Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 19th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
Paul Pierce --- 29 pts, 5 rebs, 14 asst, 11 FTM, 2 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 9-14 shooting...PP was en fuego last night, doing it all for the Celtics (especially dishing!), but had two guys close on his heels for the West - James Harden (40, 7 rebs, 11 FTM, 4 stls, 5 treys) and Pau Gasol (5th career triple double - 22, 11, & 11...w/ 3 blks). At 34 years old, and wrapping up his 14th season, Pierce has shown extraordinary longevity, maintaining his productivity while playing his entire career in Boston. He's at 19.7, 5.3 reb, 4.6 asst, 5 FTM (at a 85.2% clip - tied for 2nd best in his career), and 1.2 stl while missing just 4 games in this intense, compressed schedule. His place among the greats? 14th all-time in the NBA in free throws made, 25th in points, 9th in treys, and 27th in pts/gm (22.1). He's also played in 10 all-star games and made 3rd team all-NBA three times and 2nd team once.

The Trajan Langdon Award
The Charlotte Bobcats --- 68 pts, 1 trey, and 29.8% shooting in their 18th straight loss. This streak has bested their earlier 16 game losing streak. In their last 7 losses, they have surpassed 85 pts just once...90 pts six games ago. They are now 7-54, a winning percentage of .1296, barely better than the all-time worst 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73, .1233). It's got to be all or nothing for them to steal the bottom spot from that ignominious 76ers squad. If they lose the rest of their games, they will finish 7-59 for a winning percentage of .1186...if they win just one game, they blow it (.1379). They have Memphis next (probable loss), but then come two potential "stumbling blocks" on the road to ineptitude immortality. First, it's Sacramento (20-42) at home...hopefully DeMarcus, Tyreke, Marcus Thornton, and Isaiah Thomas can take care of them (far better talent than the Bobcats best 4 - Gerald Henderson, Kemba Walker...and then, I'm not sure who their next two best players are...). After that it's the Wizards (16-46) on the road. The Wiz have actually won 4 of their last 6, which includes a 113-85 drubbing of the 'Mildcats'. Again, another team with far better talent than the pathetic roster MJ has put together in Charlotte. They then close with Orlando and the Knicks. So come on 'Mildcats', make some history this year - then MJ can say he played on the team with the best record ever (1995-96 Bulls, 72-10), and then 16 years later assembled the team with the worst!


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Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 18th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
Carmelo Anthony --- 35 pts, 12 rebs, 10 asst, 7 FTM, 2 stl, 0 blk, 2 treys, and 13-24 shooting...Melo gathers his 2nd straight West Award after corralling his 2nd career tri-double in a high-scoring defeat of the Celtics, 118-110, where the Knicks had 72 pts by halftime. This game also puts the Knicks in the #7 spot in the East, a full game up on the 76ers who lost last night to the Pacers. As Simmons noted in his Friday writeup, Carmelo has been red hot lately, and is now averaging 31.2, 7.6, 4.4 asst, and shooting 52.2% in his last 5 games. His numbers for the year still remain depressed compared to his career averages (22.4 pts, 42.8% compared to career 24.6 & 45.6%), but if he remains hot and can scare the Heat in round 1, Knicks fans will take it...and as for producing an upset in round 1 - well who besides Heat fans wouldn't love that drama? There were 3 other strong performances last night - rookie PG Brandon Knight for the Pistons sunk 11 of 12 FG attempts, including 4 treys, to go along with 7 dimes in a win over the Cavs, while Rudy Gay showcased his all-around supremacy with 28 pts, 9 rebs, and 4 dimes in a win over the T-Wolves. Finally, out on the West coast, Tony Parker destroyed the Lakers, going off for 29 pts on 14-20 shooting with 13 assists in just 3 quarters as the Spurs got to rest him the entire 4th in a blowout win in L.A.

