How does NBA give awards?
Last night, the officials of the league announced the first winners of the “Player of the Month”, “Rookie of the Month” and “Coach of the Month” awards. Therefore, Doc Rivers (LA Clippers) and Nick Nurse (Toronto Raptors) have been the best coaches, Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks) and Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) have been the best rookies and Tobias Harris (LA Clippers) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) have been the best players in the league.
Personally, I was surprised by the selection of Tobias Harris as the Western Player of the Month. He currently averages 21.4 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 2.4 APG, while leading the Clippers to the top of the Western Conference. I understand that Harris has been playing the best game in his career and that LA Clippers shares the first spot of the standings with Denver Nuggets, but if we look only at the stats, there is nothing spectacular. At this moment, there are 10 players in the Western Conference that have a better scoring average than Tobias Harris. In the rebounds section, Tobias Harris holds the 14th spot in the West, sharing this position with Willie Cauley-Stein from Sacramento Kings.
So it is clear to me that Tobias Harris hasn’t been the best player, and truly this would be really hard in a conference where you also have LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and so on. But, then we have to ask ourselves ‘How did Tobias Harris manage to get this award?’. Well, as we have seen in the previous seasons, the officials of the league give a lot of attention to the place where the teams are. So, with Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers being the first teams in the Western Conference, it was an easy guess that they will choose a player from these two organizations.
In my opinion, this style of awarding players has some advantages, but I see more disadvantages. Of course, it is important for an MVP, let’s say, to impact his team in such a way that it becomes a threat for the other clubs. But, at the same time, there are a lot of great basketball players who don’t have the chance to play for a good team, so they don’t get the top places. For example, in 2005-2006, Kobe Bryant averaged 35.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.5 APG, and 1.8 SPG, but he didn’t win the MVP, because the Lakers’ weren’t as good as the Phoenix Suns. Instead, Steve Nash got that award, and that seems crazy to me because he averaged 18.8 PPG, 10.5 APG, and 4.2 RPG. This is only an example, but it actually happened like this countless times, so maybe the MVP or the “Best Player…” awards are not given to the player who is actually the best, but to the best player from the top team.
By saying these things, I don’t want to take any credits from Tobias Harris because he has been amazing in this season, and he has led a team of no-stars to the best record in the Western Conference. I just wanted to turn your attention to a problem that has been frustrating for a lot of fans who thought that other players deserved that award more.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
