Rant NBA Roundtable (12/30): Award Front-Runners And Title Favorites

By Anthony F. Irwin @AnthonyIrwinNBA on December 30, 2014

Many consider Christmas the unofficial launching day of the NBA season. Late October and November serve basically as an extended training camp in which teams get a firm grasp of rotations and carve out identities to fit their roster. I got together with Dan Schultz (@DSchultz89) and Court Zierk (@courtzierk) to discuss the first couple months and the season moving forward.

Anthony (@AnthonyIrwinNBA): Which storyline has intrigued you the most thus far?

Dan: As a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, it has been very interesting to see them struggle during the first two months. A lot of it has to do with injuries, but the Spurs also recently lost two straight triple-overtime games at home in pretty surprising fashion. With that said, we all know that the Spurs are not built for the first two months of the year.

Court: For me, it has to be the race for the seventh and eighth seed in the Western Conference. If the season ended today, the Spurs and the Phoenix Suns would qualify for those spots. On the outside looking in are the New Orleans Pelicans and the Oklahoma City Thunder. I can easily imagine a scenario whereby the Spurs and Thunder are the last two teams to make it into the playoffs, easily making them among the best teams to ever occupy such a low seed. How good would a first round matchup be between the Thunder and the Warriors? Or the Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies? Crazy. It could also lead to an interesting final week of the season since there may be more incentive to drop in the standings rather than rise.

Anthony: We all knew the Golden State Warriors would go as far as Andrew Bogut would take them. Since Bogut predictably went down December 8, the Warriors have gone 7-3 with back-to-back losses in Los Angeles. It’ll be interesting to see if the Warriors make a move to permanently reinforce their frontcourt or opt instead for a temporary fix. Golden State is simply not the same team without their defensive leader. In this western conference, even a short losing streak cause a team to free fall in the standings.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, how do you see the awards playing out? Let’s start with the MVP.

Court: It’s hard to deny the impact of Russell Westbrook or the dominant play of James Harden and Stephen Curry so far, but my MVP award would go to Marc Gasol. He doesn’t have the gaudy stats of the other players, but he is by far the most important player on one of the best teams in the league. Take him off the Grizzlies, and I think they are probably 15-20 games worse. Their entire offense is predicated on his game, and he also the best defensive of player of any of the other MVP candidates.

Dan: I have to go with Westbrook. Yes, it’s a small sample size so far, but look at where the Thunder were without him. They got off to a 4-13 start and were last in the Western Conference. A lot of analysts were already writing the Thunder off and saying they might not make the playoffs. Now, in almost no time, they are right back in the playoff picture. While Kevin Durant has battled injuries throughout the year, Westbrook has picked up the slack and has really been outstanding.

Anthony: I’m also calling Westbrook my MVP. He deals with as much scrutiny as any player in the league for a variety of reasons, but that only seems to fuel him. Playing alongside Durant, he serves as the scapegoat when they lose, and is comparatively a minor contributor when they win. Westbrook has more than kept the Thunder afloat this season –, he’s somehow put them in position to make the playoffs. Given the conference he plays in, that’s pretty impressive.

What about the Rookie of the Year?

Court: I am going to go outside the box a bit here and say that Marcus Smart will make a late-season push for this award with the departure of Rajon Rondo. He will have a hard time catching up to Andrew Wiggins, who is the odds-on favorite, but I think he may surprise some people over the last half of the season. He is already an elite defender, and if he can continue to find open teammates and figure out how to score the ball at a reasonable rate, it will be hard to deny his importance to the Boston Celtics.

Dan: I have to go with Wiggins as well, especially with Jabari Parker being out the rest of the year. The Minnesota Timberwolves are not a good team, but that is because their team is young and they have not figured out how to win basketball games consistently. Wiggins has shown flashes of brilliance as well as instances of being a rookie, and I still think he has the potential to be a star. Given the situation he finds himself in, he has done very well.

Anthony: At this point, the award will likely go to whoever is healthy at the end of the season. That there are still rookies in consideration with so many of the top-10 picks injured speaks to how deep this class is. My odds-on favorite is also Wiggins. He’s playing 30 minutes per game and is leading rookies in scoring. If that continues, I don’t think the voting will be particularly close.

Finally, how about your Coach of the Year picks? Before DeMarcus Cousins went down, my vote might have gone to Mike Malone. Don’t look now, but Terry Stotts has his Portland Trail Blazers only a half-game behind the struggling Warriors for the best record in the league. He’ll have to figure out a way to tread water with Robin Lopez nursing an injury, but no coach is getting more from his roster than Stotts.

Court: I like Stotts too, but I think the best coaching job this season goes to David Joerger of the Grizzlies. Every time I watch them play, what stands out is how utterly disciplined they are. They are defensively dominant, but even more impressive this season is the fact that they are now figuring out how to score consistently as well. Their team chemistry also appears to be unmatched, and I have to give a lot of that credit to the coach for creating that culture.

Dan: What? Come on guys — I have to go with Steve Kerr. Yes, he inherited a very good team, but the way the Warriors play now is just so much better than when Mark Jackson was the coach. Instead of relying on isolation set plays for Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors actually run plays that get their players wide-open shots. Also, Kerr being able to replace David Lee with Draymond Green and convince Andre Iguodala to come off the bench for Harrison Barnes has been a stroke of genius. The Warriors might not hang on to the No. 1 seed all year, but Kerr has been incredible.

Anthony: Alright, and now the question to end all questions — who’s your favorite to win it all?

Court: I really think the title still goes through San Antonio. They aren’t playing great ball now, but I also attribute a lot of that to the fact that they frankly don’t care a lick about the regular season. At the end of the day, and especially when it counts most, the Spurs understand how to play together. They have the best coach in the league, and they just know how to win. They may create a tougher road for themselves if they don’t figure out how to move up in the standings, but I can never count this team out.

Dan: This is a biased answer, but I have to go with them as well. Team chemistry is obviously huge in basketball, and the Spurs decided to bring everyone back once again, in addition to drafting a mini Boris Diaw in Kyle Anderson. Yes, they have not been great to begin the year, but hardcore NBA fans know that the Spurs always turn it on in February and ride that momentum into the playoffs. They have been beaten up all year, but as long as everyone is healthy and clicking near the end of the year, I think they will find a way to repeat.

Anthony: Counting out the Spurs is always a great way to look stupid, but no franchise has more on the line than the Thunder does over the next couple years. A title would go a long way in convincing both Durant and Westbrook to stay when their contracts are up. If they fail to make the finals, two of the league’s most talented players might see other situations that give them better opportunities to win championships and potentially alter the NBA landscape. If that’s not incentive to win now, I don’t know what is.