It's that time of the year again.  Mookie from A Stern Warning and editor of the Bloguin NBA collaborative blog NBA Baseline tabulated this edition's results.  Make sure to check out the Mid March Edition HERE. 

As usual, here are my totally awesome votes and commentary:

MVP:

1 - LeBron: The season is almost over, and I still can't think of a reason as to why he wouldn't be first.

2 - Kevin Durantula: He very well could lead the league in scoring, and really, he does it all.  The Thunder might have home-court advantage in the playoffs, in the West.  That's just sick.

3 - Dwight Howard: I don't feel like he's getting any love from anyone this year... media or bloggers. All he's done is lead the league in rebounding and blocks, while scoring almost 20 points per game on the team with the third best overall record.  Chump.

4 - Carmelo: Any other year and he's a legit top MVP candidate with his stats.  This year, bleh, he's just fourth.  But he's still really good.

5 - Dirk: He's not doing it all in terms of Dallas winning so many games; that team is loaded.  But Dirk is definitely the main cog in Big D.

6 - Zach Randolph: Who cares that Memphis isn't going to make the playoffs.  Look at the season he is having!  And he hasn't even gotten kicked out of a strip club yet. 

7 - Kobe: Only because I have to put him on this list somewhere.  Boo Kobe boooooo.

8 - D-Wade: He needs to be liberated from that sad-sack team.  It's gotta be killing him inside each day.

9 - Chris Bosh: Toronto is coming on strong, and he's one of only THREE players averaging at least 20 points and 11 boards on the season.

10 - Chris Kaman: I love me some caveman.

RoY

1 - Tyreke Evans: The LeBron James of rookies.  This dude is ill.

2 - Brandon Jennings: Yes, his shooting percentage has dropped off, but the Bucks are looking to make the playoffs, and Jennings is the gas that makes them go.

3 - Stephen Curry: Do not like him.  Doesn't stop me from admitting he's really good.

4 - Ty Lawson: Doesn't have the best stats because he has decreased minutes compared to everyone else, but this dude is legit.  P.S. The TWolves didn't need him.

5 - Darren Collison/Marcus Thornton: Super Hornets rookie studs!!! Tie vote!  How can I decide between two rookie baller studs on the same team?
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8,912 Jonny Flynn: God he sucks.

After a year long hiatus, I'd like to welcome back the Blogger MVP/ROY Rankings (Bloguin style.)  This greatly excites me, because it was something I used to LOVE to do!  So yeah, it's back. And who doesn't love lists with comments?  Only the heartless, that's who. We've got 22 Bloguin NBA blogs that are able to partake in the festitivies (so far!)  The first edition was pretty light, but I'm sure it will pick up as more of the new bloggers see what is going on.  Without further ado, Don from With Malice...  hosted the First Edition on Bloguin.  Make sure to check it out asap. 

Oh, and feel free to mock me after seeing where my picks stand in relation to the final results. But don't be too mean, it will hurt my very delicate feelings.


MVP:

1 - Lebron James: He might win this award for the next 10 years.  Gonna be pretty tough to take it away from him.
2 - Chris Bosh: Where did this early season statistical surge come from?  He's single-handidly keeping the Raptors alive. Extra credit to Bosh for the acquisition of Hedo being completely overplayed and overrated.
3 - Carmelo Anthony: Grown man business.
4 - Kevin Durant: Half of the USA still doesn't even know who he is.
5 - Dirk: Quietly having another fine season.
6 - D-Wade: (Getting lazy in my old age.)
7 - Kobe: I guess it wouldn't have been fair to leave him off the list entirely.
8 - Danny Granger: (See D-Wade.)
9 - Dwight Howard: (Really no excuse for no comment here.)
10 - Chris Kaman: The Caveman is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!


ROY:

1 - Tyreke Evans: He literally does it all and actually has the Sacto Queens winning games.  I thought they were stupid to pass up Rubio, but Evans is proving any and every detractor wrong.
2 - Brandon Jennings: Has tailed off a bit after a monster ROY-esque start.
3 - Terrance Williams: Where did you come from?  If the Nets had 5 of him playing each position, they would be at least .500 right now.
4 - Stephen Curry: Only because a personal friend would have been furious if I left him off the list.
5 - Jonny Flynn: I want to put him higher since he's the third highest scoring rookie, but its tough when he's a PG and hovering around a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio.