The Trajan Langdon Award
Antawn Jamison --- 3 pts, 4 rebs, 2 asst, 3 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 0-10 shooting in 28 horrific minutes...The score of this game after 3 quarters: 100-50. Wow...that's some ugly stuff. The Cavs were missing Kyrie Irving, who has now missed the team's last 9 games with a sprained shoulder. The Cavs orther big rookie, PF/C Tristan Thompson, had his 8th double-double of the season with 12 pts and 13 rebs, and though he's struggled with consistency this year (averaging just 7.9 pts/6.2 rebs on 43.8% shooting), he has showed himself to be one of the best offensive rebounders in the game, as he's 14th in the league at 3.0/gm in just 23.3 minutes a night. On a per minute basis, he's #1 in the league at snatching 2nd opportunities for his offense. As for the soon-to-be 36 year old Jamison (June 12th), this is either the 2nd or 3rd bozo award for him this year, and he's closing out his career-worst season in style, averaging just 14.3 pts and 5.3 rebs while shooting a paltry 34% his last 4 games.


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Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 16th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
Carmelo Anthony --- 42 pts, 9 rebs, 5 asst, 12 FTM, 1 stl, 0 blk, 2 treys, and 14-27 shooting...Melo was large for the Knicks yesterday, but Chris Bosh outrebounded Tyson Chandler 14 to 5, and Lebron (29 & 10 reb) and Wade (28, 9 reb, 4 asst) did their thing, giving the Heat the victory...and slim hopes of the best record in the East alive (3.5 gms back of Chi). This below is from Bill Simmons' Friday piece...interesting observations on a potential NY/Mia 1st round series. Note his description of Shumpert.
"23. Right now, the Knicks are trailing Philly by one game for the seventh playoff spot. They feature a suddenly hot scorer (Carmelo's last 10 games: 28.5 PPG) who truly believes he's on the same level as Wade and LeBron, as well as a defensive stopper who knows how to beat them (Chandler), an elite perimeter defender who can defend both Wade and LeBron (Iman Shumpert), and a bloodthirsty crowd that will absolutely, unequivocally show up in full force for Games 3, 4 and 6 (the Knicks fans). It's giving me goose bumps just thinking about it. Imagine the Knicks improbably taking a 3-2 lead home for Game 6, and imagine THAT crowd. On a scale of 1 to the "Boom Goes the Dynamite" Guy, how terrified do you think LeBron will be during crunch time of that game? Even the chance this might happen has me fired up. Let's see it once and for all, LeBron … do you have "it" or not? "

The Trajan Langdon Award
Patrick Patterson --- 1 pts, 2 rebs, 1 asst, 1 FTM, 0 stl, 1 blk, 0 treys, and 0-6 shooting in 29 unproductive minutes...We're back to the motley crew of SFs in Houston again, this time the 2nd year forward out of Kentucky takes the ignominious prize. I first saw Patterson after a cousin emailed me, asking if I'd seen Wall play yet. I hadn't, and when I finally got around to seeing him play (Jan 2010), there was a #54 who impressed me as an athletic big guy, who was also pretty smooth and skilled. I found out it was a junior named Patrick Patterson, and he was big for the Wildcats his freshman & soph seasons, averaging 17.9 and 9.3 rebs with 2.1 blks and a sparkling 60.3 shooting percentage his 2nd yr. Those numbers chilled to a 14.3 and 7.4 with just 1.3 blk after the arrival of Wall & Cousins. Houston took him 14th overall in the 2010 Draft, after Wall went #1 and Cousins #5...then Eric Bledsoe, who I love, went to OKC at #18...but their smart GM Sam Presti made a blunder and traded him to the Clips for a future 1st rounder. Now the Clips have CP3 and playoff appearances coming, and Bledsoe has the ability to be a top notch starter someday. Oh...and OKC's backup PG is now The Mangy Mutt, instead of the quick, explosive, and disruptive Bledsoe. Anyway, back to Patterson...he's shown flashes here and there, but has not established any consistency, and has regressed in his shooting % big-time, from 55.8 his rookie year to 43.7 this year. He must have been playing more at the 4 his rookie year, that's an outlandish fall. He also had 4 double-doubles his rookie year, compared to just 1 this season. He's at 7.5 and 4.2 rebs this yr.


