NBA Award Predictions

With the NBA season just a week away, I thought I would post my predictions for the awards. Obviously, these will probably be wrong. It's too hard to know who will have a breakout season. No one would've ever thought Stephen Curry would be MVP, yet, here we are. Let's get into this.

My pick for the MVP is James Harden. I just honestly think no one will be standing in this guy's way. He's established himself as the unquestioned leader on the Rockets, which should give him plenty of opportunities. Since the Cavs are stacked with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, LeBron James won't have as many chances, even if it means he's on the better squad. We almost never see a player win 2 MVP's in a row, and I think this will apply to Chef Curry. Will he be a superstar? No doubt, but just not the absolute best. Finally, Anthony Davis just isn't quite there. He is easily the best power forward, but I just don't think he can match the level of play we've seen from "The Beard".

Moving down to the Defensive Player Of The Year, I have DeAndre Jordan. Many may remember when he was honestly a nobody. But he used his 7'0" presence to his advantage and became a lights out defender. His minutes slowly raised to the point when Los Angeles had to make him a starter. Now, he's got a pretty good offensive game thanks to the "lob city" era, but it's his defense that makes him valuable. Now days, he still lights up the blocks and even steal column, and I think this year, he'll continue to dominate that side of the basketball.

Probably the hardest award to decide on, I'm giving the Rookie Of The Year honors to Karl-Anthony Towns. Not only is his offensive presence marvelous, I feel like he was drafted into a good situation. He hit it off with last year's number 1 pick Andrew Wiggins, and he seems to really click with passing star Ricky Rubio, who in my mind is very underrated. He's an extremely talented player with a bright future on the team with the brightest future I've ever seen. Those are all things that no other rookie this year has (minus Jahlil Okafor, who in my mind will get bullied physically and struggle this season).

The sixth man of the year will be without question Andre Igoudala. I feel like he is an all-star who hasn't played to his full potential since signing with Golden State. Then again, he went off in the postseason, winning the finals MVP over the regular season MVP Stephen Curry. Does Harrison Barnes deserve the start over Iggy? I think so. But put this player in almost any other situation and he's in the starting lineup. Finally, Golden State is planning on playing him pretty close to the starter's role. I think he deserves around 25-30  minutes a game, which is more than enough for him to prove he's the best.

Most Improved player was a very tough pick. You're basically trying to expect which players are gonna do the unexpected. No one knows who'll go on a tear. I'm going off of history and fundamentals because the better fundamentally sound you are, the better chances of becoming a threat out of nowhere. My pick is Danny Green. My reason behind this is because his shooting stroke is phenomenal. We all saw him go on that record-breaking streak in the 2013 playoffs, which gives me hope of this guy going on a tear. With the Spurs being the most stacked team in the NBA, he knows he's going to have to play good if he wants to keep his starting spot, and that should be enough motivation for him to have a breakout season.

Finally (since I'm not doing the All-NBA Teams), the coach of the year will be Gregg Popovich. Gregg is unquestionably the best coach of all time, winning 5 championships and making stars out of players such as Manu Ginobli, Tim Duncan, and Tony Parker. Now he's in a situation where he has the most stacked team in the league. When you put the most stacked team with the greatest coach of all time, there's no telling where this team will go. Critics are going to look at there outstanding record, realize how good Gregg coaches these guys to put them into that position, and they'll realize he's the most deserving coach for this award.