What is going on here? We have a Battier post, and no one is going to mention Rudy Gay? Is this still ClutchFans.com? I mean, gee, after all, Gay just won the "Mike James Award" (Player who looks good on a team that sucks). Way to go Shane. This is why we brought you here.
I don't think any of those 3 top candidates have a shot. Denver has a rep for bad defense (deserved or not) and they may not even make the playoffs. Artest doesn't get the publicity he used to get, and Sacramento is a lottery team. And Butler ... Caron Butler? Forget it. Chris Paul has an outside shot, as a consolation prize for not winning MVP ... but that would be a joke. I think it will go to Kevin Garnett.
Articles like these are why I love John Hollinger. Everything is defended and explained. Nothing is chalked up to common knowledge.
I wouldn't lose one second of sleep if no one ever brought up the name Rudy Gay ever again on this board. its been done TO DEATH. in response to the increase in Battier's defensive techniques this year, he does mention that Tibs and JVG taught him some stuff that made him better. and I also agree that there simply arent any "lock-down" defenders in this league anymore. Bowen has to play cheap to keep his defense going, Artest simply doesnt bring it EVERY night, sure he is a awesome defender when he is motivated, but I just dont see the motivation in him as much anymore. Ive seen too many ppl get right by Camby for him to be the DPOY, imo it should take more than just blocks and rebounds to decide the award. I can't think of any other player than Shane Battier that is as important to his team's (Top 5) defense and never takes a play off.
As a huge Shane fan I love his "everyman" style where he does all the little, unflashy stuff and without being dirty. I actually imitate him somewhat by taking charges when I play (even pick-up games where they're only occasionally called) and just trying to lock down my man while also rotating to help (I can't shoot the corner 3 as well though ). Anyway, I appreciate his bringing his A-game every game. I just wanted to say that he can be one of the best 1-on-1 defenders but it does depend on the other guy's style. He did amazingly against Kobe Sunday (though usually he doesn't do quite that well) and does relatively great against the Joe Johnson's, Mike Dunleavy's, Peja's and pretty well against the Manu's, Carmelo's, JHo's, and Lebron's. I've seen him struggles with Harpring (I agree with the earlier poster in this thread) and Artest. In other words, he does well against almost all SG/SF's except only decently on the quickest drivers (unless he knows he has baseline help like against Kobe Sunday) and poorly against the most physical types because he's not strong enough to keep them from backing him down or pushing past him on the drive without fouling. Anyway, those cases where he doesn't match up as well are fortunately rare. And, of course, this is just his individual D, the help D, leadership, and effort are always excellent and beneficial. I don't think we can or need to game plan for Paul Pierce tonight as we did against Kobe, but I think of him as the type of guy Battier can do pretty well against. Last night (I assume Bowen was guarding him) PP got 22 pts on 8/13 shooting. Battier will keep his FG% much lower than that though he may score more if he shoots a lot more. With that in mind, if we can get at least some offense rolling and Rafer/BJ stick on their men which I think they can do, we should prevail. Who's your daddy??
great point you bring up... that's why i'm feeling great about this game.. with ray allen out, if we can jump on them early like the spurs did last night we'll have a good chance...
Garnett will most likely get DPOY, unless we surpass Boston in defensive ranking at the end of the season. Thinking from the viewpoint of the voters, Boston is the best defensive team, and Garnett is their best defensive player. Who else is more deserving? And it's not like Garnett has not got the reputation of a great defensive player already. Battier deserves serious consideration. But my bet is on Garnett. Anyway, if either team can score more than 85 tonight, it will be a miracle.
How much better do you think Denver's defense was last year when Camby won the award? Statistics like rebounding and blocked shots are clearly considered most heavily based on past winners. Steals are also considered to an extent. However, the leader in steals has rarely won the award. Over the last quarter century, the vast majority of winners have been big men. Over the last decade, only Artest was an exception to that rule. Bruce Bowen has never won it despite all the hype he gets for his defensive abilities. The reality is that Battier will not likely win Defensive Player of the Year at any point in his career even though many of us believe he deserves it. The only way he would have a chance is if voters changed their criteria for choosing a winner - something that is unlikely to happen during Battier's career. Having said all that, it is a travesty that Battier has never even made an All-Defensive Second Team.
