Note: This article was contributed by the boy David Andrew Power aka Yung DAP.

MVP (Most Valuable Player)
Steve Nash
Straight to the point, I do not think this award can go to anyone else. It has been proven that when Nash does not play, the Suns rarely win. This year the Suns went 2-4 without Steve Nash in the line up, (0.33 winning percentage) but with him in the line up they have a record of 59 wins and 17 losses (winning percentage of 0.744). Nash is averaging 11.6 assists per game which is the highest output of his career, better then both his MVP years, and he’s also averaging 18.6 point per game, his second highest output in his career. The main argument is he just makes everyone around him better, the team gets easy buckets because of his ability to see the floor, as well as the fact that if you try to limit his passing abilities by trying to take away to passing lanes he can burn you with his .532 field goal percentage, (15th in the NBA/first among guards), as well as his .455 3-point shooting percentage (2nd in the NBA). As well as putting up these incredible numbers in team wins and individual categories, Steve Nash is also easily one of the most clutch players in the NBA. When the going gets rough, Nash gets scoring. Although the Suns are not involved in very many close games, when they are there is no doubt who will have the ball, having experienced this live when the Phoenix Suns strolled into Toronto and seeing Steve come down and hit a pull up 3 pointer on the break and then a ridiculous fade away to seal the deal. An odd occurrence is to hear Canadians “boo” Steve Nash since he is obviously a fan favorite, but on this night as he was getting Vince Carter type boo’s in Toronto, not out of hatred but out of total frustration that he was killing the Raptors. When it comes down to it, Steve Nash makes the Phoenix Suns tick and is undeniably the MVP of the league for the 3rd consecutive year.


Runners Up
Dirk Nowitzki
Tracy McGradyROY (Rookie of the Year)
Brandon Roy
This is an easy pick as Brandon Roy (8th pick out of Washington as a Senior) was put into a team where he was arguably the best all around player right away with the Portland “Mary Jane” Trailblazers. He averaged 35.3 minutes per game and 16.7 point per game, both easily highest among rookies (almost 5 points higher than any other rookie). He also averaged 4.0 assists per game. The argument at the beginning of the year was that Brandon Roy was the most NBA ready player in the draft, which has been proven. He unfortunately went down with an injury at the beginning of the season which could have hurt his chances of winning ROY, but came back and had a successful season, statistically. Brandon is a complete player showing this year that the Portland Trailblazers are headed in the right direction and he could be a key piece in the possibility of the Trailblazers making the playoffs in a couple of years. The team went from a 21 wins and 61 losses record in the 05-06 season to a 32 wins and 49 loses record this year, with one game remaining. This eleven game improvement upon last season is a great sign. Brandon wins this award by a landslide as it was easily proven that he was the most NBA ready player in the draft. Look for steady improvement in the team and his game over the next three years. As well to note, Blake picked this pre season for ROY.

Runners Up
Rudy Gay – if he only would have got the minutes. And let me be the first to say that Jerry West only believing Rudy Gay is a “good” player and won’t be a star is just plain ignant. Probably the best college player ever!
Andrea Bargnani – Dirk Nowitzki clone with a serious stroke, you almost want to cry when you see just how beautiful he is…his shot, too.

MIP (Most Improved Player)
Deron Williams
Deron dropped 15 pounds in the offseason amidst criticism that he was lazy and unmotivated, and it paid off in spades. Increased his point output by 5.6 points per game (10.8 to 16.4) playing almost 9 more minutes a game (28.8 to 37.1), but what I think is most important is his assists count went up from 4.5 per game to 9.4 per game, which sits him second in the NBA behind the MVP Steve Nash. It seemed last year that Deron was a bust as the third pick in the NBA draft. This has been a serious break out year, proving all the “haters” including myself for being picked so high. He has some serious talent, he went from someone who was behind the shadows to a top 20 MVP candidate. He put out more assists than Jason Kidd, who will most definitely be in the Hall of Fame. I think this award can only go to Deron, with his emergence as well the emergence of the Utah Jazz, as they have become a serious force in the West and a team that I would not be looking forward to playing in the first round or second. They could potentially bust one of the top 4 teams in the West. Aside from that, the next best would be Kevin Martin who has dramatically improved his game as well, but not to the point of Deron. By increasing his skills and improving so much he has made the Utah Jazz lethal and given them a pretty good filler at the point for a team that has been known to have a great point guard in the past in John Stockton. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, the new Malone and Stockton, I don’t know but I am willing to bet they make it to a couple championships if kept together.

