage, a team's lack of success has to affect whether or not you're in serious MVP contention. I don't believe that Wade is, for that reason.
College Wolf: So I called up D-Wizzzzle the other night cuz I wanted to tell him how much of a true playa pimp he’s been lately, and I was like: "Yo D-Waaaazzzzzup! Man, you on fire home slice! Yo you gunna single handily carry dis team to da playoffs boooo-ey. Wat wuld dey do without you prolly like win 10 games mahn. Da L ain’t got nothin on you! Play on playa, fo shiz." At this point I finally realized he had hung up the line a while ago.
6. Tim Duncan (96)
Rob D: You all owe Tim Duncan an apology. He is going to average 20-10 until he's sixty-five years old.
David Clark: The dude is just amazing. 12 years and counting.
7. Chauncey Billups (56)
Jeff Sack: The difference maker in Denver, he has taken the Nuggets from being just another good team in the Western Conference, to being a legitimate title contender.
Rob D: Carmelo Anthony is not an All-Star, and it's pretty much Chauncey Billups' fault.
Ben Q Rock: He's led Denver to the league's sixth-best record even though Carmelo Anthony missed 15 games with a broken hand. Billups' professionalism and leadership balances a team that features noted hotheads Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith, and is coached by George Karl.
Adam Francis: Not to take anything away from The Birdman but we think Chauncey has been a bit bigger in terms of reasons why the Nuggs have been this good.
7. Brandon Roy (56)
Mookie: As if the Knicks hadn't been stabbed in the heart enough this week, B-Roy plunged the dagger farther as he beat them on the buzzer with a whirling dervish of a drive.
Rob D: Another day, another buzzer-beater. This man is so clutch he sets his body clock to go off one second before his alarm does every morning.
9. Dirk Nowitzki (23)
Rob D: The big German gets a chance to show his MVP worth with Terry now out of the lineup. His epic 44-point effort against Chicago was a nice start.
10. Kevin Garnett (16)
Ben Q. Rock: This slot was the hardest one to select. I know Garnett's the most valuable Celtic, but Paul Pierce is their most explosive scorer and Ray Allen is their most efficient/consistent one. As much as I hate to cast a fourth-place MVP vote for someone averaging 17 and 9, I can't ignore the intangibles he brings to the floor, not to mention his defense.
10. Danny Granger (16)
Jonny: "Remember the name."
David Clark: Imagine how bad the Pacers would be without him this year. They'd have to rate the games TV-MA to keep kids from learning bad fundamentals.
John (Red's Army): Is he having the most underrated great season ever?
Also Receiving Votes
Joe Johnson (11), Paul Pierce (9), Yao Ming (6), Al Jefferson (6) [College Wolf: MAYNHOLUP!!!], Lamar Odom (5), Andre Iguodala (4), Chris Bosh (4), Steve Nash (2), Kevin Durant (2), Mo Williams (2), God (1) [David Clark: "For giving Andrew Bynum weak knees and making the Western Conference competitive again."]
ROY
via reclinergm.files.wordpress.com
1. Derrick Rose (77)
David Clark: He is the ROY, but he got shut down by Aaron Brooks and Rafer. Ouch.
Rob D: Bulls have put together some super impressive wins lately (Sac, Phoenix, New Orleans) and Rose has been at the centre of it. Oh yeah, and they're only two games out of the playoffs.
Royce Young: Three of his last four have been excellent games, but if patterns tell us anything, another stinker is coming soon.
2. OJ Mayo (70)
Rob D: Could very well join a select bunch of players who have averaged 20+ points in their rookie years. The last six guys to do this: Iverson, Duncan, Brand, Melo, Lebron and Durant.
Ben Q Rock: With Mike Conley's failure to impress at point guard in his first two seasons, there's talk in Memphis of converting Mayo to that position. The problem? Although he's an accomplished, efficient scorer (19.8 per game on 54.8% TS), he is simply not a creator: his pure point rating of -1.6 sandwiches him between Anderson Varejao and Travis Outlaw. Not good company for a potential franchise point guard, no?
3. Russell Westbrook (47)
David Arnott: I'm finally a believer. He was drafted as a defensive stopper, and he's, apparently, finally showing it. The thing is, I thought his offense would be spotty, but he's been a superior offensive player to DJ Augustin and pretty close to Rose.
Rob D: Hey Russell here's a clue: when you've missed your last 10 three-point attempts (fact) maybe you should stop shooting threes and concentrate on posterizing more people.
Royce Young: Even when he plays bad, he plays good. He was 3-14 from the field against Sacto, but still checked in with 10 points, eight assists and seven boards. Rajon Rondo would be proud.
4. Brook Lopez (31)
Jonny: He's the big man the Nets wished Nenad Kristic would become, except bigger.
David Clark: The non-goofy Lopez brother is actually good. This news is surprising to me.
Rob D: There are only six guys in the league averaging at least 10 points, 8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks and BL is one of them. So is Duncan, Dwight, Bynum, Camby and Kaman. Does this mean Lopez is already a Top 10 center in the league? My God.
Jeff Sack: There are lots of players who were stars in college, who have bombed in the NBA (hello Adam Morrison!) But there are not that many that may be more effective in the Association than they were in the NCAA. Lopez looks like he could be in that category.
5. Kevin Love (22)
David Arnott: Rebounds. If Kevin Love's per minute production is an indication of where he's headed, he will be a monster offensive force within a couple years. Get up to 30% on the threes, and no one will know what to do with him. He's got a different style than Chuck's, but Charles Barkley's production is not a ludicrous ceiling.
Adam Francis: Is McHale as the coach the reason for Love's improvement, or is Love one of the main reasons for McHale's success as Minnesota's coach?
College Wolf: Even a "Supa-Hata" like myself can no longer ignore what KevLar is doing out there on the court. And all those advanced mumbo jumbo voodoo statistics will tell slow people like myself that he’s really, really good. Now about that Rookie-Sophomore game on All-Star weekend...
Also Receiving Votes
Marc Gasol (7), Eric Gordon (7), Greg Oden (4), Marreese Speights (2), Rudy Fernandez (1), DJ Augustin (1), Michael Beasley (1)