Again: CLICK HERE For the complete results of the First Edition of the Bloguin NBA MVP/ROY Rankings!

Check out the fantastic new Washington Wizards blog, Agent Dagger.  Anyways, he asked fellow NBA bloggers what they thought about the Wizard's prospects for this upcoming NBA season, and I partook in his offer.  You can check out his full post and all the input HERE.

As I said, I participated.  Here was my input:

"The Wizards should have a much better season than last year, but by how much they improve remains to be seen.  Who knows about Arenas, and us Wolves fans know first hand just exactly what assets Foye and Miller will bring to a club (or lack thereof.)  All in all, there is hope in D.C. this season, especially if they can get a few lucky breaks along the way.  And I do think Flip will be a great coach for their squad.

I see them finishing somewhere around 5-6 in the Eastern Conference.  If they get really lucky, maybe 4th."

- I just had to give some love to Foye and Miller.  Or not.

                Who You Got?


Kudos to Don over at "With Malice..." for doing this series for each round of the playoffs.  I will say that I have been pretty awesome to date, except I missed the Cavs pick last round by a mile (I think almost everyone did.)  Anyways, here are the Bloguin predictions for the NBA Champions:

http://with-malice.com/20090604998/articles/nba/who-you-got.html

(Click the link to see how all 10 blogs voted, and read top-notch analysis as well!)

 

Here's what I went with:

Orlando Magic in 7

Just a feeling, I guess.  No one thought they'd beat Cleveland, especially not to advance to the Finals.  The Lakers have struggled at times in the playoffs, and seem to have problems maintaining their intensity and focus.  Pau Gasol has a BRUTAL match-up problem against either Dwight Howard at the 5 or Rashard Lewis at the 4.  Both greatly favor Orlando.  I like what the Magic have done so far, and they seem to be playing as the best team so far these playoffs.

He also asked us to predict the MVP.  Being that I picked the Magic, I had to go with Dwight Howard.

A great piece put together by Sheed over at Bust A Bucket.  I took part in the voting, along with these other esteemed NBA bloggers: Empty The Bench, The Dream Shake, Hornets 24/7, The Lakers Nation, Hoops Addict, Raptors HQ, Rushing To Judgment, The Nats Blog, T-Wolves Blog, 3 Shades of Blue, Curse of Cleveland, Points in the Paint, With Malice, Hoop Heads North, Blue Blitz, A Stern Warning, Blazer's Edge, Need 4 Sheed, The Strap, 2nd Round Reach, Bright Side of the Sun,

Go check it out right now! And seriously, the photoshopped images are just great.  Mad props on them.  The only thing I take issue with is Shaq at #2.  I mean, really?!?!  How can anyone hate Shaq?  That's absurd!  He's one of my most favorite non-TWolf players in the entire league!  Tsk-tsk.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, here's how I voted:

Romy over at Hoop Heads North, put together a great post on the Lesser Known Nicknames of players from around the Association.  It's really quite great, informative, and pretty hilarious.  I highly advise you all to check it out. He got contributions from 20 different bloggers covering 20 different NBA teams, which is really quite impressive!  Again, I can't say enough how entertaining this post is.  I contributed some nicknames for various TWolves players from a Q & A that I did with Romy a few weeks back.  If you missed them the first time around, here they are again:


Ryan Gomes - Ryan "The Barometer" Gomes  (As Gomes go, so do the Wolves. If he is having a good game, there is an equally good chance the Wolves could win on any given night. If he is struggling and not playing well, it usually ends up in a Wolves loss)
Craig Smith - Craig "The Rhino" Smith (I'm not sure how legitimate this nickname is being that he gave it to himself; but everyone refers to him as "The Rhino.")  CW EDIT 3/11/09: I've since been informed by a source inside the Wolves organization that McHale called Smith "Rhino" once inside his office, someone overheard and spread it around.  Great work spreading it around by whomever is responsible... the nickname seems to have legitimately stuck with Smith and is widely accepted.
Corey Brewer - Corey "Turbo" Brewer  (Apparently he looks exactly like a character from a movie (I forget the title) named "Turbo." And honestly, the resemblance is uncanny. Plus, he's really fast and typically looks like he was shot out of a cannon while out on the court.)
Kevin Love - "Da Angry Whopper" Love  (Your guess is as good as mine.)
Calvin Booth - "The Thief"  (Because he's pretty much just stealing paychecks at this point.  This is obviously dated, but still hilarious.  Plus, I see no reason why this nickname wouldn't transfer over to his tenure as a Sacramento King.)


