Coach of the Year: Eric Spoelstra, Miami Heat
Second place: Mike Dantoni
Third place: Greg Popovich
Spoelstra's job should not be overlooked. He had nearly eight D-Leauge players on his team, Luke Babbit was a starter, and they were surging to the playoffs. Although I'm a numbers guy, there isn't much to back up the pick for Spoelstra. Here are a few, though. First, the Heat had a 28% chance of making the playoffs before the season. They started 11-30 and their odds to make the playoffs were a mere 2%. This is just remarkable and give a lot of the credit to Head Coach Eric Spoelstra.
Preseason:
January 5th:
Most Improved Player of the Year: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Second place: Nikola Jokic
Third place: Rudy Gobert
The Greek Freak last year was amazing. But was he starting in an All-Star game, near lock at All-NBA, and improved in EVERY SINGLE STATISTICAL CATAGORY amazing? No. This should be an easy pick for everybody.
Sixth Man of the Year: Andre Iguodala, Golden State Warriors
Second place: Eric Gordon
Third place: Lou Williams
I think the major component of me picking Iguodala is because I'm tired of people choosing high volume scorers that don't do much other than shoot 12 shots off the bench to get their 20 points per game. Iguodala averaged 2.5 Value Over Replacement Player, a 3.0 Box Plus Minus, and is responsible for 6.9 Win Shares. Compared to Eric Gordon who averaged a 0.4 Value Over Replacement Player, and an abysmal -2.4 Box Plus Minus, and is responsible for 3.8 Win Shares. Iguodala provides more value to his team coming off of the bench providing playmaking, scoring, and defense. He also played for the team with the best record.
Defensive Player of the Year: Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
Second place: Rudy Gobert
Third place: Kahwi Lenord
Look, I want Rudy Gobert to win the Defensive Player of the Year, but I can't pick him and be honest with you. Green's team was second in defensive rating only behind San Antonio. Green has an astonishing 5.0 Defensive Box Plus Minus, a 30 steal percentage and a 34 block percentage. His team is also a 99.4 defensive rating while he is on the court.
Rookie of the Year: Malcolm Brogden, Milwaukee Bucks
Second place: Dario Saric
Third place: Joel Embiid
The best ability is availability. We can look at the stats that show how good Joel Embiid was this season, there are two issues with the Embiid argument with advanced numbers or general stats is there is a too small of a sample size. Brogden steadied the ship of the Bucks and helped them into the playoffs, and you can't ask for more from a rookie.
Most Valuable Player: Kahwi Lenord, San Antonio Spurts
Second place: Russell Westbrook
Third place: James Harden
Kahwi has proven himself as a valuable player for the Spurs and one of the best players in the NBA. We obviously know that LeBron is the best player in the league, but for argument sake and the three finalists for this position, I find Kahwi to be most suited for the MVP. Kahwi's team finished with the second-best record in the NBA. With averaging 25.5 points per game, he was also responsible for being a part of the best defensive team in the NBA averaging a 100 defensive rating. He had an Effective iFeld Goal Percentage of 54.1%, was responsible for 13.6 Win Shares, and 7.5 Box Plus Minus all while having a high 31.1% Usage Rate. Being a great defender should be taken into account when we talk about the Most Valuable Player and is far better than his peers Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
