NBA Awards Season 2022!
Well, it’s that time again. Spring has sprung, baseball is back, the NFL Draft is a month away, and the NBA Playoffs start this weekend. With the beginning of the playoffs comes the annual tradition of giving out pieces of metal to a couple of millionaires for their accomplishments in handling a ball. By the time this piece comes out, everyone that actually has a vote will have voted and the results will be all but official. Every year on Twitter and to my circle of sports friends, I give my award picks, but I feel like to truly validate and explain them, I have to put them in writing. While this piece will be short, it’ll be juicy and have more controversy than the 2022 Oscars or the Twitter discussion surrounding the Morbius post-credits scene. I’ll be ranking my top three for each award and giving my winner a more in-depth analysis, similar to what I did with my NFL All-Pro article.
*Note: Winners are in bold and candidates are put in order, but you’ll probably catch on anyways because you are all very smart.
Coach of the Year
Taylor Jenkins, MEM
Ime Udoka, BOS
Monty Williams, PHX
It’s for real, Memphis. In August, if I had gone to the City of Memphis and parked myself in front of the FedEx Forum with a megaphone and exclaimed that Ja Morant and the Grizzlies would be a top two team in the NBA this season, I would’ve been arrested for disturbing the peace. In all seriousness, the Memphis ascension has been the story of the league this year and behind their improvement is Taylor Jenkins. The third year man has changed the status quo of basketball success, utilizing a true eleven man rotation, and it has worked. The Grizzlies went from ninth to second in the Western Conference while improving their record by eighteen wins. That level of improvement with slight tweaks on a roster is unheard of. The Grizzlies retained their defensive excellence from 2021, improving their defensive rating from 110.5 to 108.9. They did this while improving their offense and net rating by an almost staggering amount. Their net rating went from 1.2 and ranked 14th, to 5.3 and 5th. They retained offensive excellence by staying top ten in assists per game, assist/turnover ratio, and rebounds per game. The difference is that these numbers finally translated into wins. The difference? Clutch time. In clutch time, coaching matters more than ever as rotations have to be shortened and important decisions have to be made. In 2021, the Grizzlies were ranked 21st in clutch time net rating with an abysmal -6.2. That’s not too good to say the least. In 2022, however, is where the Grizz have shined. Their clutch time net rating of 9.8 has skyrocketed them to sixth in the league. Along with raising their clutch time scoring by a full point, Jenkins has shown to be not only an effective coach, but a clutch one. Combine these numbers with the face value of a 56-26 record, good for second in the Western Conference, and a 28-18 record against teams over .500, this one’s a no-brainer. Although the Celtics’ historic turnaround and Suns’ dominance have been amazing stories, no team has been more remarkable and surprising than the Memphis Grizzlies in large part due to Taylor Jenkins.
Most Improved Player
Dejounte Murray, SA
Darius Garland, CLE
Tyrese Maxey, PHI
Most Improved Player is always a weird award. How much do we award improvement versus natural progression? Well, in my mind, they’re the same thing and no player has improved their game as a whole as much as Dejounte. Starting with the surface level numbers, he’s upped his scoring by 5.4 points per game to a career high 21.1 points per game. However, that’s not why he’s the most improved player. To me, it’s been watching his impact on the passing game and defensive end that’s been so impressive. On the surface, he’s upped his assists from 5.4 to 9.2!! That type of improvement just doesn’t happen in one year in the modern NBA. As absurd as that is, his assist/turnover ratio has continued to rise, as it went from 3.1 to 3.48. His usage rate has never been higher, as his 26.8 usage rate is closer to James Harden’s 27.1 than his 2021 total of 23.1, which was closer to 2021 John Collins’ 22.2. Although that could be seen as a selective statistical choice, I want to emphasize how he’s gone from a secondary role player to the primary focal point of the Spurs offense, which hasn’t been done too much in Spurs history. To put that into context, in the Pop era, the highest usage rate ever has been Tim Duncan with a career usage rate of 27. For Dejounte to be starting to be this useful on offense is huge for a young developing team and is the reason that they’re currently preparing for the Play-In and not at home like most other young teams centered around a point guard (*cough* Kings, Pacers, and Thunder *cough*). His VORP (value over replacement player) has also shot up substantially, from 1.5 to 4.4, which ranks ninth in the NBA! This stat puts him in the caliber of Karl-Anthony Towns, Steph Curry, Devin Booker, and Ja Morant, who are all guys who had the same or worse VORP than Murray this year. His defensive rating and defensive win shares also improved from 110.8 to 108.5 and 2.6 to 3.4 respectively. Although Garland and Maxey have been revelations for their teams, no player has truly improved quite like Dejounte Murray.