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Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 13th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
Klay Thompson --- 24 pts, 7 rebs, 8 asst, 5 FTM, 2 stl, 1 blk, 3 treys, and 8-17 shooting...Klay is the son of 1978 former #1 overall pick Mychal Thompson, who played to that draft status just 1 year (1982 --- 20.8/11.7/4 dimes, 52.3% in 79 games), but was a solid F/C starter for Portland for many years before becoming a key reserve (over 20 min/gm) for the last two Laker title teams in the 80's and a few years beyond that. He's been on local talk-radio out here in L.A. for years, though now he's off the air...one of those guys who's always too happy, too positive, never a bad thing to say...it was mildly bothersome to hear him sometimes. Klay's mom was a collegiate volleyball player, so athleticism was in the genes and sports was the life for this 6'7" SG from Washington. He's shown himself to be a legit NBA talent lately, given large minutes and a starting role in the wake of the Ellis trade. He's averaged 17.6 pts/gm in his last 20 games since the trade, though his reb #'s (sub 3/gm) and dimes (barely 2) could use a boost. In other strong efforts last night, Greg Monroe had 25 (11-14), 11, & 4 dimes while Jason Kidd flashed back to his great years with a 9 pt, 10 reb, 12 asst, 3 stl, 2 blk, and 3 trey performance that you can only say 'Bravo!' to at the age of 39.

The Trajan Langdon Award
Derrick Rose -- 2 pts, 2 rebs, 8 asst, 0 FTM, 1 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 1-13 shooting in 25 quite rough minutes...A buddy and I sat down at a bar for sushi with the TV just 8 feet away, yet ended up barely watching the game cuz my friend and I hadn't hung out in a while...but I did see Rose's only make, and it was his classic stop-n-pop jump shot that's so pretty to watch, and reminds me so much of Marbury's beautiful stop-n-pop - very smooth with solid elevation. Back to Rose, it's been a rocky follow up to his MVP season, as Rose has missed 23 games, and shot 9-39 in the two games he's played since missing his latest string of 12 games. His backup CJ Watson, earlier this year a Langdon winner, was the hero in regulation hitting a clutch 3 to tie the game with just over 2 seconds left on the clock (I also watched that). Wade missed a game-winner attempt, and Chicago dominated OT, 12-2. CJ ended up with 16 pts (6-10), 9 asst, and 3 stls.


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Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 12th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
Andrew Bynum --- 16 pts, 30 rebs, 2 asst, 2 FTM, 0 stl, 2 blk, 0 treys, and 7-20 shooting...and... Monta Ellis --- 35 pts, 6 rebs, 10 asst, 4 FTM, 4 stl, 0 blk, 3 treys, and 14-25 from the floor...Bynum joined Kevin Love as the only players in the last 15 years to haul down at least 30 boards, meaning even Dwight Howard (career high 26) and Kevin Garnett (25) never reached the 30 rebound number, even though between them, they have won half the rebounding titles in that time span (4 for KG, 3 for Dwight...4 if he takes it this year). Bynum joined 4 other Lakers to grab at least 30: Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, and Baylor. Of course, he's still a total knucklehead, as he swore in a live post-game interview (sh*t) and in the game's final seconds, guarded his own PG. As for the dynamic, exciting Monta, he's had plenty of struggles since joining the Bucks (one of which, I'm sure, is getting used to life in Milwaukee after being S.F. adjacent the first 6 years of his career). In his first 10 games with the Bucks, Ellis scored more than 18 pts just once, while scoring 14 or less 7 times. He's had nights of 2-14, 2-12, 3-12, and 4-12 since moving to the Eastern Conference. Playing alongside a shooting PG like Jennings is probably not ideal, but overall, I do like the move for Milwaukee. They have a plethora of young bigs (Ilyasova, Ekpe Udoh, Larry Sanders), and Bogut seemed to be hurt half the time anyway (as he still is now). And two of those bigs combined for 6 blocks in just 35 combined minutes last night - 3 apiece for Udoh and Sanders. For the year, Monta is 20.6/3.4/6 asst, and 1.5 steals while shooting 43.2%.

