As MEbenhoe pointed out, 25% of regular season games have now been played so it's a pretty good time to give a few players some recognition. As people post their awards, we can update this post to aggregate everyone's opinion. I'll start with my mine and give a little writeup.
Most Valuable Player: Chris Paul
Honorable Mentions: Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Pau Gasol
This early in the season, the top teams are all pretty close so no top player has really been that much more valuable than his peers. I give it to Paul because I think he has the least to work with AND has also been slightly the best. What he's doing on offense is just totally incredible. He's sporting a 61.2 TS% and setting up his teammates in a ridiculously efficient way. To put it in perspective, he has a higher AST% than Steven Nash while turning it over even less. Rajon Rondo is considered by pretty much everyone to be a top 5 PG in the NBA. Well Chris Paul is Rondo if Rondo could shoot and turn it over 10 less times per 100 plays.
Rookie of the Year: Blake Griffin
Honorable Mentions: Landry Fields, John Wall
This is probably as easy an award to give as any NBA award will ever be. I don't think I really have to say much here, so I'm just going to post this.
Defensive Player of the Year: Dwight Howard
Honorable Mentions: Kevin Garnett, LeBron James
I think Dwight and KG are really close, and to KG's credit, Boston has been the best defensive team in the league this year, but I think he has a decent amount more help than Dwight. This award is pretty much Dwight's to lose for the next few years and he hasn't done anything this year to give it away.
Most Improved Player: Russell Westbrook
Honorable Mentions: Al Horford, Roy Hibbert, Raymond Felton
All four of these guys have made some unexpectedly drastic improvements. I give the slight edge to Westbrook because he's playing at a superstar level while shouldering a superstar workload. His numbers speak for themselves and he's been vital to Oklahoma City staying relevant while Durant struggles with his jumper and with injuries. There is no question that Westbrook has been the best player on his team and given that his running mate is supposed to be a top five player, that's pretty impressive.
Coach of the Year: Stan Van Gundy
It's pretty dumb for people to speculate about this because they really have no clue what they're looking at. I'll just give it to Stan because he's the best coach in the league in my meaningless opinion.
6th Man of the Year: Wilson Chandler
This is another award that I don't really like so I don't feel like wasting any time on it either. It's dumb that the criteria is Games Started. You should have to be sixth or worse in minutes per game.
TZ's Awards:
TUt
MVP: Chris Paul
ROY: Blake Griffin
DPOY: Dwight Howard
MIP: Russell Westbrook
COY: Stan Van Gundy
6MAN: Wilson Chandler
MEbenhoe
MVP: Dwight Howard
ROY: Blake Griffin
DPOY: Dwight Howard
MIP: Roy Hibbert
COY: Gregg Popovich
6MAN: Brandon Bass
