'15-16 RealGM Player of the Year Discussion Thread

[Doctor MJ]

That time a year again. At the end of the post-season we'll do a voting of the top players of this season from start to finish in the manner of MVP voting. Each voter gives a top 5, and the higher on the list, the more points a player earns.

The idea is that we'll have a discussion active all through the end of the regular season and playoffs, and then that community will be the ones voting at the end. This doesn't mean you have to post every day to get a vote, but we would like this to be something where you do more than just show up at the end give a vote, because the purpose of a forum is in the communication give-and-take.

Note also that no votes will be tallied from the Discussion thread. A separate Voting thread will eventually be made.

If you're interested in voting, you should PM me in response to this post and make a request.

Additionally, beginning last year we added some other awards to the mix. Last year I put them in a separate discussion thread, but that didn't really seem that necessary the way it all played out, so it will just all be in this thread. Here are those awards:

Offensive Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Rookie of the Year
Most Improved Player
6th Man of the Year
Coach of the Year
Executive of the Year

A couple notes on what this means to me so far:

-Expecting to have Top 3 voting for each of these awards, which I believe is how all awards do this right now except for EOY.

-There will be no unofficial disqualifications from the MIP award, as to me that makes the NBA's actual MIP award near worthless. Meaning this is still meant for up and coming players rather than comeback players, but we're not going to follow the same type of patterns that left us with Aaron Brooks winning this award over Kevin Durant in '09-10.

Voting Panel (thus far):

[ceiling raiser]

That time a year again.

Doc, thanks for starting the thread, looking forward to the conversation. Two questions for you:

1) Whats's the lowest you can justify ranking Wearbrook now, and how low can you see him dropping?

2) What's the highest you can justify ranking Green now, and how high can you see him climbing?

[bondom34]

I'll mention my top 3, 4 and 5 are up for debate for now.

Curry
Westbrook
Leonard

Then 4-5 is between Lebron, Paul, and Durant right now and I'm leaning Paul and Lebron but I'm really not sure. I think I'd swap Lebron for Durant possibly.

[bondom34]

Also to toss out some random thoughts:

OPOY seems like Curry should be pretty much in a landslide with Westbrook and Paul near behind.

DPOY would be Green/Leonard with a few guys up for 3rd.

ROY would be KAT for me followed by Porzingis and Jokic I think for 3rd.

MIP I still say McCollum.

6th man is probably Iggy but I'm going to put Kanter in my top 3, defensive issues and all.

COY is the usual culprits with Stotts, Casey and Clifford.

EOY I really don't know yet. Buford would be one.

[RSCD3_]

I tentatively have

Curry

Westbrook

Leonard/LeBron/Durant

Slight Chance for Paul to get in that mix but it'll take IMO one of the aforementioned 3 Wings falling off in the playoffs as well as another instance of Paul raising his game in the playoffs, I dont expect LAC to beat the warriors but he should put up nice numbers and LAC should give them a fight when he's on court.

About Green

If 2000 or 2001 Shaq is near equivalent ( from either direction ) to Curry and the supporting cast outside of green is superior to the lakers, is it possible to see Green having 2001 Kobe impact or something really close to it, I wouldnt say his defense was better than kobe's offense and his offense seems about the same overall impact as kobe did during his best year of defense. It might be sacrilege to say that nowadays but I do struggle rationalizing Draymond with Prime Kobe and he's in the lower half of my top 10.

[Doctor MJ]

That time a year again.

Doc, thanks for starting the thread, looking forward to the conversation. Two questions for you:

1) Whats's the lowest you can justify ranking Wearbrook now, and how low can you see him dropping?

2) What's the highest you can justify ranking Green now, and how high can you see him climbing?

Well let me talk more generally, as that will still include these guys.

When I think of the top tier of players this season, there are 7:

Curry & Green on Golden State.
Kawhi on San Antonio.
LeBron on Cleveland.
Durant & Westbrook on OKC.
Paul on the Clippers.

No shocker, I have Curry clearly at #1.
Not much of a shocker I think, I have Kawhi at #2.

After that I'm struggling between the "superstars" and Green and I'm not sure where I'm going to come down. In Green you have someone who frankly seems like he's contributing more value than the other stars, but he's also not the focus opponents the way these other guys are. Even in OKC where they have 2 superstars, both those guys get more attention than Green does.

So I find myself asking, "How does Green do if the opposing team could really focus on him?". I don't have an easy answer there.

Now let me also say: Before this season it was relatively easy for me to say "X may have contributed more value than LeBron, but LeBron's doing what he can in his context, and he could do more than X given the right opportunity." Now though it's really tough, because while LeBron can still do things no one else can, I have major problems with how he's been behaving which frankly make me question if LeBron could even BE on a team as good as the Warriors.

No doubt LeBron helps a bad team more than Green, and arguably anyone else, but the goal is help teams win championships.

On the OKC duo, I'm not sure what to do with them either. I think they both have a much better attitude than LeBron right now, but they still have issues to work through that they've had years to work through.