Sixth Man of the Year
Some races are just obvious. I think of the Usain Bolt picture from the Olympics, the 1988 Election, and the race between me and getting a solid parking spot in the middle of UMass at 2pm on a Wednesday. The parking spot wins every time. In this case, the parking spot is Tyler Herro and I am everyone else. This race might be as simple as averaging 20.7 points per game off the bench of the number one team in the Eastern Conference. Cut. That’s a wrap, that’s enough. However, I want to go a little deeper into why everyone is sleeping on Tyler Herro (and yes, coming from a Celtics fan that hurts to type). While the scoring is impressive, it’s not like he’s doing it inefficiently like prominent “hoopers” that have won sixth man in the past. In 2022, Herro had shooting splits of .477/.399/.868. That’s a couple of missed shots away from a 50/40/90 season off of the bench. He had Miami’s highest usage rate of 27.8 coming off of the bench. To come off the bench and be as relied on as he has been is ridiculous. It’s hard to nitpick this award as much as the others because it’s so objective. Most of the time it goes to whoever is the best bench scorer and whoever is the most efficient. He only averaged 2.6 turnovers, which when considering his usage and age isn’t too shabby. This isn’t a hard argument as this award goes to the best bench scorer of the year and in 2022, that’s been Herro by a wide margin. Clarkson and Oubre are listed simply as formalities.
Rookie of the Year
Scottie Barnes, TOR
Cade Cunningham, DET
Evan Mobley, CLE
This rookie class was one of the more anticipated classes of recent memory. Everybody knew that Cade would go first, but after that, who was the guy? Early on, it looked like Jalen Green. Then, Evan Mobley, and then Cade Cunningham, but now it’s Scottie Barnes. The Florida State standout proved that being just really good at everything instead of truly elite at one thing still holds value. Rookie stats are rookie stats, but Scottie Barnes is top three in points and rebounds, and top five in assists. Along with a block a game, 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists is a pretty remarkable rookie statline. Along with the counting stats, Barnes played 74 games, which is far more than Cunningham’s 64 and Mobley’s 69. Barnes finished second in rookie defensive rating, only behind Mobley, while being able to guard all five positions and switch with ease. His offensive versatility brought a new element to the Raps offense that they haven’t had since Kawhi. He can be effective as a screener, passer, cutter, and ball handler in the pick and roll. His jump shot is admittedly not that great, but when has a great defensive and passing rookie ever been able to shoot the ball effectively? The jumper will come, but as far as everything else? He’s got it. I would go into more depth, but everything I want to say is summed up far better in this tweet from the Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor (we love KOC). Overall, from a strict eye test perspective, Cunningham is the best offensive rookie and Mobley is the best defensive rookie (shoutout Herb Jones, though). Yet, for me, it’s Barnes’ ability to do both at a relatively high level that puts him at the top of the rookie heap.
