James Harden is the MVP this time around ... Al Horford has anchored Boston’s imposing defence ... Unbreakable DeAndre Jordan finally goes down ... Elgin Baylor gets his due
The NBA’s regular season is now more than halfway done, so it’s an appropriate time to pick the award leaders through 41 (or slightly more) games.
James Harden, last year’s runner-up, was the runaway leader in the MVP race before getting injured and he’s still our choice.
Harden leads all in win shares, scoring, win shares per 48 minutes, box plus/minus, player efficiency rating and is third in value over replacement player. He’s the main reason why the Houston Rockets have at times resembled an actual threat to the mighty Golden State Warriors.
LeBron James is still the best singular force in basketball, is somehow posting career bests in many categories, but Cleveland has been a massive disappointment and that has to mean something here.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis and the Kevin
Durant/Stephen Curry Warriors megapowers also have cases.
The defensive player of the year race is complicated by long-term injuries to shutdown specialists
Rudy Gobert and Kawhi Leonard. That leaves Boston’s Al Horford, Oklahoma City’s Paul George, Detroit’s Andre Drummond, Clippers centre DeAndre Jordan and last year’s winner, Draymond
Green. Green could get it any year, but we’ll go with Horford, who has been the anchor of an elite defence in Boston. Kyrie Irving’s longstanding deficiencies on that end have been completely masked. Horford makes it all work.
The sixth man race is a rout: It’s Lou Williams adding to his collection. Williams has started some games and gone bonkers in some of them (50 and 42 point games), but still leads all reserves in scoring and has eight games of at least 30 points off of the bench. Denver’s Will Barton has stuffed the stat-sheet more than Williams does overall, but LouWill can’t be denied. Indiana’s Domantas
Sabonis, Boston’s Terry Rozier and Philadelphia’s T.J. McConnell also deserve consideration Most improved player:
Victor Oladipo, for reasons fully explained in last week’s edition of NBA Courtside.
The rookie of the year race isn’t all that close either. As good as Utah’s Donovan Mitchell and Lakers
forward Kyle Kuzma have been, Ben Simmons is special — and he can’t even shoot yet. You have to be really, really talented to excel the way Simmons has without being able to shoot a lick in today’s NBA.
Simmons might trail the older duo in points, but he hasn’t hit a single three-pointer and only hits about half of his free throws.
He leads all freshmen in rebounding, assists and steals and is already a solid defender.
Lonzo Ball has had his moments too, but he hasn’t been as good as Simmons, Mitchell or Kuzma.
If you say Steve Kerr can’t possibly win coach of the year because he is playing with far too stacked a deck (an argument, maybe even a valid one), it’s Houston’s Mike
D’Antoni, who won last year, in third, Toronto’s Dwane Casey (call it a homer pick, but nobody saw
this revamp and record coming last May) and Boston’s Brad Stevens most deserving this award right now. He lost Gordon Hayward, but still has the Celtics atop the East with a swarming defence and a group of young players (most notably Jayson
Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier) developing at a rapid rate JORDAN FINALLY HURT
In a league filled with some of the most ridiculous physical specimens on the planet, DeAndre
Jordan stands out as much as anyone. He’s basically a mountain and it’s amazing that a man that big and athletic had never broken down until he finally got banged up while completing an absurd alley-oop last week.
Jordan went 9.5 seasons before missing his first game due to injury on Saturday. That’s amazing. He’s sat for other reasons (like coach’s decision, suspension, or rest), but while Blake Griffin and Chris Paul would go down for long stretches around him on a near-annual basis, Jordan appeared indestructible. Not surpisingly, his sore ankle isn’t expected to keep him out long.
Jordan once played 360 straight games. The current league-high is 317 by Denver’s Mason Plumlee, followed by Karl-Anthony Towns (209). Towns apparently hasn’t missed a game since middle school.
The Clippers are back in the playoff race, having survived a run of injuries, but Jordan remains a hot name ahead of the trade deadline because he can become a free agent after the season and is one of the game’s premier centres.
Jordan has led the NBA in fieldgoal percentage five times and been tops in rebounding twice. He is tied with Andre Drummond for first at 14.9 boards a game this year. AROUND THE RIM The Lakers will add another statue to their impressive collection with the news that Elgin Baylor, one of the NBA’s first high-flying scoring machines, will be immortalized, too … Synergy Sports offered a revealing tweet on Tuesday, showcasing the most efficient scorers this year. Among high-volume players, Curry, Davis and Antetokounmpo led the way. No surprise. But DeMar
DeRozan at 10th at 1.06 points per possession is stunning when you consider he has been knocked for years for being a volume scorer (an insult similar to game manager in football) who put up empty point numbers because of how often he had the ball. DeRozan has become elite … Lakers rookie Ball is banged-up and might sit some games in the near future, but sophomore Brandon Ingram was to return on Tuesday night … Curry leads in jersey sales for the third year in a row, followed by James and Durant. The Warriors and Cavs top the merchandise sales list, followed by Philadelphia.