You have to wonder how the change in coach, coaching staff, the system, and the players added to the Rocks have impacted Shane's defense. He's improved during the course of the season, which happens to coincide with the improvement of Scola and Landry exploding on the court. (try not to imagine bits of Carl all over the place, OK? ) Rafer, who was a solid team defender last year for Van Gundy, is even better this year and has, imo, really improved his man defense, along with the rest of his game. I think Adelman and his staff have taken the excellent defense instilled by Jeff and added their own layers to it. That's reflected in Battier's play and the overall play of the team. The Streak just magnifies it.
My friend who's a sports writer here (Tucson, Az) said that the Rockets secret is that they were illegally using amateur players and posing them off as professionals. He said that David Stern wants to conduct some drug tests and get to the bottom of this.
Marcus Camby won last year under similar circumstances. There are 2 arguments...one, that Denver plays so little defense in general and such a high paced game that Camby has more opportunities to get blocks and rebounds, so his numbers are inflated. But you could have VERY VERY easily made the same argument, offensively, for Steve Nash, and he's won 2 MVPs. Alternatively, you could argue, as bad as Denver's defense is generally, the fact that Camby is back there as somewhat of a saving force makes him all that much more important defensively....whereas someone like KG may benefit from the fact that the rest of his team is so sound defensively. Whatever the case, while you can definitely argue KG is the better man defender, and his team is definitely a better defensive team, Camby clearly has the superior defensive statistics. And Caron Butler has played great defense this year, afaik
What doesn't show up necessarily in the stats is how Shane not only locks his guy down to a certain extent, but he doesn't let, say, someone like Lebron, become a passer in the lane as he'd like to and is used to and what is the basis of a team like the Cavs' offense; because Shane doesn't need much help guarding his man, even if his man scores his average of points, it will have been done with they guy missing more shots than normal, and, he won't have anyone wide-open to pass to during the game. That's what I've noticed, at least during the streak.
OTOH, Golden State scores the most points and Baron Davis is their best offensive player, but I wouldn't vote him as MVP or Offensive Player of the Year (if such award existed). I just think the only reason Camby won't win this year is because he won last year. I know his team isn't great defensively, but he won in spite of that last year, and he is great defensively. And his stats, especially in the 2 key categories for a big man (defensive rebounding and blocked shots) are considerably greater than KG's....
the way they vote on awards in the nba can be annoying sometimes. i know the other poster probably wasn't advocating it, but the logic of "the best defender on the best defensive team should win dpoy" really has been applied in the past to a large extent. and i have a problem with that kinda approach. the purpose of playing defense is to make the opponent either miss a shot or score on low efficiency throughout the game. grabbing rebounds, stealing the ball, blocking a shot, etc. are merely different means to achieve that purpose. getting a hand in the shooter's face (like what battier does all the time), intimidating someone attempting a layup in the drive and causing him to miss (something duncan and yao do all the time), taking a charge, among others, are also means of getting the same result. but these don't show up on the stat sheets. and those "non-stat" actions (per se) are hardly considered enough in the voting process. it can also be difficult to consider as well, since that will require the voters to watch a ton of real games of players on all teams - something i doubt those who actually have the voting power do for a full season. the result? well, for example, ben wallace has won dopy multiple times while duncan has none. same goes to mvp voting process. under the current rationale, shall we just pick the #1 regular season team and give the mvp award to the best player on that team? if so, why vote; a 20-year old computer can get it done.
Easy,I usually am on the same page with your posts,but I wanted to add something here that is a dealbreaker between KG...He gets the advantage of playing in the weak east on a team with some pretty savvy,talented veterans...Also,not much size over there at all.
