Life is full of double standards, who knew it would carry over to the NBA. Four seasons ago, Kobe Bryant posted one of the single greatest scoring seasons (not to mention single greatest scoring game, at the Raptors expense) in NBA history, averaging not only a league leading 35.4 points per game but 4.5 assists as well as 5.3 rebounds.
Rather then handing the leagues Most Valuable Player award to the more than deserving Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash of the Pheonix Suns won the award for the second year in a row, despite an increase in turnovers and decrease in assists from his prior year. The reason? According to David Sterns (AKA "playa hater" according to some) dictionary, the league MVP not only makes himself better, but also his teammates. Since the Suns as a whole were doing better, Nash won the award, despite having Amar’e Stoudamire as opposed to the great Kwahmay Brown (who’s more infamous for throwing cake and small hands than basketball).
So what does this all mean? Does this rule apply to every award in the NBA? No, clearly not, because a Most Improved Player of the Year can’t and shouldn’t necessarily have to make his teammates better to win the award, and the Defensive Player of the Year usually is the DPOY BECAUSE he teammates aren’t as good as he is, defensively at least. Although, if this is the unwritten rule for the MVP, it should then go hand in hand with the Rookie of the Year award, due to it being practically the same award, but strictly reserved for rookies.
That brings me to my next point, why does the ROY award seem to be unanimously and anonymously Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans and even second at this point seems to be Golden State’s Stephen Curry. There is no denying the greatness in both these players, but the team’s record speaks for itself.
Curry’s averaging 16.3 points per game, 5.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds a game, and dropped a very impressive triple-double on the Clippers, but there is no denying Don Nelson’s system inflates his numbers across the board. On top of that, Curry has a deserving All-Star in his backcourt by the name of Monta Ellis, and still they have the third worst record in the league.
On to Tyreke, who is on pace to join an elite club consisting of Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, and Lebron James as the only rookies to average 20 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds, but once again, where is his team? The Kings have won a measly 24 games this season, tied for sixth worse in the league, meaning at this point, any numbers any of these two point guards throw on any team virtually won’t go anywhere farther than the stat sheet.
That leaves us with the Milwaukee sensation that has made everyone forget Michael Redd’s name. Brandon Jennings exploded unto the NBA scene with a 55-point outburst against the Warriors (that’s 41 more than Stephen Curry had that game if you were wondering). Since that time, his scoring has significantly dropped and has hit the 30-point mark only once. Ironically enough though, Jennings revived himself at the expense of Tyreke’s Kings, in which Jennings outscored Evans by 20 and had the same amount of assists (and three pointers) as Evans did turnovers (that would be eight). The Bucks went on to win that game behind Jennings’ 35 points in double overtime over the Kings, propelling their record since the All-Star break to 15-3, best in the NBA. This gives the Bucks a solid grip on the fifth spot in the playoffs, three games ahead of Dwayne Wade’s Heat.
Before the season started, no one would have predicted rookie Brandon Jennings leading the Bucks into the playoffs, especially if it was mentioned that All-Star and sharpshooter Michael Redd would have a season ending injury, but Jennings has done just that. All three point guards are deserving of praise, but it seems when it comes down to vote for the award for Rookie of the Year, everyone’s only looking at the individual’s stats, as opposed to the teams success. Jennings will be marching into the playoffs come April as a team no one wants to face, while his rookie counter-parts will already be on summer vacation, watching the playoffs on TV just like everybody else.
No comments:
Post a Comment