The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the pre-eminent
men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered
to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. It has 30
franchised member clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the four major North
American professional sports leagues.
During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 each
home and away. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year (16
games). Each team plays six of the teams from the other two divisions in its
conference four times (24 games), and the remaining four teams three times (12
games). Finally, each team plays all the teams in the other conference twice
apiece (30 games). This asymmetrical structure means the strength of schedule
will vary between teams (but not as significantly as the NFL or MLB).
Around the middle of April, the regular season ends. It is
during this time that voting begins for individual awards, as well as the
selection of the honorary, league-wide, post-season teams.
- The Sixth Man of the Year Award is given to the best player coming off the bench (must have more games coming off the bench than actual games started).
- The Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to the most outstanding first-year player.
- The Most Improved Player Award is awarded to the player who is deemed to have shown the most improvement from the previous season.
- The Defensive Player of the Year Award is awarded to the league's best defender.
- The Coach of the Year Award is awarded to the coach that has made the most positive difference to a team.
- The Most Valuable Player Award is given to the player deemed the most valuable for (his team) that season.
I will suggest 2(a probable and a long shot) picks for every Award Winner...
Who will win 2014/15 NBA Regular Season MVP Award? Playoffs
not included
Okay, okay. Real original, I know. As you may know, the NBA
MVP is voted on by members of the media. Therefore, winning the award most of
the time comes down to two factors: statistics (on-court production), and
narrative (a storyline that may extend off the court). LeBron will have both.
Without having to mention his incredible consistency over the course of his
career, you can pretty much pencil King James in for 23-plus points, six-plus
rebounds, and six-plus assists per game this season. Couple that with the fact
that he returned home to Cleveland in the offseason, and will likely improve
the team's mark of 33-49 from last season by around 20-or-so games, and he will
walk away with this award with no close second-place finisher... since Kevin
Durant will miss the first month and a half of the season while recovering from
a broken foot.
- LeBron James (Cleveland) - 2.00 (Bwin, Unibet, WilliamHill, Sportingbet)
The Los Angeles Clippers should be one of the top teams in
the Western Conference this coming season and whatever success they have will
start with point guard Chris Paul. With the Donald Sterling saga behind this
franchise the team will be able to focus on the task at hand, winning
basketball games, without having the distractions that they faced during the
2014 postseason hanging over their heads. Past season, Paul averaged 19.1 points, 10.7 assists
and 2.5 steals per game. Should those averages improve a little bit and CP3 is
able to stay healthy throughout the regular season while leading the Clippers
to a top three seed in the Western Conference he should be a prime candidate
for the league’s MVP award.
- Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) - 17.00(WilliamHill)
Derrick Rose(13.00-Unibet), Russel Westbrook(41.00-Bwin) or Blake Griffin (12.00-Bwin) can be other realistic long-shots...
Who will win 2014/15 NBA Rookie of the Year? Playoffs not included
This is going to be a good rookie class with Nerlens Noel
added from last season. Jabari Parker is not only good, but he’s going to get every
opportunity and put up some big numbers on a weak team. He is polished scorer and will likely be the go-to guy on a struggling Bucks team. His versatile offensive skill set will be fun to watch and should impress fans and media alike. He’ll be probably compared with
Andrew Wiggins as they were the top two choices, and Wiggins, a raw player, who will get plenty of playing time to showcase his talents in Minnesota. Ricky Rubio passes as well as anyone in the league which will lead to many highlight dunks for the rookie from Kansas. I think it should be a close race, so my picks are :
- Jabari Parker(Milwaukee Bucks) - 3.50 (Bwin, Ladbrokes)
- Andrew Wiggins (Minnesota Timberwolves) - 6.00 (Sportingbet)
Which player will win 2014/15 NBA 6th Man of the Yer Award?
Playoffs not included
Taj Gibson should have won last season and came in a close
second to Jamal Crawford, who was deserving and probably will be again, though
the Clippers may be better if he starts. He’s better than J.J. Redick, so he’s
not really the classic sixth man. Gibson wasn’t supposed to get another chance,
but the Bulls added Pau Gasol, so Gibson remained a non-starter. Phil Jackson
has taken an interest in J.R. Smith, so he should have a bounce back season and
Isaiah Thomas will put up numbers with the Suns, as everyone does. Boris Diaw
also is an interesting possibility. He won’t get the numbers with the Spurs,
but his presence was crucial to winning the title. And now that he’s healthy
Ryan Anderson. So make it Smith second and Anderson third as Crawford already
has won twice.
- Taj Gibson (Chicago Bulls) - 5.00 (Unibet)
- J.R.Smith (New York Knicks) - 7.50 (Unibet)
Who will win 2014/15 NBA Defensive Player of the Year?
Playoffs not included
It’s really hard to find someone that’s a more
dominant defender than Ibaka, and I always felt the league robbed him by
handing DPOY to Tyson Chandler back in 2011-2012, even though he couldn’t crack
the All-NBA Defensive 1st team. That
honor went to Serge Ibaka. Never much
made sense to me, so let’s finally see some justice done.
- Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder) - 7.00 (Bwin, Unibet)
Noah had a great year defensively last year
but the addition of Pau Gasol will hurt his defensive numbers. Davis has been a
great player on a bad team but I think the attention he got from his play for
Team USA this summer will carry over this year.
- Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans) - 10.00 (Unibet)
Who will win 2014/15 NBA Coach of the Year? Playoffs not
included
This is a misleading award at times, and the joke among the
coaches is not to get it because there was a run in the early 2000s where maybe
a half dozen coaches were fired within two years of winning. That’s because the
voting often goes not so much to coaching but which team did better than
expected. After all, if the media didn’t expect it, then it must have been
fabulous coaching. Carlisle is one of the more underrated coaches. He did win
in 2002 and soon was fired. He’s the only coach who gets results from playing
zone and is one of the better matchup coaches, good also at adjusting and
changing. I believe several new coaches will do well, though you cannot judge
the big Cleveland experiment with an international coach given the additions of
James and Love. Unless they are bad. Then it’s 20 years before anyone from
Europe gets a job in the NBA. I think Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher and Quin Snyder
all will have their teams more organized and will improve.
- Rick Carlisle (Dallas Mavericks) - 15.00(Ladbrokes) / 12.00 (Unibet)
Tom Thibodeau. This is a tough one, but I think the Bulls
have the potential to give the Cavaliers a run for their money in the
East. Pop is the best coach in the
league, but the 2010-2011 Coach of the Year has the potential to finish with
the best record in the regular season this year, and it just so happens that he
won it the same year Derrick Rose won his MVP.
Everything rests on him having his former MVP point guard back healthy,
and that’s a feel-good story I’d like to see.
- Tom Thibodeau (Chicago Bulls) - 7.00 (WilliamHill)
Who will win 2014/15 NBA Championship? Playoffs included
I think it's hard to predict, from my point of view every
big team has arguments to win the trophy, the favourites are Cavs and Spurs...
I will choose my favourite teams :
- Oklahoma City Thunder - 7.50 (Sportingbet)
- Chicago Bulls - 9.50 (Sportingbet)
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