Mark Heisler’s Postseason Award Choices

Now for the annual post-season awards no one else has, by whatever means necessary.

Kill this page if you’re looking for the Blue Plate Special featured everywhere else with Michael Carter-Williams as Rookie of the Year, Gregg Popovich as best coach, DeMar DeRozan as Most Improved, Joakim Noah as Defensive Player of the Year, etc.

All are deserving… but it’s not as if the other candidates are chopped liver, as it seems these days when everyone compares picks over the internet and— Moooooo! –joins the herd.

All of these categories are close. In all of them, voters can use whatever criteria they choose.

In other words, it’s a meaningless popularity contest. How much good did the second of LeBron James’ back-to-back MVPs in 2010 do him after he flamed out in the postseason while playing hurt, then left Cleveland for Miami?

MVP—Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City.

OK, I’ll start sneering at everyone else’s picks with the next one.

I’m doing this to show why I don’t take this award seriously. If you do, you find yourself demeaning the second most deserving player in the game, like Bron, or an exceptionally valuable player like Charlotte’s Al Jefferson.

Since I don’t intend to say one bad word about KD—like pointing out his numbers were up so high because Russell Westbrook was out—I’ll take the easy way out.

Rookie of the Year—Victor Oladipo, Orlando.
I’ve assumed all along that Michael Carter-Williams would win with his great numbers (17-6-6), unless you care about shooting (39.9%), which I do.

Oladipo didn’t have the rookie year lots of people expected but at 15-4-5 since the break, shooting 43%, I still expect him to be the better player in the long run.

I can’t claim this as another of my lonely stands for principle. Reggie Miller and Chris Webber agreed on it the other night on TV. I’m with them.

Coach of the Year—Steve Clifford, Charlotte.

I’m the all-time Pop admirer. What he does goes beyond mere coaching, running the best organization we have ever seen, like Red Auerbach’s Celtics without the cigars and 20 more teams to contend with.

Nevertheless, what Pop did, he does every year. There were a lot of other fabulous performances (Doc Rivers, Terry Stotts, Jeff Hornacek, Erik Spoeltra, and, of course, Tom Thibodeau).

Before Clifford, only Larry Brown, a known miracle worker, ever did what he did in Charlotte, to say nothing of it being his debut as a head coach.

Clifford did it with one star (Jefferson), a point guard shooting 39.7% (Kemba Walker), a shooting guard with 35 threes (Gerald Henderson), a nice role player (Josh McRoberts) and a superfluous role player on whom they wasted a No. 2 overall pick (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.)

Defensive Player of the Year—DeAndre Jordan, Clippers.

There’s a groundswell of support for Joakim Noah, who couldn’t be more deserving—but for his all-around game, not just his D. As impressive as Noah’s 11.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks are, DJ averaged 13.8/3.3.

Of course, the groundswell started when they cheated Jo out of this award last season when the math geeks annointed Marc Gasol. Take that up with them.

Most Improved—Gerald Green, Phoenix.

Yes, DeMar DeRozan improved a lot, but he was an OK player before. The Suns traded for Green last summer and got a No. 1 pick plus Miles Plumlee in the deal for Luis Scola, and Green has been a major part of one of the best bench mobs in the league

Anthony Davis? Give me a break. The Pelicans, who won nothing else, have mounted a campaign on his behalf that actually has a press supporter here and there. Since some of these guys live in the own world, or their own mathemetrical construct, I’ll keep this simple: AD was a No. 1 overall pick.

Good players typically make their biggest moves, or take quantum leaps, after their first and second seasons, which is what AD just did.
If AD wins, I just want to know how KD, Bron and MJ missed out.

Sixth Man—Taj Gibson, Chicago.

The Clippers’ Jamal Crawford is way the best sixth man in my mind, everything you could hope for in a reserve, Firepower Incarnate, able to change a game within minutes of entering it.

I think Jamal will win and I’ll be happy about it because he’s also one of the nicest guys in the NBA. Nevertheless, his numbers are boosted to the sky by the 23 games he started, mostly in February when Chris Paul was out and he averaged 24 points.

Hard as it is to amass numbers with the grinding Bulls, not many backup fours average 16-8 with 1.4 blocks in 29 minutes. Gibson does.

Executive of the Year—Neil Olshey, Portland

Phoenix’s Sean McDonough has a lot of support—deservedly—after pairing physically dominating Eric Bledsoe, who’s not a great playmaker, with Goran Dragic, a playmaking/scoring point guard big enough to guard twos, or, at least, better than they can guard him.

Of course, they could name this award after Miami President Pat Riley, as then-Utah GM Scott Layden once talked about naming it after Jerry West.

Olshey built not one but two West playoff teams. As Clippers GM, he beat the Lakers to CP3 in 2011, got him to opt in, then set it up so he could choose his coach in 2013—who turned out to be Doc Rivers—when his contract ran out.

By then, owner Donald Sterling had let Olshey’s contract run out and Portland’s Paul Allen hired him away. Olshey took over a 28-38 Trail Blazers team braced for LaMarcus Aldridge to demand a trade, got Damian Lillard with a No. 6 pick, traded second-rounder Jeff Withey for unheralded Robin Lopez and is en route to 50 wins in his second season.

Hall of Fame writer Mark Heisler is a founding member and regular contributor to SheridanHoops, the Orange County Register and Forbes.com.  Follow him on Twitter.

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