NBA Season 2014-2015

[Jay]

I can't ever recall an MVP race being this close, but after hours of research and splitting hairs, I think I've finally found my MVP...
*insert drum roll here*

Jay's 2014-15 NBA Season Awards Ballot

Most Valuable Player

5th place: LeBron James
As usual, he's had a great season going to a team where the next two best players had never made the playoffs, he led them to the #2 seed. And the team he left last season, didn't even make the playoffs. 3rd in points, 7th in assists, 6th in PER, 8th in Offensive Win Shares and 4th in Real Plus Minus - he had a great season but just because we're used to it, he has probably been a little underrated. He's also elevated Irving to one of the best offensive players in the league and revitalized the career of JR Smith, and turned Mosgov into a really solid player. The only reason he isn't higher up on this list is because he took 2 weeks off during the season - if any of the other candidates did the same I think they could have put up a similar stat line to LBJ.

4th place: Anthony Davis
The only player in NBA history to have a PER of 30 or more at only 22 years of age. Putting up stats of 24.4 points @ 54%  shooting, 10.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.9 blocks. Kareem, Hakeem and David Robinson are the only guys ever to put up that stat line. Its scary to think that he hasn't even hit his prime yet. He single handedly led the Pelicans to the playoffs with average team-mates and a below average coach. His unique combination of efficient offense and shot blocking I don't think has ever been seen before, and as early next season I think he can take the mantle as the best player in the world. The reason I have him above LeBron is because if you give him Irving and Kevin Love, I think this team would be just as good, if not better than the Cavs. Davis has done more with less. He did only play 68 games though, which makes him a notch below my top 3.

3rd place: Steph Curry
Easily the best player on a team that won 67 games. He's had one of the best offensive seasons for a guard in a long time, he's the best shooter to ever live and an absolute wizard with the ball. He makes top notch defenders look like absolute fools, I've never seen anything like it. The advanced stats absolutely love him because of his efficiency and the drastic difference he makes when he's on the court. He leads the league in ESPN's Real Plus Minus stat, is 3rd in PER, 3rd in Win Shares, 2nd in Box Plus Minus, 1st in Value over Replacement Player, 4th in True Shooting %, 2nd in Effective Field Goal %. And in the more traditional stats, he's 6th in points, 6th in assists and 4th in steals. Whichever way you look at it, he dominates opponents and is the engine behind the 2nd best offense in the league. This Warriors team is historically good, but what I find fascinating is that when Curry's on the bench, they actually get outscored... Just think about this, the best regular season team we've seen since the MJ Bulls gets outscored when Curry isn't playing - that's how much of a difference he makes. The only reason I have him slightly behind the next two guys is because he has an elite defensive team, a great coach and another elite scorer in Klay Thompson - I think if you replace Curry with an average player they'd still be very good. But seriously, he'll probably win the MVP and it's well deserved.

2nd place: James Harden
I can't believe that the incredible season Harden has had doesn't even get him the MVP, he's been incredible. Did you know that only 1 other Rocket had a 30 point game this season? He carried a team with Trevor Ariza as the 2nd most productive player (Dwight only played 41 games) to the #2 seed in the brutal western conference. The Rocket who was 2nd to Harden on the team in Usage was Josh Smith... Seriously, how does that team win 56 games? The answer is James Harden. His stat line was 27.4 points, 7.0 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 26.7 PER. The only other players to ever do that are Bird, MJ, LeBron, Wade and Westbrook - not bad company. If you put Harden on the Sacremento Kings, you have a team just as good, if not better than the Houston Rockets - so I think he's been worth like 30 wins this year, its incredible. Houston are nothing without him and he well and truly deserves the award if it comes to him.