[Doctor MJ]

In terms of my super early award picks, I'd say:

POY - Curry, clearly
OPOY - Curry, clearly
DPOY - Kawhi, somewhat debatable, but clearly he's a good choice
ROY - KAT, seems the solid choice to me
MIP - Giannis, although I could totally get behind a Curry candidacy here
6MOY - Iguodala, I don't think people appreciate how big of a deal Iguodala's role is
COY - Kerr/Walton - nothing would be more appropriate than a shared victory here
EOY - Buford, hard to separate from coaching here, but the Aldridge acquisition was big and has worked

[therealbig3]

My picks as of right now:

Player of the year:

1. Stephen Curry
2. Russell Westbrook
3. Kevin Durant
4. Chris Paul
5. LeBron James/Kawhi Leonard/Draymond Green

I'll just go with my top picks for the rest of them:

Offensive player of the year: Stephen Curry

Defensive player of the year: Kawhi Leonard

Rookie of the year: Karl-Anthony Towns

Most improved player: Stephen Curry

6th man of the year: not sure yet, need to look into this more

Coach of the year: Gregg Popovich

Executive of the year: either R. C. Buford or Danny Ainge


Some quick reasoning:

-Curry for POY and OPOY is the easiest decision in the world right now.

-DPOY is between Green and Leonard, I went with Leonard because of the Spurs superior defense, and I think Green's defense has slipped recently.

-Curry for MIP...who else improved more meaningfully than Curry between this year and last year? He was in the discussion with CP3 and Nash for peak after 2015, and now he's in discussion with Jordan.

-Popovich should honestly win COY every year...but look at how awesome the Spurs have been this season, and realize that they made some major additions that have been seamlessly incorporated, and that has everything to do with Pop...in a league where we constantly have to talk about new players having a learning curve (Kevin Love and Kyrie and LeBron are still apparently in the midst of theirs), the Spurs didn't need one whatsoever.

-EOY...Buford for acquiring LMA and West, Ainge for how effortlessly the Celtics moved on from KG, Pierce, Rondo, and Allen.

[SactoKingsFan]

Currently have Curry as the clear cut POY with
Kawhi/Westbrook the runner up.

OPOY: Curry
DPOY: Kawhi or Green
ROY: KAT
6th man: Igoudala or Mills
MIP: Curry
COY: Stevens
EOY: ?


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Texas Chuck]

If we are posting early ballots I guess I'll play along

POY:
1. Curry
2. Kawhi
3. Paul

This isn't a close race at all for 1. Tough to leave Westbrook and Durant out of the top 3, but Chris Paul has earned this spot.

OPOY:
1. Curry
2. Durant
3. Paul

Durant is having another brilliant offensive season. I know more and more of the credit is going to Westbrook, but Durant remains the better overall offensive player in my opinion.

DPOY:
1. Kawhi
2. Draymond
3. DeAndre

I'll probably get killed for Jordan being on here after the backlash he got after Doc over-hyped him, but he has made great strides as a defender and he deserves a top 3 spot.

ROY:
1. Towns
2. Okafor
3. Porzingis

Not close here either. Don't love Okafor, but while lots of rookies contributed none but Towns were consistently all that good so I'll just look to his offensive production and ignore his defense.

MIP:
1. Crowder
2. McCollum
3. Kemba

I get the Curry story, but going from the best player in teh world to the even better player in the world isn't what this award should be about.

6th man:
1. Iggy
2. Tristan Thompson
3. Will Barton

Thompson is probably the surprising name here, but he's been the best big on the Cavs all year and pretty much all their best lineups feature him.

COY:
1. Terry Stotts
2. Pop
3. Joerger

Didn't put Kerr or Walton here because they split the job. Stotts and Joerger are doing this with smoke and mirrors and Pop just continues to effortlessly evolve and gets his whole team to buy into their roles and just...

EOY:
1. Buford
2. Van Gundy
3. Olshey

Added LMA and West, got Duncan and Manu to take no money and with nary an issue, got Green to re-sign for $10M per when wings were getting insane deals. The Kawhi deal was no fuss, unearthed Simmons and Boban. Miller and Martin probably won't see the floor in the playoffs but smart veteran additions in case of emergency.

[The-Power]

If we are posting early ballots I guess I'll play along

POY:
1. Curry
2. Kawhi
3. Paul

This isn't a close race at all for 1. Tough to leave Westbrook and Durant out of the top 3, but Chris Paul has earned this spot.

OPOY:
1. Curry
2. Durant
3. Paul

Durant is having another brilliant offensive season. I know more and more of the credit is going to Westbrook, but Durant remains the better overall offensive player in my opinion.

Quick question: how big is the difference on defense in Paul's favor compared to Durant in your opinion and what convices you in this regard?

[Texas Chuck]

If we are posting early ballots I guess I'll play along

POY:
1. Curry
2. Kawhi
3. Paul

This isn't a close race at all for 1. Tough to leave Westbrook and Durant out of the top 3, but Chris Paul has earned this spot.

OPOY:
1. Curry
2. Durant
3. Paul

Durant is having another brilliant offensive season. I know more and more of the credit is going to Westbrook, but Durant remains the better overall offensive player in my opinion.

