Mid-Season Awards (a.ka. The Hot Take Awards)
It's that time of the year, where we get to play the role of a Stephen A. Smith type talking head and read off our picks for the major awards of the NBA Season. This is what I like to call, the 'Hot Take' Awards. For the sake of simplicity I'll only be doing the four major awards for now: MVP, DPOY, 6MOY, ROY. I'll be doing a more in-depth mid-season awards article in the coming weeks that will include my selections for all the remaining 1st/2nd/3rd Teams. There's an incredibly high chance that this list of winners/contenders for each award will not be the same come July, but I think it's our duty as sports fans to give our hot takes and opinions whenever necessary, so without further ado, here are my picks for the each of the major awards.
MVP - James Harden
I know that people like to rag on Harden for his incessant flopping, and his propensity to take ill-advised stepback jumpers in crunch time. But if we look beyond those things, we see a guy who's averaging around 32 points per game and 9 assists and is one of the league's most efficient isolation scorers, with a field goal percentage of 59 percent on just over 9 attempts per game.
Yes, Chris Paul has lightened the load on Harden's shoulders, but it is glaringly obvious that this team runs through Harden as the on-off numbers are all better across the board with The Beard running the show. Without him, the Rockets become competitors for the 5th seed, instead they are standing toe-toe with the Golden State juggernaut.
2.) LeBron James
3.) Giannis Antetokounmpo
4.) Stephen Curry
5.) Kevin Durant
DPOY - Paul George
This year's race for the DPOY has been a strange one, with Kawhi Leonard coming in and out of the lineup with a mysterious quad and shoulder injury, Rudy Gobert having a down year on a struggling Jazz team and even the reigning DPOY Draymond Green has had his share of struggles, as he has missed some time with a shoulder injury, signs that perhaps the three-straight Finals appearances are starting to wear Dray down.
With that being said, Paul George has been a consistent defensive terror, and is a major contributor to the success of the Thunder's defense this year. The duo of PG and Andre Roberson have created a terrorizing force on the wing, and I'll give the nod to PG, who generally gets the tougher defensive assignments, and doesn't have a shooting deficiency that can keep him off the court in crunch time.
2.) Draymond Green
3.) Andre Roberson
4.) Kevin Durant
5.) Serge Ibaka
6MOY - Lou Wiliams
This is one of the only picks that I'm confident will remain the same at the end of the season. Sweet Lou has been on an absolute tear this year, averaging over 30 points in the month of January, coming off a red-hot December where he averaged 25/3/6 on 43/42/89 shooting splits.
He's also one of the only players in the league with a Drake song named for him. If he keeps on this current pace, he's gonna have that award locked up before he can get a third girlfriend.
2.) Andre Iguodala
3.) Jordan Clarkson
4.) Eric Gordon
5.) Dwyane Wade
ROY - Donovan Mitchell
Let me be cleat by saying that I think Ben Simmons is going win the Rookie of the Year, however, I'm one of the people who believe that Rookie of the Year truly means ROOKIE of the year. I think it's a bit unfair to give the award to a guy who already gained a year of NBA experience and training, even if he hadn't seen actual court time until this season.
Mitchell has come out of the gate looking like a polished NBA player, quickly securing his role in the Jazz' starting line-up and averaging 19/3/3/1 in 31 minutes per game. Sorry Ben, but I have to stick to my principles on this one.
2.) Ben Simmons
3.) Jayson Tatum
4.) Kyle Kuzma
5.) Lonzo Ball
