Six hours and some change are the only things that separate us from a new NBA basketball season, and the time for talk is just about up. While football season is hitting its midway point, it’s time to get back into that basketball mindset and what better way to do it than to lay out an official Sneaker Reporter NBA awards prediction for the upcoming season.
Of course, some of the guys mentioned in this prediction list are already staples in the awards race and some of the teams that will be spoken about are undoubtedly above the top of the NBA’s annually-updated food chain. But that doesn’t mean there will be any major surprises left out. There are borderline squads whose 2019-20 season is bound to shock some folk, and this may just be the year they prove it.
With that being said, let’s not mince words and time and get straight to it.
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1.) Executive Of The Year: Jerry West, General Manager, Los Angeles Clippers
This sounds like a no-brainer, and it is. The Clippers made one of the most significant renovations in recent NBA history, and the logo is the sole perpetrator (er, with the help of the overly-eccentric Clippers owner Steve Ballmer too). Getting two all-stars that have been staples on all-NBA teams and have both been in the MVP race for years on in one day sounds like the kind of managerial task you’d turn NBA 2k20 on to complete.
But now, West has sculpted the most balanced and most threatening force in the NBA, and the Clippers will be a lock as a top seed in such a stacked Western Conference. Kawhi and Paul George join a roster that took the Warriors – yes, that team that went to five straight NBA Finals and won three titles – to six games.
The eye of NBA basketball’s perfect storm now lies in the city of angels and the Battle of Los Angeles has never had as much hype like this. For that reason, LAC could potentially set the Association’s best record and solidify themselves as the odds all favorite to claim a franchise-first NBA title this year.
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2.) Coach Of The Year: Doc Rivers, Head Coach, Los Angeles Clippers
Again, sticking on the Clippers tangent here. They are already favored to sweep up the West and have the best record in the NBA. As per tradition, this award has gone to the best coach on the best team, and if you can connect the dots, this season should be a coronation for the 20-year head coach and one-time champ. The integration of both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on an already juggernaut squad on the defensive end is simple enough; you’re relying on the duo’s mental and physical intangibles to get stops in the halfcourt and create chances in the open court.
What may turn into difficulty is determining who exactly the offense runs through. Both PG and Kawhi operate better on-ball than off-ball and with a defensively-minded guard like Patrick Beverley who isn’t that well off on the offensive end, some growing pains will be experienced at season’s beginning, just like any new formation of any team.
Though an unlikely expectation as both the Klaw and George will compliment each other almost seamlessly in offensive sets, Doc Rivers utilizing both two-way dynamos in his offense while establishing the chemistry with the likes of other Clips in Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamut, and Lou Williams will just about gift a Coach of the Year award, and perhaps another ring, to Doc Rivers.
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3.) Sixth Man Of The Year: Derrick Rose, Point Guard, Detroit Pistons
Dwayne Casey is willing, even encouraging, to give youngest MVP in league history Derrick Rose a much more expanded role than that in his time in Minnesota in his first year as a Piston. Prime DRose is obviously a thing of the past, and it’s safe to say he’ll never average 25 ppg a night for the course of another season like he did his MVP year in 2011. But do not use that as a veritable reason as to why Rose serves insignificance to any NBA roster in today’s league. Proper conditioning has led to a slew of healthy, full seasons, yet he’s been unable to find himself a permanent home since his injury woes arose from 2012-2016.
He’s practically been shipped all throughout the Eastern conference after being traded to the Knicks in 2015 and has earned just scraps off veteran minimum deals with the Cavaliers and Timberwolves. Yet, Rose found a way to alter and transmigrate his playstyle into the current pace and space, high-tempo game by becoming a more efficient midrange and 3pt shooter, calmly operating out of pick and roll sets. In his journey to becoming a playmaking guard, he’s accomplished so much while showing flashes of vintage DRose with some explosive drives in the lane and crafty finishes at the cup.
Rose finished last season averaging 18 points per contest – the fourth-best scoring output in his career. And he wasn’t even a starter like he was in New York or Chicago! The Pistons backcourt depth situation was already shaky at best last year with the wildly inconsistent and banged-up Ish Smith serving as the team’s sixth man.
Casey’s first year with the Pistons ended in a 41-41 record, just good enough to scrape out the eighth seed in the East. Adding Rose to a team that’s already with Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond looks menacing on paper, and with an award that’s gone to Lou Williams that’ll be made harder for him to three-peat, Rose may be the first MVP in history to win both awards in the span of a career.
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4.) Most Improved Player: Markelle Fultz, Point Guard, Orlando Magic
To put it as euphemistic as possible so I don’t ruffle any feathers: Markelle Fultz’s start to his NBA career has been as turbulent as the world’s smallest charter plane taking a trip through the Bermuda Triangle in a thunderous night. Bizarre shoulder ailments forced the 21-year old to adjust and re-adjust a shooting form that had been solidified since his early adolescence, a form that propelled him into national superstardom at DeMatha High in Maryland.
Philadelphia traded up with the Celtics to acquire Fultz and as a result missed out on Jayson Tatum, who could possibly touch his first all-NBA selection this year. Since this last offseason, Fultz had suited up for the Sixers for a total of 33 games over the course of two years.
So, hear me out on this one.
The Magic are giving a former first-overall pick that posted up some serious numbers during his one year at Washington (23.2 ppg) a second chance in an immensely low-pressure development process, only to pair him up with a point guard’s coach in Steve Clifford that helped Kemba Walker experience career highs during his time in Charlotte.