The Trajan Langdon Award
Devin Ebanks --- 4 pts, 1 rebs, 1 asst, 0 FTM, 1 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 0-4 shooting in 23 poor minutes...Ebanks has not been e-banking in too many shots since being given the starting SG gig in Kobe's absence. In game 1, he made 6-11 shots, grabbed 4 rebs, but did nothing else in 32 min of playing time. Game 2: 2-7, 2 rebs, and nothing else in 26 minutes. And now this stinker. Overall, he's 8-22 (36.4%) with just 7 total rebs, 1 asst, 1 stl, and 0 blks in 81 minutes of court time since Kobe's been out. Way to take advantage of the opportunity, Devin! He's a tall (6'9"), athletic, 2nd year guy out of West Virginia, nabbed by Kupchak in the middle of the 2nd round 2 years ago, but doesn't seem to have what it takes to be a player in the league. He also started the first 4 games of the season at the SF slot but after doing very little, quickly found himself on the bench piling up DNP-CDs (did not play - coaches decision).


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Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 10th 2012


The Jerry West Award:
LeBron James --- 36 pts, 7 rebs, 7 asst, 13 FTM, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 trey, and 11-23 FG%...Interesting question - where does LeBron stand among the greats if he never played another game, and where might he end up in 15 years time (when at 42, I'm guessing he could still be an 8/3/3 guy in 15-20 min a night)? Today I have him between Rick Barry (27) and KG (25) at #26. The stats, ability, and highlights are all top 10, but the playoff moments push him farther down than he should be...but also offer plenty of room to move up as his career continues on. As a ceiling, I'd say MJ, Wilt, Russell, and Kareem are all untouchable for him - but everyone else is fair game, depending on eventual rings and his play in crucial games and moments. To pass Bird, Magic, and Hakeem would take big results and a long, relatively injury-free career...I'm not sure he'll end up among those guys. So now he drops to Duncan, Kobe, Oscar, & West. I think he ends up somewhere around this group. Be fun to watch develop over the next decade. And at the opposite end of the superstar spectrum, Lester Hudson (25, 8 reb, 6 asst) and Kevin Seraphin (24, 13 reb, 4 blk, 11-16) also had large games last night.

The Trajan Langdon Award
Corey Maggette --- 4 pts, 1 rebs, 0 asst, 2 FTM, 2 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 1-7 shooting in 16 ugly minutes...Maggette was Duke's first one-and-done hoopster, playing on the 1999 team that was 37-1 going into the NCAA title game, only to be upset by Khalid El Amin, Rip Hamilton, Jake Voskuhl and the rest of the UConn Huskies squadron. He was taken 13th overall by the Seattle Supersonics (today's OKC Thunder), only to be traded immediately to Orlando for an aging Horace Grant (there was other random driftwood in the deal, but these were the main names). After playing him almost 18 minutes a night, the Magic then traded him to the Clippers, where in a few short years he established himself as a competent rebounder and elite slasher, averaging over 8 free throw attempts a game his last 5 years there, including 10/gm in 2004-05 and 9.7/gm in 2007-08. He finished in the top 5 in free throws made 4 times, leading the league in 2003-04. He averaged over 20 pts/gm 3 times as well. But injuries and Father Time have slowed down the 6'6" jumping jack, and he's shooting only 37.3% this year while missing 24 of the team's 56 games so far.
 


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