Defensive Player of the Year
Marcus Smart, BOS
Bam Adebayo, MIA
Rudy Gobert, UTAH
Sorry Mikal Bridges and Rudy Gobert stans, but this isn’t a pity party for teams that are good but won’t win any awards. Instead, we find ourselves looking at what should be the first guard to win Defensive Player of the Year since 1996, when the Hall of Famer, Gary Payton, took home the award. Smart’s impact on the defensive end sets the tone for the best defensive rated team in the league. Since January 1st, no team has been better defensively than the Boston Celtics. Since beginning their ascension to the second seed in the Eastern Conference (January 1st), the Celtics have had a defensive rating of 106.7. This is 4.5 points lower than any other Eastern Conference team and 3.2 points better than any other team in that time frame. On the season, they lead the league with a defensive rating of 106.9. At the heart of this defense is Marcus Smart. The hustle stats are all there, as Smart leads the league with 1.1 loose balls recovered per game, a staple of how he plays. He’s fourth in total loose balls recovered, fifth in defensive win shares, fifth in steals per game, sixth in total steals, and seventh in defensive rating. Now, one might think that there aren’t a ton of top three finishes in any of these categories. Here, it’s important to mention his position. At point guard, he’s forced to guard the best players in the league when they first get the ball. He isn’t waiting for anyone to feed his matchup the ball, he has to pick up the player bringing up the ball and set a defensive tone for the rest of the game. Guys like Bam and Jaren Jackson Jr. might be able to guard the perimeter, but they aren’t doing it on a consistent basis. Smart’s sample size is huge which is why his perimeter defensive stats might look similar or lesser to the bigs. Smart has to do it 24/7, every single night, whereas Bam and JJJ are doing it when they have to. At 6’3, Smart guards all five positions at a high level while being a valuable player in transition and in the passing game. In stats like Defensive Win Shares and Defensive Rating, the only qualified players above him are centers and forwards. This is to emphasize how these stats typically favor centers and steal hungry guards. Smart gets steals, but he will lock you down, force turnovers, and is a constant switch threat on a top ranked defense that heavily relies on him to be. He also ranked above all other DPOY candidates in minutes per game, showing again how much more reliant his team is on him than the other guys. You can always sub in a big to defend and have similar effectiveness around the rim. Although Jackson and Bam add value in their switching ability, they can still be beat out there. You cannot replace an elite perimeter defender who can guard all five positions in any scenario and consistently pick up the opponent’s best perimeter player. The bigs might have slightly better numbers, but their role isn’t nearly as big as Smart’s and isn’t nearly as big as Payton’s was in 1996. For this reason, Smart should be the first guard since ‘96 to win the award. Many guards have tried and many have failed, but Marcus Smart might just be the one to break the DPOY mold.
An awesome video (s/o Marc D’Amico)
Most Valuable Player
Nikola Jokić, DEN
Joel Embiid, PHI
Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL
That is not a typo, there is an extra gap between Giannis and the top two candidates. This MVP race will go down as the most challenging decision of this decade so far. I picked Jokić, but before I make my argument, I think it’s important to reflect on what the MVP race has become. This race has been degenerated into an advanced stats vs traditional stats debate and I hate that. People have begun to degrade advanced stats because Embiid isn’t going to win, but he looks like the better player. That reasoning is the problem and the solution with the discussion around advanced stats. Advanced stats are not here to take away anything from traditional stats and the eye test, but sometimes, we need to quantify things to get a better grasp of specific impact that players have on the game. Nobody can watch every NBA game throughout an entire season. Very few people have watched every Embiid and Jokić minute of this season. The eye test tells us a lot, but advanced stats still have value. Just because they seem to love one player over the other doesn’t mean that advanced stats are suddenly an end-all, be-all. If you read, watch, and consume content surrounding the MVP race, you’ll hear the statistical argument for Jokic and the eye-test, real hooper argument for Embiid. I’m not picking Jokić because of the advanced stats, I’m picking Jokić because of the eye test and basic stats. That’s right, I’m not here to harass you about his league leading VORP or his league leading RAPTOR. No, I’ll be discussing why Jokić should be MVP based on his surface level numbers, the eye test, and the practical, non-statistical impact on his team. Starting with his surface level numbers, we need to establish one fact: we have never seen a player score 2000 points, grab 1000 rebounds, and dish out 500 assists in a single season. Let alone being a center, Jokić plays like a point guard and by doing so, creates a new type of player that we have never seen before. He averages 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, and 7.9 assists per game with 58.3/33.7/81.0 splits. For amateurs, that is very good and is ridiculously elite when considering he’s a 7’0, 285 pound center and not a 6’8 slashing forward. He is the best passing big man ever and without him, the Nuggets probably would be towards the top of the lottery. I went to a Nuggets game this year and what I saw was him absolutely tear apart the top ranked Celtics defense with patience and elite playmaking. He wasn’t enforcing his will on people, being overaggressive, or exhausting himself, but slowly picking apart the best defense in the league and getting his role players easy shots. I’m not saying that one game is indicative of his whole year, but he has the same approach to every game which mostly results in a positive result. His second best player all year was Aaron Gordon. He had work to do. He can’t afford to run around doing whatever he pleases to get his numbers. He had to get his teammates involved or else he was going to run 1v5 every night. His scoring is only about three points less than Embiid, but his value distributing the ball far eclipses anything Embiid can do. Although I usually resist playing the game of “who has the better team?”I think that it’s relevant here. It can disregard coaching and playstyle, but when looking at both Philadelphia and Denver’s rosters, there is no competition of who had less to work with. Embiid had Harden, Maxey, Harris, and solid role players abound. Jokić had Aaron Gordon, Jeff Green, and Bones Hyland. He wasn’t working with much, yet led his team to a record only three games worse than the Sixers. Outside of points per game, there isn’t really a surface level statistical argument for Embiid and as I’ve just delved into, there isn’t really an eye test argument either. Embiid was great and historical all year, but Jokić did everything Embiid did, but better. So, there you have it, an argument that disregards advanced statistics and strictly focuses on the eye test and narratives. Yet, even when using this framing, Jokić still comes out on top.
