With the NBA regular season coming to a close last night, and the playoffs still a few days away, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on the NBA season at hand and pass out some hardware. Most year’s there are many more deserving candidates than spots on the ballot, and this year is no exception. Because of this fact, it’s hard to say there is a right choice or a wrong choice for many of these awards.
That being said, this year, there are some right choices for a few of the most prominent awards. And, it just so happens that the right answer for three of those awards all play for our hometown Portland Trailblazers. And, I swear to the basketball gods that these aren’t just some over-the-top homer picks, either.
No, this Blazer team defied expectations to such an extraordinary degree that credit cannot simply be given to one or even two individuals. No, the Blazers dramatic rise from expected Western Conference doormat to shocking 5-seed is a total organizational effort from the court to the sidelines to the front office. And, (hint) the awards reflect all three levels of the organization.
And, while some may be in line to receive the real awards, they all deserve a mention as defining parts of what has been an unexpectedly magical season in Rip City.
So let’s pass out some awards to Rip City’s finest!
Coach of the Year
As with every season there is no shortage of options to choose from when it comes to Coach of the Year, and this year is no exception. With the dynamic duo of Steve Kerr and Luke Walton leading the Warriors to a record 73 wins, Brad Stevens and Steve Clifford leading the Eastern Conference’s two biggest surprises (Boston and Charlotte, respectively), and of course the great Gregg Popovich leading the Spurs to a record tying 40-1 home record, there are plenty of deserving candidates. But, there are none more deserving than the Blazers own Terry Stotts.
Stotts has lead a team that lost six of its top seven scorers from last season, and who just about everyone predicted would be hard-pressed to win 30 games and be among the three or four worst teams in the league, and has guided them to 44 wins and a playoff berth. And, not just any old playoff berth, the 5th seed in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference. With a top 5 offense in the league and top 15 defense. Which, when you consider that the team made no “major” free agent signings in the offseason.
Simply put, the product put on the court by the Blazers this year has vastly outperformed the combined talent of the players on the roster to such a massive degree, that it’s impossible not to give a lion’s share of the credit to man drawing up the plays on the sideline. Terry Stotts has done wonders with this team, and he will walk away with the hardware to prove it.
Most Improved Player
There are all kinds of ways to look at who deserves to be awarded the Most Improved Player award. You can look at the guy who’s risen his game from bench warmer to rotation player, or from rotation player to starter, or from starter to star (all of which are pretty sizable leaps in production). But, it’s rare you see a player go from bench warmer all the way to star, in just one year. Which is exactly what CJ McCollum has done this year, raising his scoring average an absurd 300% (from 6.8 to 20.9) in just over double the minutes.
However, even more impressively, he’s also increased his efficiency along with a dramatic increase in minutes, something that is almost unheard of in the NBA. McCollum has raised his field goal percentage, 3 point percentage, free throw percentage and assist to turnover ratio, all while being the (co-) focal point of an offense (and defense) for the first time in his career. That’s an unheard of leap in minutes, productivity and efficiency, and is why McCollum is pretty much a lock for the Most Improved Player award.
Executive of the Year
If you asked most Blazer fans a week into last season’s NBA Free Agency where they think GM Neil Olshey would finish in the Executive of the Year voting, there would be a consensus. And, that consensus would be dead last. And, they probably would be right, as Olshey “let” 6 of the top 7 scorers on last year’s 53-win team leave in free agency, and replaced them with (what seemed at the time like) a bunch of mid-tier free agents (to be kind) and late round draft picks and rookie free agents.
Fast forward to the end of the season and all of a sudden this rag tag bunch of players has transformed themselves into one of the most exciting and promising young rosters in the league, full of excellent young players on short, flexible contracts and with the cap flexibility going forward to add even more talent to the roster in the offseason.
And, maybe most impressively, this wasn’t your classic NBA tank job with a young roster, either. In fact this year’s incarnation of the Blazers has actually managed to finish higher in the standings than last year’s squad (5th best record this year, 6th best last year). Sure, they did so with 9 less wins, but, considering the hand Olshey was dealt, that, in and of itself, is a downright miracle. So, while Terry Stotts deserves all kinds of credit for getting what amounted to a nearly entirely new roster to gel and become a cohesive, winning unit, Olshey deserves an equal amount of credit for giving him an excellent balance of players whose skills fit together like a glove. And, it’s that kind of shrewd foresight executed on the fly that makes Neil Olshey the top GM in the NBA.
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