Runners Up
Kevin Martin
Anthony Parker – someone I thought should have been up for this award all year, showing what a player who was really a nobody in the NBA can do after a couple years in Israel. With a couple Euroleague MVP’s and 5 Israeli Championships under his belt, Parker is a force. Check out this video if you really want to see how important and amazing he was in Israel

Defensive Player of the Year
Marcus Camby
Not to much to argue with here, most blocks per game with 3.3, 5th in rebounds with 11.7, and he grabbed 1.3 steals per game. I like to think blocks and steals are not what makes a good defender, keeping in front of your guy and sending him to help are things I think make a great defender, but you cannot argue with a guy who just erases shots as well as doing the little things. He just comes out of nowhere on help side defense and blocks shots, it’s just become a natural reaction for him. Marcus has always been a good defender in the NBA, but he has always been injured, however, this year will mark a career high in games. The Nuggets are an awful defensive team. This is where my point of stats don’t make a great defender comes in, because someone like Allen Iverson who can get steals and has actually been up for this award is not a great defender, he cheats and tries to snipe the passing lanes which is a gamble because when you miss you leave someone open. Back to the point that the Nuggets are an awful defending team with the likes of Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith and the already mentioned Allen Iverson, all who cheat on defense and gamble. Although they are awful, you cannot blame Camby, as he must have saved them many times this year. In a stretch of 3 games he had 7, 7, and then 9 blocks at one point. All three were close, meaning Marcus probably saved them three games just right there. So not only is Marcus a great defender and deserving of Defensive Player of the Year, he is a winner and a team saver in the case of the Denver Nuggets, I would even stretch to say he could be the MVP of the Denver Nuggets.

Runners Up
Emeka Okafor – just a great defender, an eraser, and hopefully can stay healthy for a year.
Shawn Marion – an incredible athlete, just a freak, can block shots from the help side and defend with the best of them, although I would argue Raja Bell is a better defender against guards, Shawn can defend against anyone, very versatile on the defensive end.

Coach of the Year
Sam Mitchell
Although many analyst would argue that Jerry Sloan or Van Gundy should win this award, I would have to strongly disagree. Sam had nine new guys come into his system this year, so he had to totally revamp his team. He had to work with nine new players and introduce them to his system which may suggest why the team got off to a 2-8 start. If the Raptors even go .500 for those games you are looking at the Eastern Conference Champions possibly, but that’s beside the point. Two of these players for sure did not totally understand English when they first came over, so that is something Sam had to work with obviously right away. Yes, Sam was gifted with some players who are winners at different levels in Parker, Nesterovic, and Garbajosa. He has put in a system which works, most players in the NBA even say the Raptors don’t run anything special, usually just the high pick a roll and let the point guards make the decision which makes this even more special for the fact that everyone knows what is coming, but the players now have it down to a science because of all the hard work enslaved on them to make it right. As most of us know, Sam is a gritty guy, as when watching the games you can hear him getting on the players and using some profanity. He expects the best from all of his players and it seems he has gotten the best out of everyone. Every single person on the Raptors is ready to perform when called on; we can go 10 deep because Sam has made sure his players are ready at all time. Something people also need to look at it how much credit Chris Bosh gives to Sam for making him into the player he is. He works his bench like a puzzle putting the right pieces in when needed. Kris Humphries is a prime example as he did not get many minutes when he was in Utah and now he is playing sufficient minutes for us and Sam has him getting after it. Kris knows what he needs to do to play and Sam has enforced that on him. But in all Sam has done the best job with the young stud Bargnani. We have all seen him play, we know he can shoot and just plain score. But Sam eased him into the NBA game, he has been marvelous for us off the bench filling up the scoreboard with points as soon as he comes in – he is definitely a spark guy for us. I don’t know if anyone remembers this but about half way through the season Sam would put Andrea in and when he had a shot or a chance to shoot and didn’t Sam would be all over him telling him to “shoot the ****** ball.” He has made a young influential mind not afraid of anything, Andrea should shoot whenever he has the ball and is open and can create, and Sam once again has put that confidence into his young star and he has flourished. I could go on forever about all the players but I need to get to the fact that the Raptors winning total is such an increase from last year where they won only 27 games, the Raptors have won 47 games this year, which is a 21 games better then last year as well as tying franchise record. The best thing about this team is that Sam has prepared them for the future as I would expect them and Chicago, in a couple of years, to be the tops of the conference as Detroit gets older. Hands down Sam Mitchell deserves this award and a little thing called a new contract from BC for the tremendous job he has done with this young and talented team. Sam Mitchell folks, your coach of the year.

On a side note Sam has also been dealing with the fact that Colangelo wanted to bring in a new coach all year.

Runners Up
Jeff Van Gundy – great job with Houston since Yao was out for some serious time.
Avery Johnson – Just because Dallas has had an incredible year with a record of 66-15.

