Daily Hoops Awards for Jan. 31st 2012
The Jerry West Award:
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| Derrick Rose --- 35 pts, 0 rebs, 8 asst, 14 FTM, 2 stl, 3 blk, 1 treys, 10-20 FG%...The youngest MVP in league history (could have been a college senior last year when he won it), Rose's numbers are have been just a bit smaller this year, though he's still 6th in scoring (23.3) and 8th in dimes (7.8). He's also led the Bulls to the best record in the East at 18-5, 2nd best record in the league (OKC first at 16-4). He's probably the most explosive, athletic PG in the history of the league - there are 3 others that come to mind alongside him: Iverson (who played a lot of SG), Marbury (who didn't have Rose's maturity, b-ball smarts), and fellow 2008 Draft class member Russell Westbrook, who doesn't have Rose's skills & body control, and tends to drift too often into a SG mentality (but is a blast to watch as well, also incredibly explosive). | |||
The Stromile Swift Award
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| Hedo Turkoglu --- 3 pts, 3 rebs, 1 asst, 0 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 1 trey, & 1-9 FG% in 26 repulsive minutes...and... Rudy Gay --- 1 pts, 6 rebs, 2 asst, 1 FTM, 2 stl, 0 blk, 0 trey, & 0-7 FG% in 34 minutes of pure pain. Turkoglu is in the 3rd year of a 5 year, $53m contract even though he turns 33 this March. When the Raptors signed him to that deal (technically a sign-n-trade), I remember thinking that it would be an awful, immovable contract. Well...it's awful, but definitely not immovable, as he was quickly traded to Phoenix (for backup combo guard Leandro Barbosa), and then, after flaming out there (9.5 pts, 4.0 rebs, 2.3 asst), traded again back to Orlando in a multiplayer deal that included Marcin Gortat leaving Orlando and going west. Gortat is now averaging 15/10 with almost 2 blks/gm while shooting 56%. Maybe if the Magic hadn't reacquired the aging, overpaid Turkoglu, they could have done a Dwight Howard deal by now, knowing they had a very capable starting center on their bench the whole time...oh well. As for Gay, outside of last night's God-awful performance, he's been pretty solid this year, though without Zach Randolph, a little more scoring (he's at 17.8) would help. Memphis was splendid in the playoffs last year without Gay, now it's Gay's turn to show they can be splendid again, but this time without Zach - currently they are just 10-10 and would be a lottery team if the playoffs started tomorrow. | |||
Written by Todd Robinson - Comments (0)
Posted in Daily Hoops Awards category.
