The Midseason Award Picks

With the NBA all-star game on the weekend slate, it's time for Inside the NBA to dole out the midseason version of the league's postseason awards.

MVP: For once, Shaquille O'Neal can't claim that he should be the MVP, and it's not because Kobe Bryant is carrying the Los Angeles Lakers. Instead, injuries have derailed the possibility of any Laker winning the award.

The problem is that almost every player who is having an MVP-type year is either on a bad team or else on a squad with at least one other player who is also valuable to the team.

In the east, Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady are out because their teams are struggling (and for the Orlando Magic, struggling means a 19-game losing streak despite having one of the top five players in the game). Paul Pierce has carried the on-again, off-again Boston Celtics as best as he can, but he has thrown up too many 3-16 and 7-26 shooting nights.

Baron Davis put the New Orleans Hornets on his back for awhile, but we're not giving the MVP to someone shooting 38 percent from the field and 64 percent from the charity stripe, both of which would be good numbers if we were talking about on base percentage and slugging percentage in baseball, which we're not. Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest have been equally important to the Indiana Pacers' success.

In the west, Peja Stojakovic's play has been plain insane, but he has Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and everyone else to keep the Sacramento Kings on track without Chris Webber. If Stojakovic missed a game, the Kings would probably roll on without him.

And who would you pick from the Dallas Mavericks? It is possible that their MVP might be Antawn Jamison, simply for volunteering to come off the bench, and thus keep Antoine Walker happy. Jamison won't win the MVP, of course, but he'll take home the Sixth Man of the Year Award for his sacrifice.

So that basically makes the debate a repeat of last year: Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs or Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Unlike the last two years, there's no reason to think Garnett won't be the one holding the hardware at the end of the year.

Duncan has been good, especially during the Spurs' hot streak, but he has turned into Shaq at the free throw line. A better measure of his value will come this month, when he will have to keep the Spurs afloat as they are forced on a three week road trip as the rodeo takes over the SBC Center. Gotta love Texas.

In the meantime, Garnett is the MVP pick. Granted, Sam Cassell has been nothing short of fantastic, but KG's numbers are just too good to be overlooked: 24.7 points, 13.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.7 blocks, and 1.33 steals (all numbers per game). All of those numbers are better than Duncan's with the exception of blocks, where they sport the same average. KG hasn't missed a game, he's unselfish, and he plays with intensity at both ends of the floor, unlike half the league.

The footnote here is that if Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets keep playing the way that have been since head coach Byron Scott was fired, there is no reason Kidd can't win the award.

Defensive Player of the Year: Ron Artest. There really should not be any debate here. Besides, if he doesn't win it this year, he really might go berserk.

Rookie of the Year: In any normal year, Carmelo Anthony wins this award. In the year of Lebron, Lebron James does.

Coach of the Year: Everyone is talking about Jerry Sloan or Jeff Bzdelik to win this award, but what about Milwaukee Bucks coach Terry Porter? The Bucks are currently 27-23, the fourth best record in the east, despite having a rookie at point guard. Did anyone pick the Bucks to finish higher than tenth in the East? Just a remarkable job done by Porter.

Of course if they were in the west, they would be about 10-40, because their trio of big men consists of Dan Gadzuric, the infamous Joel Przybilla, who once was actually selected ninth in the draft, and his fellow first round bust Joe Smith, who only set the T-Wolves back 3.5 million dollars and five first round picks.

The fact that the fourth best team in the Eastern Conference has those three guys manning the paint is everything you need to know about why the west is so much better than the east.