Note: This has to be said. Jerry Sloan should not win this award, he has all-stars in Boozer, Okur, AK47 (past all star), and a future all star in Deron Williams. Actually the only thing that should give him consideration is the work he has actually done with Deron to produce a great NBA player.

6th Man
Jerry Stackhouse
Mr. Stackhouse, a former all star, a guy who can fill it up, who can play some gritty defense, and is on the best team in basketball. I think the race for 6th man is going to come down to Stackhouse and Barbosa, but the fact that Dallas is the best team in the NBA and everyone knows Jerry is capable of being a starter on most NBA teams is a tipping point. He can bring his great jump shot and ability to score onto the floor whenever Avery Johnson needs someone to put up some numbers. A guy not afraid to take the shot if its on the line and is willing to do whatever it takes to win, as I’m quite sure he could start for the Mavericks but has never once complained, instead he has thrived off the bench. Putting up 12 points a game, he is instant offense, and as well being a great free throw shooter at 85%. He is also a great crunch time player, providing instant offense at the end of the game is a great added feature that Jerry Stackhouse has given Avery Johnson and the Dallas Mavericks.

Runners Up
Leandro Barbosa – get him out of Phoenix so he can become a serious scorer in the NBA.
Andrea Bargnani – instant offense, shoots 3’s with ease, the game just comes to him easy.

Executive of the Year
Bryan Colangelo
Anthony Parker, Jorge Garbajosa, Rasho Nesterovic, Kris Humphries, Juan Dixon, Andrea Bargnani, TJ Ford, Luke Jackson (Sam I hope he gets a lot better like you think he will, cause I was a big college fan). yeah, so all of the above is why he is executive of the year. Oh, and because he brought over Maurizio.

Runners Up
NOT EVEN CLOSE

ALL NBA 1st TEAM
Steve Nash
Kobe Bryant
Dirk Nowitzki
Tim Duncan
Amare Stoudemire

ALL NBA 2nd TEAM
Chauncey Billups
Tracy McGrady
Lebron James
Chris Bosh
Carlos Boozer

ALL NBA 3rd Team
Deron Williams
Gilbert Arenas
Carmelo Anthony
Josh Howard
Dwight Howard

ALL DEFENSIVE 1st TEAM
Kirk Hinrich
Kobe Bryant
Gerald Wallace
Emeka Okafor
Marcus Camby

ALL DEFENSIVE 2nd TEAM
Jason Kidd
Anthony Parker
Shawn Marion
Elton Brand
Jermaine O’Neal

ALL ROOKIE TEAM
Brandon Roy
Walter Herrmann
Rudy Gay
Jorge Garbajosa
Andrea Bagnani

Sportsmanship Award
Anthony Parker
Anthony Parker is the man, I spent a lot of time this morning watching videos of him on YouTube. The guy was loved so much in the Israeli league. He will go down as one of the best players to ever play in the Euro League. He is a loving father and husband, obviously I would know. I remember Leo talking to him to see how he liked the Sunday afternoon games and he said he loves them because he gets to spend the night at home with his wife and children because they don’t usually play Saturday night if they play Sunday afternoon. You can just tell though, this guy goes after it all night, he leaves it all on the floor and should get more respect for his game because he is a great player. I think the sportsmanship comes from being over in Euro league where whenever he dunked they would hug him and kiss him like when you score a goal in soccer over there. So he has learned to do that, it was once rumored that AP kissed Chris Bosh after a dunk, to say the least “he loved it”, just kidding. AP is a great cat and as it seems, one of the highest regarded individuals in the league. If I could ever play in the NBA I would want to be the type of player he is and will love to be watching him in a Raptors uniform for years to come, hopefully.

Runners Up
Rasheed Wallace
Joey Crawford

Citizenship Award
Rudy Gay
He hasn’t won any awards for me yet but he was close in the runner up for MVP as well as Defensive Player of the Year, and I know I wrote it wasn’t even close but he was next in the running for executive of the year as well. The guy is just that good, he pretty much has to get the citizenship award, just on the fact that he is the greatest. I reiterate, Jerry West is a bum for saying that Rudy Gay is only “good” and doesn’t have star potential, what a brainless buffoon, no wonder he is getting out on July 1, he is now too old when he says something like that. So he’s going to mess up Memphis for one more year, he’s going to draft Bow Wow with the first overall pick because they need some instant classics, and who makes it hotter than Bow Wow? Nobody! Rudy Gay for President and MVP (3 years away).

Runners Up
Chris Henry – letting little kids drink, obviously the best citizen, everyone needs a drink sometime.
Charles Oakley – “Why did you punch Tyronne Lue in the face?”, Oakley “Tyronne Lue knows why he got punched in the face!”

Peace,

This is Dave Power