Most Valuable Player – The popular choices are Bryant, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups, Dirk Nowiztki and Elton Brand. From the five, I have to single out Nash and Nowiztki as my favorites to win it. Bryant is great, and the Lakers live and die by his shooting, but his team is just not that good and that taints his value. Billups, an early favorite, is the catalyst of a Pistons team that sports the best record. However, Detroit is as successful as it is because of its team mentality, and having three other All-Stars surrounding Chauncey certainly helps him look good. As for Brand, although having a career year, he is not the biggest reason for the Clippers success; that honor goes to Sam Cassell. Nash has his team with a better record than anyone could have predicted sans Amare Stoudemire, and has his Suns running and gunning, daring other teams to stop them. He is also directly responsible for teammates like Shawn Marion, Raja Bell and Boris Diaw having the best years of their careers. Dirk Nowitzki has had his sidekicks exiled from Dallas in recent years, and has had to adjust to a new set of talents, not to mention a new coach in Avery Johnson. Yet the seven-foot German has the Mavericks neck and neck with the Spurs, despite all the personnel adjustments and his team missing key players in stretches of the season. Dirk has been getting it done for them even without a clear-cut sidekick.
Most Improved Player – For me, this award is going either to David West of the Hornets, Boris Diaw, Dwight Howard of the Magic, Chris Bosh of the Raptors or Tony Parker of the Spurs. It has to go to Parker though, because his improvement is the most relevant. He didn’t merely improve because of more playing time, like West and Diaw, nor because he’s starting to fulfill expectations of a high draft pick, like Howard and Bosh. Parker has had essentially the same role he has with the Spurs for the last three or four years, yet his production has skyrocketed in 2006, warranting him his first All-Star appearance.
Coach of the Year – The favorites for this one are Flip Saunders of the Pistons, Avery Johnson of the Mavericks, Mike D’ Antoni of the Suns and Mike Dunleavy of the Clippers. What do all of those guys have in common? They all have MVP candidates in their roster. If we were to proportion a team’s success with the hand the coaches were dealt, then shouldn’t Byron Scott of the Hornets get serious consideration? The Hornets have two up-and-comers as their go-to guys, rookie Chris Paul and David West. That’s about it. The rest of the roster is filled with over-the-hill veterans like PJ Brown, underachievers like JR Smith and Desmond Mason, journeymen like Aaron Williams, Rasual Butler and Speedy Claxton and a recently expelled drug-user in Chris Andersen. Yet despite their talent deficiencies, Scott has them hovering above decent at 28-23, good for 5th in the tough Western Conference.
NBA Champions – Unsurprisingly, the Detroit Pistons, having been trampling over everybody else for the most part, are heavy favorites to win the title. They could very well enter the playoffs with home court advantage all throughout. Their only weakness, come playoff time, is coaching. Flip Saunders hasn’t had trouble getting his teams into the playoffs. Getting them far is where he’s pretty unproven. Let’s not forget, this is the guy who had Kevin Garnett for seven years and failed to reach the second round even once before getting bailed out by Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell a couple of years ago. The Pistons know what it takes to be champions. The question is, does their coach? I’m still picking San Antonio; those two losses against Detroit mean nothing if they don’t come in June.
As for the other awards, the frontrunners are few and far between; some are even already locked up at this point. For Rookie of the Year, it’s Chris Paul, hands down. Maurice Williams of the Bucks, provided he stays healthy, pretty much locks up Sixth Man of the Year. For Defensive Player of the Year, my sentimental pick would be Ron Artest, although somebody like Marcus Camby or yearly stalwart Big Ben Wallace could end up winning it.