Some of my personal favorite nicknames from the plethora of players that can be found in Romy's article:

Jake Voskuhl - "Jake" (Pictured above)
Alexis Ajinca - "Freedom Fries"
DJ Mbenga - "Congo Cool"
Sean Williams - "SWat"
Tyson Chandler - "Ceiling Fan Repair Man"  (Last season, Jannero Pargo said Tyson Chandler would be a "Ceiling Fan Repair Man" if he wasn't in the NBA.)
Julian Wright - "Giraffe Calf"
Kevin Durant - "Durantula"
Nenad Krstic - "Krispy Nads"
Robin Lopez - "Fropez"
Sam Dalembert - "Sam Dumbert/Dalembum"
Marreese Speights - "Ace of Speights," or "Speighterman"
Joel Przybilla - "The Vanilla Gorilla"
Rudy and Sergio - "The Spanish Armada"
Nicolas Batum - "Batum Goes The Dynamite"
Fabricio Oberto - "O-Beardo"
Oleksiy Pecherov - "Big Oily," or "The White Hole"
Beno Udrih - "Tazmanian Slovenian"

...and this made me literally laugh out loud:

Rashad McCants - "McTenacity"

The Big Diesel vs. The Big Fundamental:
WHO DO YOU LIKE?!?!

 




I recently partook in a friendly roundtable/discussion/essay contest/whatever you want to call it, regarding: "Tim Duncan vs Shaq: Who's the best big man of this generation?" 

The final result was nicely formatted and tabulated by Don over at with malice...  I urge you to check out the responses by these superb NBA bloggers; as everyone makes a convincing argument for their choice in this matter.   Here's what I went with:


CW:  "I honestly don’t think there is a clear cut "right answer" in this situation.  You are probably looking at two of the greatest big men in the past 15 years; so all we are doing is trying to distinguish who is the best, and who is the besterest! 

With that said, my choice goes to The Big Aristot… err, The Big Diesel…, err The Big Cactus.  I don’t think it’s a stretch so that in his prime he was one of the best centers in NBA history, and should be included on most lists as one of the best overall players in NBA history as well.  He was literally unstoppable, due to his extreme body size, and combination of dexterity and agility begetting a man half his size.  Shaq had no business being able to move like he could, considering he has one of the biggest (mass-wise) and strongest (muskles-wise) bodies to ever grace the hardwood. 

Tim Duncan is certainly great in his own right, but whom would you choose in their prime?  I’d take Shaq due to the insane matchup problems he poses to defenders, as well as the fact that O’Neal was a superb defender in his heyday.  Again, Duncan is certainly good, but he’s no Shaq.  The Diesel was made from a different mold.  He’s one of a kind; and of which will probably never be seen again in the NBA.

Lastly, and I know Shaq has played a few more seasons than Duncan, but he still beats him in almost every statistical category over the course of their careers (as of the date I submitted this):

 
- 6,000 more points
- 2,000 more rebounds
- 500 more blocks
- 100 more assists
- 4 more All-Star game appearances
- 1 more steal

Most importantly, they have the same number of Championship titles, which is partly what makes this decision so dang hard in the first place."



Again, CLICK HERE  to read what everyone else has to say in this matter.

Golden St. Warriors
Rob Mahoney: Upside and Motor

LA Clippers
ClipperSteve: Clips Nation

LA Lakers
Kurt: Forum Blue & Gold
Josh Tucker: Respect Kobe
Trevor Smith: HoopsAddict

Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Stan: Bright Side of the Sun

Sacramento Kings
Tom Ziller: Sactown Royalty

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com