The NBA season is drawing to a close, which means it's nearly time for the league to decide which players will be taking home some well-earned hardware.
On Friday, an assortment of basketball columnists, beat reporters, retired coaches and general managers will be casting their ballots for a variety of regular season awards. My ballot hasn't arrived yet, but I'm confident that it's in the mail, and my votes are going to go a little something like this:
Sixth man award: Leandro Barbosa, Phoenix Suns. The Brazilian Blur has been a vital part of the Suns' high-octane attack, averaging a career-best 18 points and four assists in just less than 33 minutes a game. There might not be a faster player in the league from baseline to baseline than Barbosa, and his ability to slash to the rim, combined with his vastly improved capacity to distribute the ball, means that the Suns' opponents get no respite on defense when two-time MVP Steve Nash heads to the bench.
Most improved player: Andris Biedrins, Golden State Warriors. The casual NBA fan might not even have heard of the 6'11" Latvian center, but Biedrins broke out in a big way in 2006-07. After being buried on the bench by former coach Mike Montgomery, Biedrins caught a break when the Warriors replaced Montgomery with Don Nelson, one of the league's all-time best coaches. It took Nelson just four games to recognize his talent and insert him into the starting lineup, and the big man responded with a career-best average of 9.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in just 29 minutes per game. Biedrins also led the league in field goal percentage, shooting a remarkable 60 percent from the field.
Defensive player of the year: Bruce Bowen, San Antonio Spurs. It's absolutely remarkable that the league's top lockdown perimeter defender, who has been voted onto one of the All-Defensive teams for six straight seasons, has never won the defensive player of the year. Bowen's capability to defend every position from point guard to power forward is the biggest reason that the Spurs lead the league in virtually every defensive category. Despite the league's crackdown on offensive players' physical contact on the perimeter, the 35-year-old guard might be playing the best defensive basketball of his career, and he's more than earned this award.
Coach of the year: Avery Johnson, Dallas Mavericks. Some people might quibble with this selection because the Mavericks were expected to be a top-flight team this year, but I don't remember any pundits predicting that the Mavs would be this kind of juggernaut. Their victory on Sunday against the Spurs gave them 67 wins and tied them for the tenth-best regular season record ever; the Mavs were the only team in league history to have three different winning streaks of at least 12 games; and the team won 23-straight games at home, a franchise record. The entire roster has bought into Johnson's commitment to defense, and as a result, the Mavericks are the best team in the NBA.
Rookie of the year: Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers. As a diehard Blazers fan, nothing gave me more pleasure than watching B-Roy's excellent rookie campaign after Stephen A. Smith and the rest of ESPN's talking heads slammed Portland's 2006 draft selections. Roy averaged 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and four assists a contest while anchoring one of the league's youngest teams by playing with the savvy of a 10-year veteran. Don't be fooled by Zach Randolph's gaudy stats of 24 points and 10 rebounds a game; any Blazers fan will tell you that Roy is the franchise, and he will be a perennial All-Star beginning next year.
Most valuable player: Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks. The league deliberately offers no voting criteria for the MVP award, but I'm a firm believer in the basic idea that because basketball is a team game, team success has to be an integral part of choosing an MVP. With this as a yardstick, it's pretty clear that it's a two-man race between Nash and Nowitzki. Nash has won two-straight Most Valuable Player awards, and his play has actually improved this season, but Dirk is doing more on a team with less. Nash has Shawn Marion, Amar?© Stoudemire, and Boris Diaw in his half-court offense; Nowitzki has Josh Howard, Jason Terry and Erick Dampier, which isn't a bad bunch of players, but it clearly pales in comparison.
Dirk is the most skilled seven-footer ever to play basketball: Put a big man on him and he'll rain threes all day, but defend him with a small forward and he'll dissect you from the elbow or on the low block. No other player in the league shoots 50 percent from the field, 40 percent on threes and 90 percent from the free throw line, which is another indicator of Nowitzki's unparalleled offensive versatility. And his defense has improved to the point where he limited most of Tim Duncan's opportunities in much of Sunday's contest against the Spurs. When the Mavericks hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy after this year's NBA finals, Nowitzki will be the biggest reason why.
Matthew Mertens is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Matthew.Mertens@tufts.edu.