On top of that, Fultz is now graced with a proficient roster compact with wing scorers and rim protectors, making a predicament where a guard who is longing to regain the confidence of a starter now has the all of the opportunities to grow into the first-rounder many draft experts predicted him to be from the moment he declared for the 2017 draft.
Another factor to consider here: the Magic aren’t too keen on trusting D.J. Augustin as their long-term starter. The former Texas Longhorn has yet to eclipse an 18 ppg. scoring mark for one full season and with Fultz’s gifted wingspan, handle, slashing ability and vision in the halfcourt, the third-year guard might just easily swoop into Steve Clifford’s starting rotation, finally live up to the hype with a new shooting form and surprise a lot of his nonbelievers this season if given the minutes.
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4.) Rookie Of The Year: Ja Morant, Point Guard, Memphis Grizzlies
Let me preface this prediction by saying this: in no way, shape or form did I, or any of us for that matter, foresee rookie phenom Zion Williamson be met with such a litany of misfortune to begin his first season. A period of weeks has now downgraded to 6-8 weeks after it was reported that the first-overall pick underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee due to Williamson having suffered a torn meniscus, and it’s looking like we’ll have to wait to watch how exactly the Pelicans plan to handle this new debacle.
What is up for debate – and should come as a confirmation at this point – is just how meteoric the rise of self-dubbed “Point Gawd” Ja Morant’s rookie season will be for not just the Memphis Grizzlies, but for the entire NBA.
A new era in Memphis has finally dawned. The franchise’s all-time leader in points is headed to Utah to battle with the likes of Jazz coach Quin Snyder, and new backcourt mate Donovan Mitchell. That catapults Morant to center stage, but this rookie has everything but stage fright.
He was built for a venue and opportunity such as this. Expect Ja Morant to be given the most minutes as “the guy” from the jump. Taylor Jenkins’ firsts year as the Grizzlies head coach will be scattered with growing pains and that is expected, but what he and the rest of the Grizzlies’ organization cannot wait for is how Ja Morant will electrify FedEx on a nightly basis.
Combine fox-like reflexes, an explosive first step, marksmanship from beyond the arc and some sneaky out-of-the-gym bounce, and you have a Russell Westbrook/Damian Lillard prototypical kind of guard that is – and was literally – a walking triple-double in his final year at Murray State. With second-year man Jaren Jackson Jr. next to him, shots will be shared but Morant will be relied on heavily to run the Grizzlies offense, which means that Ja will be unleashed starting tomorrow night.
And plus, aren’t ROY awards always handed to the player with the best stats anyway?
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5.) Defensive Player Of The Year: Rudy Gobert
It already helps that the Utah Jazz have been one of the most defensively efficient squads in all of the NBA in the past three years, and Quin Snyder has done an exceptional job molding a roster that’s been a buffer stop to the runaway train that is modern NBA pace and space, uptempo basketball. And at the forefront of that defensive effort is the already crowned DPOY in the 2018-19 Rudy Gobert.
We might as well call Gobert of the most vaunted shot blockers in recent NBA history. At a lofty 7’1, the French Rejection’s job may have gotten a lot easier. A trusted veteran point guard in Mike Conley now assists Gobert and company in opening the floor on the offensive end but is also well off on diverting all ball handlers from doing what they want to do, making slashers and roll men who want to come into Gobert’s presence miserable once they set foot inside the restricted zone, as he’ll continuously say “Au Revoir!” to any shot inside the paint.
Gobert has yet to touch an all-star roster, but you have to think, on a revamped starting 5 that could very well incite a really deep playoff run, last year’s DPOY could see his already frightening numbers (15.8 ppg, 2.3 bpg) skyrocket to etch him into all-NBA conversations at year’s end as a repeat winner of the award.
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6.) Most Valuable Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Power Forward, Milwaukee Bucks
Sounds like the boring pick, sure, but a man named the Greek Freak should be graced the Most Valuable Player award every year if he replicates, or even improves, on his 2018-19 outing, his best as a pro.
He’s the most unguardable player in the National Basketball Association, and you’re better off debating a wall if you want to doubt it. That raw combination of height, wingspan, speed, strength, dexterity and a growing IQ of the game as a playmaker in both the halfcourt and in transition simply turned a once below-average team that had been content with just making it to the second round of the playoffs into an Eastern powerhouse that puts the Goliathic fear in the rest of the 14 clubs across their conference. 2020 may spell an entirely different year for Giannis Antetokounmpo, since this could be his best year yet.
There have been rumblings of the Freak working tirelessly throughout the summer to gain confidence in his midrange and arc-adjacent game, so imagining Giannis with a perfected and consistent jumper, muscle memory and all, would literally be like watching some kid use the Demigod glitch on NBA 2k20, but in real life.
Since his second year in the league, he’s strengthened his three-point percentage to just 25.6 percent and his mid-range percentage to around 39 percent in his MVP season last year. If that marker moves up…watch out.
Obviously, there are bunches upon bunches of MVP favorites and darkhorses like James Harden who, like Antetokounmpo is destined to put up startling numbers like he does every year. Then, there are also the odds of LeBron going on an absolute revenge tear of the Western Conference, or him taking a backseat to his new frontcourt cohort Anthony Davis en route to an MVP year for the sixth-year big man.
The one main difference is this: they play in a harder conference with a bunch of talent that can overshadow each other on any given night. Giannis could potentially only see the Sixers as the only roadblock between a trip to the Finals, making the very real possibility for the same scenario of Giannis being the best player on a team that has the best roster in the league to happen again. If so, Giannis will win his 2nd MVP and we may just see the first 30 ppg season from the 24-year-old.
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