We’re only halfway through the season and Blazer fans have already gone through the 5 stages of grief more times than a character from a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Thus far it’s been a season defined by a tragic retirement, road futility, eye rolling surgeries, role confusion and tumultuous times. In other words the All-Star break couldn’t come sooner for a Portland team that has played 34 games in 59 days.
For a club that started 7-2 and briefly announced their entrance into the upper echelons of the West, an 18-16 record is not what many Blazer maniacs had in mind heading into the second half of the season.
Despite the underachievement, bright spots have seeped through the cloud of mediocrity hovering over this team and produced some exhilarating moments through the season’s first semester.
In honor of the upcoming awards season, let’s take a moment to hand out some halfway hardware.
And the Oscar goes to…
Most Valuable Player: LaMarcus Aldridge
This is like giving the award for most ignorant headline writer to a certain ex-employee at ESPN—not a whole lot of competition. That does not mean Aldridge isn’t fully deserving of MVP honors, however. The L-Train made the jump from excellent player to bona fide star last season, but now the rest of the NBA has finally recognized him for his efforts. With his All-Star selection, Aldridge becomes just the 14th Blazer picked for the honor and his 22.3 points per game place him in the top 7 in scoring this season.
Nearly ever facet of Aldridge’s game has been perfected. He can back you down and muscle his way to the basket or he can beat you with an unblockable turnaround jumper. He can pull out a sneaky Tony Hawk style 360 in route to an alley-oop or make a 7-foot center look like little boy.
If there’s any question about Aldridge’s value to this team, it was shown in the three games he sat out with an ankle sprain earlier this month. A humiliating home loss to the woeful Wizards was followed by a serendipitously narrow win over the Warriors and a full-scale collapse against the Clippers.
The first half of the season has shown that the Blazers will only go as far as LaMarcus can take them, making him the runaway midseason MVP.
Runner Up: Marcus Camby
Best Defensive Player: Marcus Camby
This was by far the hardest award to decide upon. Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Gerald Wallace are some of the most tenacious defenders at their positions in the entire league—but at the end of the day how can you not be in awe of the dude who is a few months away from receiving his AARP card. Not only does Marcus Camby lead the Blazers in rebounds and blocks, with 9.5 and 1.5 respectively, but ranks in the top 20 in the NBA in both categories.
Camby knows exactly what he’s on this team to do and he recognizes his role better than anyone else on the Blazers. You need him to grab 22 rebounds and hold Marc Gasol to 7 points? No problem. You need him to singlehandedly turn the Bobcats into kittens by recording 3 blocks in the span of 16-seconds? He’ll do it with pleasure and give you the angry dragon face all the way back down the court.
The age is just a number cliché has never been more apt when it comes to Camby and earns him the BDP honor thus far.
Runner Up: Nicolas Batum
Most Impressive Individual Performance: Nicolas Batum vs. Nuggets 2/4/12 (33 points, 3 steals, 1 block, 9-15 3 PT FG)
Nicolas Batum wasn’t even supposed to play in this game. 6 nights earlier he crumpled to the floor with a knee sprain in the final minutes of the game against the Jazz. In his first game back from the injury, few thought he would play any significant minutes.
But the Blazers badly needed this win at home. They had just lost to the Kings and needed to show their Northwest rival that Portland was still a contender in the muddled West.
McMillan called Batum’s number in hopes of providing an alternate scoring option to Aldridge and hellfire instantly began spewing from Batum’s fingertips.
Nicolas decided that tonight he would do his best Jesus Shuttlesworth impression and hit 3 after 3 after 3.
You couldn’t put Batum out with the Willamette River. He ended up with 9 tres, the most in the NBA this season, and set the franchise record for 3-pointers in a game.
Runners Up: Gerald Wallace vs. Lakers 1/5/12 (31 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 windmill) LaMarcus Aldridge vs. Thunder 2/6/12 (39 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block)
Best Game: @Thunder 1/3/12
Remember way back in early January when the Blazers were the talk of the NBA? Charles Barkley said Portland was the best team he had seen, early coach-of-the-year talk swirled around Nate McMillan and the Miller for Felton trade seemed Stephen Hawkingesque in its brilliance.
The game against OKC on the road had everything to do with these accolades. For one night, the Blazers could do no wrong. LaMarcus did his usual All-Star thing on the way to a 30-point performance, Gerald Wallace terrorized Kevin Durant into an 8-26 shooting night and Raymond Felton played like…well a good point guard.
It was a total team effort. Every player knew exactly how best to contribute and the Blazers dominated the best team in the West in every facet of the game in route to a 103-93 victory.
And for a fleeting moment, the Blazers had the best record in the NBA.
Runner Up: vs. Lakers 1/5/12 (107-96)
And the Razzie goes to…
Biggest Disappointment: Raymond Felton
What can you say about Raymond Felton that has not already been said? When the Blazers traded Andre Miller for Felton on draft night we were told that Felton was basically a younger, faster version of Andre Miller. Let’s take a statistical look at that claim.
Through 34 games, Miller is averaging 10.2 points, 6.9 assists, and 2.6 turnovers. Felton is averaging 10.2 points, 6.2 assists and 2.8 turnovers. OK fairly comparable numbers—but field goal percentage is another story.
Miller is shooting a respectable 43% from the field. Felton? 37%. By player efficiency ranking, Felton rates as the 51st best point guard in the league, squeezed right between Jimmer Fredette and Earl Watson.
We know that Felton is capable of so much more. Just last year he was a reliable and consistent floor general for the Nuggets and Knicks, but perhaps after enjoying one too many cupcakes over the summer he forgot how to utilize his natural skills that made him so successful in years past.
Runner Up: Greg Oden (Not really fair, but still…)
Most Embarrassing Individual Performance: Gerald Wallace vs. Suns 1/6/12 (1 point, 1 assist, 2 rebounds, 4 turnovers)
When you look at your stat line at the end of the night and there’s no “s” after point and assist, it’s not a good sign. For most of this season, Wallace has been an Energizer bunny with fangs on the court—blocking a shot on one end and flying to the other to finish a monster slam. But for whatever reason throughout the 102-77 loss to Phoenix, Wallace played like he belonged in the YMCA over-50 league.
Compounding the embarrassment was that he had just put up a doughnut against the Clippers 5 days earlier. In fairness to Wallace, the entire team was god-awful that night (32.5% FG, 10.5% 3 PT) but not bad enough to win worst game of the year. That honor goes to a more recent game.
Runner Up: Raymond Felton vs. Clippers 2/16/12 (0 points, 2 assists, 5 turnovers)
Worst Game: vs. Wizards 2/14/12
The only reason the Wizards are the second worst team in the NBA and not the worst is because Michael Jordan has decided he wants to be the Al Davis of basketball.
This is a team that is 25th in offense and 28th in defense, but on Valentine’s Day the Blazers decided that chocolates and diamonds weren’t enough for the visiting team, so they wrapped up a 124-109 win, put a bow on it and sent the Wiz home bragging about how they got lucky in Portland.
The caveat here is that Portland was without LaMarcus Aldridge, but that’s beside the point. The Blazers should never give up 124 points in a game, let alone to the Wizards—at home. After watching this game, you would think that John Wall and JaVale McGee were the second coming of Stockton and Malone.
Let’s hope we never have to sit through a game that rancid the second half of the season. Oh—a first round playoff win would be nice too.
Runner Up: vs. Suns 1/6/12 (102-77)
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