MVP/RoY Rankings, Part II
I am participating in a season-long bi-weekly poll in which various bloggers offer their takes on the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year races. The results of the first poll were published on December 3. The results of the second poll were just posted at Clips Nation.The top four players who I chose for MVP finished in the top four on the overall ballot, albeit in a different order. Seven of my 10 selections ranked in the consensus top ten; I left off Carlos Boozer, Manu Ginobili and Caron Butler in favor of Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Dirk Nowitzki. Four of my top five rookies were consensus picks; I chose Glen Davis instead of Jamario Moon.
Here is my complete ballot exactly as I submitted it (MVP and RoY votes are scored on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and 5-4-3-2-1 basis respectively, so James is my top MVP pick and Durant is my top RoY pick):
MVP
10-LeBron James: The cliche states that a player cannot lose his job due to injury. If anything, LeBron enhanced his top ranking due to injury because the Cavs looked terrible without him. It is worth remembering, though, that Hughes and Varejao were also out during that time.
9-Kobe Bryant: LeBron, KG and Howard have gotten most of the early MVP headlines but Kobe is having a major impact at both ends of the court.
8-Dwight Howard: Orlando has hit a bit of a funk recently but his production has actually increased.
7-Kevin Garnett: He is the best player on the best team but his numbers have dropped off dramatically (16.0 ppg and 7.2 rpg in December after putting up 20.1 ppg and 11.8 rpg in November). Part of this can be attributed to a decline in his minutes and it is important to note that the Celtics are 6-0 in December.
6-Tim Duncan: Like James, absence made the heart grow fonder.
5-Steve Nash: His shooting percentage plummeted but his assists went up as Phoenix hit the road.
4-Chris Paul: Was putting up career-high numbers in the first month of the season and then he increased them dramatically in December.
3-Tracy McGrady: Houston may be struggling a bit now but history has shown that when he is not in the lineup the team is terrible.
2-Yao Ming: Continues to put up solid scoring, rebounding and shooting numbers and has also taken on a more vocal leadership role.
1-Dirk Nowitzki: I gave the reigning MVP the benefit of the doubt early because his team was winning but now the Mavs are sliding and his numbers are down, so I'm dropping him to 10th place.
ROY
5-Kevin Durant: So many rookies seem to be hitting the proverbial wall now that he may actually earn RoY by default even though I am less impressed by his game than most people.Yes, he's had two games of more than 30 points since the last rankings, but he's also had games in which he shot 4-12, 4-17 and 3-11--and it's not like he's making up for that with his floor game (1.9 apg this season, 1.4 apg in December).
4-Al Horford: Shooting dropped off in December but his rebounding remains consistent.
3-Juan Carlos Navarro: His numbers are all over the map--two points one night, 27 on another.
2-Yi Jianlian: Has been solid most of the season and his numbers have improved recently.
1-Glen Davis: Did not do much in the first month of the season but is now a solid contributor off of the bench for the Celtics.
Dropped from the list since last time: Sean Williams (playing time, production have plummeted), Luis Scola (ditto)
Added to the list since last time: Yi Jianlian, Glen Davis
Labels: Al Horford, Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Yi Jianlian
posted by David Friedman @ 7:39 AM
10 Comments:
Do you have that 82-83 Sixers book by Pat Williams? Definitely need to. Are you giving away any dvds this year?
Yao and McGrady shouldnt be on the MVP list. But who else can you put?
Do you have NBATV? (a lot of questions I have for some reason)I ask because of the NBA Vault with Vecsey and MadDog Carter. Its the best thing on NBATV.
Madnice:
I don't think that the Sixers book was published nationally. It was never in book stores in my area to the best of my knowledge. I read it years ago by borrowing a copy through interlibrary loan.
I don't have any current plans to give out DVDs; that was a one-time promotional opportunity coordinated with Warner Brothers.
Yao, T-Mac and Dirk are not having MVP years right now but the ballot requires 10 names. In most years I don't think that there are really more than 5-6 legit MVP candidates and this year is not an exception to that.
I do get NBA TV but I have not seen the NBA Vault.
That Sixers book is on Amazon and BarnesandNoble. How did you read it years ago if it just came out? I noticed two different covers of the book. Why didnt you comment on the book on your blog? I definitely wanted to know about a book like that. I heard Williams on the radio talking about it because now it is published.
I see you have NBATV because you watched the Bulls game.
Madnice:
We are talking about two different books. The one that I meant is called "We Owed You One" and was written in 1983 by Bill Lyon and Pat Williams; it came out after the championship.
I just went to Amazon and saw a new book called "Tales From the 76ers." That is probably the one you are talking about. I had not heard of that one before, though I remember hearing something about Williams working on a new book. It probably has some of the same material that the first one did but I'm still interested in buying it, particularly since I don't own a copy of the first one.
I'm also interested in Pat Williams' new book. I already have "We Owed You One", and I expected this new book to contain much of the same material, but Williams has stated that it is based largely upon dozens of new interviews. Also, "We Owed You One" was written right after the championship season, before the team's mysterious decline. I hope the new book goes into some detail about that (and I hope they got an interview from Andrew Toney, who has been rather silent about his career since his retirement).
there you go tales from the sixers. thats it.
Vednam:
I'd love to see a Toney interview but I'd be surprised if it's in there. Still, if anyone could get him to talk it probably would be Williams.
Toneys son plays college ball. as you know toney was soured by the ignorant owner katz suggesting toney get a drug test because he was lying about his feet. i heard darryl dawkins on the radio talking about it. i wouldnt be surprised if there is a toney interview.
why would the book be the same? that wouldnt make any sense. there seems to be a lot of intrigue with this team. nbatv had 24 hours of footage of this team on thanksgiving. i never read i owed you one but i heard about it. i need to get that.
Madnice:
I think that Toney had plantar fasciitis; he may have also had stress fractures. I don't think that MRI technology existed when he got hurt, so the doctors had trouble figuring out exactly what was wrong with his feet and how to properly treat the injury. Of course, that does not at all justify Katz and others who doubted Toney and called him a malingerer.
I don't think that the first book was widely distributed but this book seems to be nationally distributed. That is one reason why at least some of the material from the first book is probably used again--most people outside of the Philly area probably have not seen it. Also, if you are going to do a book about the team you can't leave out the best stories just because they may have appeared in an earlier book. I would expect that the new book has some more stories and probably also updates the reader on what the players are doing now.
True indeed the old material should be in the new book. There should be some Toney things in the book which is good. Looks like an interesting read. Does anyone have any other books to suggest?
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