Quick question: how big is the difference on defense in Paul's favor compared to Durant in your opinion and what convices you in this regard?

Yeah this is a good question. I'd say he has a clear edge defensively tho that alone wouldn't probably have him over Durant for POY. I'm also factoring in what he's brought in terms of leadership in what has been a crazy year starting with DeAndre all the way through the punch and the domestic violence. In particular with a real void of leadership being shown by Doc and Blake. I thought Paul was a part of the problem in this regard last year so its only right for me to credit him for his positive impact in that regard this year.

And this isn't set in stone by any means. It doesn't feel right to have left Westbrook off of here completely for instance.

[euliss]

1.Stephen Curry
2.Kawhi Leonard
3.Westbrook
4.Kevin Durant
5.LeBron James
6.Chris Paul
7. Kyle Lowry
8. James Harden
9. Anthony Davis
10. LaMarcus Aldridge

Offensive Player of the Year
1. Curry
2. WB
3. Paul

Defensive Player of the Year
1.Kawhi
2.Draymond Green
3. Tim Duncan
4. Rudy Gobert

Rookie of the Year
1. Karl Anthony Towns
2. Kris Porzinguis
3. Nikola Jokic

Most Improved Player
1.Steph Curry
2. Kawhi Leonard
3. CJ McCollum

6th Man of the Year
1. Andre Iguadola

Coach of the Year
1. Popvitch
2. Kerr/Walton
3. Clifford
4. Scotts
5. Carlisle


Executive of the Year
1. Micky Arison/Pat Riley

[Texas Chuck]

Executive of the Year
1. Micky Arison/Pat Riley

Hey would you mind expounding on this a bit? I think Riley is generally the best in the business, but I wouldn't call this year particularly noteworthy for him. I mean his best moves imo were having Winslow fall to him in the draft and then his magical tax evasion work at the deadline. But maybe I'm overlooking something key here?

[euliss]

Executive of the Year
1. Micky Arison/Pat Riley

Hey would you mind expounding on this a bit? I think Riley is generally the best in the business, but I wouldn't call this year particularly noteworthy for him. I mean his best moves imo were having Winslow fall to him in the draft and then his magical tax evasion work at the deadline. But maybe I'm overlooking something key here?

Their biggest problem was 3 point shooting, JJ acquisition and Josh Richardson becoming Kyle Korver really helped that, getting guys like Tyler Johnson from the D-League, and doing tax magic to get them under the tax this year

[NinjaSheppard]

The Kevin Durant thing is weird to me. Feels like he is an also ran this season even though he is basically the exact same player that he was in 2014 and back then people wondered if he was better than near Peak LeBron.

1. Curry
2. Durant

Durant vs Westbrook is kinda interesting to me because I think it does matter that Thunder fans think that Westbrook>Durant. At the same time I feel like they are overcompensated for the irrational hatred that Westbrook has gotten over the years. That said if LeBron vs Durant was close 2 years ago and Durant is basically the same player someone else would have had to have made a LeBron like leap to surpass him and I don't see that guy.

3. Westbrook
4. Kawhi

These two guys play hard all the time, have monster numbers and don't have question marks.

5. LeBron vs Chris Paul

LeBron probably has a higher impact but I think his attitude this year has crushed the Cavs. Chris Paul has been the perfect leader since Blake has gone down but he wasn't a top 10 player before that. Both guys are iffy and I could go either way.

[lorak]

Why people pick KAT over Porzingis as ROTY? KP is comparable offensive player, but better defensively and thus overall has higher impact.

[RebelWithACause]

Why people pick KAT over Porzingis as ROTY? KP is comparable offensive player, but better defensively and thus overall has higher impact.

Agreed, thought the PC board looks deeper into things than which rookie has the prettiest numbers.

@TexasChuck

Picking Okafor over Porzingis seems outrageous.
How would you even try to defend that pick?

[Texas Chuck]

Why people pick KAT over Porzingis as ROTY? KP is comparable offensive player, but better defensively and thus overall has higher impact.

Agreed, thought the PC board looks deeper into things than which rookie has the prettiest numbers.

@TexasChuck

Picking Okafor over Porzingis seems outrageous.
How would you even try to defend that pick?

First I'm not sure I need to defend it. I mean the idea that Porzingis deserves the top nod over Towns is far more outrageous than my taking Okafor over him.

And let me be clear--I love Porzingis. I would have drafted him at #2 and he has done nothing but make me like him even more this year. But he's been wildly inconsistent. He got a ton of hype for his play early and of course he has the highlights. But his season has gotten overrated.

Okafor hasn't been great either---but he's been more consistent imo and to be as effective as he was offensively with just complete garbage around him and no spacing was pretty impressive. He's already proven he can score in this league and its easy to see him being a lot more effective once he gets some legit teammates.

I'd much rather have Porzingis, but I don't know that his year is better. And suggesting him over Towns is absurd. I mean

[lorak]

It's not absurd for people, who value actual impact on the court more than pretty box score numbers or style of play.

And Okafor is probably one of the worst high minutes players in the NBA. He shouldn't be mentioned in such thread at all.