All-NBA Teams
First
G: Devin Booker, PHX
G: Luka Dončić, DAL
F: Jayson Tatum, BOS
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL
C: Nikola Jokić, DEN
Second
G: Ja Morant, MEM
G: Stephen Curry, GS
F: Kevin Durant, BKN
F: Pascal Siakam, TOR
C: Joel Embiid, PHI
Third
G: Chris Paul, PHX
G: Donovan Mitchell, UTAH
F: DeMar DeRozan, CHI
F: LeBron James, LAL
C: Karl-Anthony Towns, MIN
Although I won’t explain these in depth, I’ll address the probable controversy. I feel that the first team has no problems. If you disagree with me on that, you’re wrong or we disagree on MVP. With the second team, Durant missed 27 games and his team is currently in seventh. You can’t make the first team over someone who averaged just three points less while playing 21 games more and being five seeds above you at the very least (not mentioning the rest of Tatum’s game). Siakam has been electric for Toronto while playing elite defense and being available. He has played 68 games and is the reason that the Raps are currently in the playoffs. With regards to LeBron’s omission from the first two teams, his availability and impact on winning are to blame. For a myriad of reasons, the Lakers didn’t even make the play-in game. To me, you can’t be in the first two teams and miss the playoffs, let alone the play-in. He also missed 26 games, so even if they were in the play-in as the tenth seed, I still can’t put him over Siakam or Durant. However, I will acknowledge that his 30 points per game at age 37 is impressive, so I kind of have to put him on the third team, even though guys like Jimmy Butler, Jaylen Brown, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Zach LaVine deserve some consideration here.
Conclusion
Well, that was interesting. This year was especially hard for awards because the most important awards were super close and even more divisive. I want this conclusion to serve as a reminder that all of these players are human beings and are being considered for awards based on the way that they play a game that forces them to put a ball in a basket. They are human beings first and the discourse around them shouldn’t be personal and harsh. At the end of the day, it’s just basketball and these awards don’t matter as much as anyone might tell you they do. No matter who wins what, we can appreciate what they have done and what they will do on a basketball court. Again, these are by no means the correct picks or the only options for who will win the awards, but just my opinion. This was fun to write, but more fun to think about and discuss. If there’s one thing to sum up this NBA season, it’s that basketball is fun.
BONUS: All-Defensive and All-Rookie Teams
All-Defensive First Team
G: Marcus Smart, BOS
G: Mikal Bridges, PHX
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL
F: Bam Adebayo, MIA
C: Rudy Gobert, UTAH
All-Defensive Second Team
G: Fred VanVleet, TOR
G: Matisse Thybulle, PHI
F: Jaren Jackson Jr., MEM
F: Jayson Tatum, BOS
C: Robert Williams III, BOS
All-Rookie First Team
G: Cade Cunningham, DET
G: Franz Wagner, ORL
F: Herbert Jones, NO
F: Scottie Barnes, TOR
F: Evan Mobley, CLE
All-Rookie Second Team
G: Jalen Green, HOU
G: Josh Giddey, OKC
G: Ayo Dosunmu, CHI
G: Bones Hyland, DEN
F: Jonathan Kuminga, GS
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