1st place: Chris Paul
Bet you didn't see this coming, but people don't realise how good CP3 has been this season - by far his best year as a Clipper. His stat line was 19.1 points @ 49% shooting, 10.2 assists, 1.9 steals and only 2.3 turnovers. No player ever apart from CP3 has put up those numbers. His assist to turnover ratio of 4.41 is just insane, no one else in the NBA is over 4. He played every single game on a team that won 56 games, coming in at #5 in the league for minutes played. He led the league in assists, 2nd in steals, 5th in PER, 1st in Offensive Win Shares, and 3rd in ESPN's 'Wins Above Replacement'. When CP3 on the court, the Clippers offensive rating is 118.3 - no team in NBA history has had higher. But when CP3 heads to the bench, the Clippers offense ranks second last in the league at 98.4.. Insane, one of the best offenses in recent years is worse than this year's Knicks when Paul goes to the bench. I know that's inflated because of how bad the Clippers bench is but that's not Paul's fault. And that's just his offense, he's also one of the best defensive point guards in the league and has been for years now - and that's what separates him from Harden and Curry, he is elite on both ends of the court. People will probably point to Paul having Blake Griffin as a reason he's had such a good year but Griffin only played 67 games, and when he was out, Paul averaged 21 points, 12 assists and 4 rebounds with shooting splits of 49 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the line. Remember this award is the most valuable player and I don't see anyone who has brought more value to their team than CP3.

[Sideboob Bob]

what are the chances of BOTH the Bulls & GSW to win by over 5.5??

good?? pretty good?? i dont like the lines for either games, GSW sometimes tend to let teams back into the mix when they should be embarrassing them. Bulls Line is ok but rather play it safe.

I reckon its pretty chance! Gsw let teams back in by benching curry in the fourth. Surely you don't even give a team the luxury in the playoffs. And the bulls just rolled the bucks so hope you took it :)

Davis is doing work today. One man show at oracle.

And I have DMC 3rd or 2nd team. He played like prime shaq this year. Duncan was good but not gon be able to do it!

[Jay]

This game is siccckkk

[Sideboob Bob]

Yep crazy game!

Warriors another 10+ point win. They're unbelievable

[Sideboob Bob]

I can't ever recall an MVP race being this close, but after hours of research and splitting hairs, I think I've finally found my MVP...
*insert drum roll here*

Jay's 2014-15 NBA Season Awards Ballot

Most Valuable Player

5th place: LeBron James
As usual, he's had a great season going to a team where the next two best players had never made the playoffs, he led them to the #2 seed. And the team he left last season, didn't even make the playoffs. 3rd in points, 7th in assists, 6th in PER, 8th in Offensive Win Shares and 4th in Real Plus Minus - he had a great season but just because we're used to it, he has probably been a little underrated. He's also elevated Irving to one of the best offensive players in the league and revitalized the career of JR Smith, and turned Mosgov into a really solid player. The only reason he isn't higher up on this list is because he took 2 weeks off during the season - if any of the other candidates did the same I think they could have put up a similar stat line to LBJ.

4th place: Anthony Davis
The only player in NBA history to have a PER of 30 or more at only 22 years of age. Putting up stats of 24.4 points @ 54%  shooting, 10.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.9 blocks. Kareem, Hakeem and David Robinson are the only guys ever to put up that stat line. Its scary to think that he hasn't even hit his prime yet. He single handedly led the Pelicans to the playoffs with average team-mates and a below average coach. His unique combination of efficient offense and shot blocking I don't think has ever been seen before, and as early next season I think he can take the mantle as the best player in the world. The reason I have him above LeBron is because if you give him Irving and Kevin Love, I think this team would be just as good, if not better than the Cavs. Davis has done more with less. He did only play 68 games though, which makes him a notch below my top 3.

3rd place: Steph Curry
Easily the best player on a team that won 67 games. He's had one of the best offensive seasons for a guard in a long time, he's the best shooter to ever live and an absolute wizard with the ball. He makes top notch defenders look like absolute fools, I've never seen anything like it. The advanced stats absolutely love him because of his efficiency and the drastic difference he makes when he's on the court. He leads the league in ESPN's Real Plus Minus stat, is 3rd in PER, 3rd in Win Shares, 2nd in Box Plus Minus, 1st in Value over Replacement Player, 4th in True Shooting %, 2nd in Effective Field Goal %. And in the more traditional stats, he's 6th in points, 6th in assists and 4th in steals. Whichever way you look at it, he dominates opponents and is the engine behind the 2nd best offense in the league. This Warriors team is historically good, but what I find fascinating is that when Curry's on the bench, they actually get outscored... Just think about this, the best regular season team we've seen since the MJ Bulls gets outscored when Curry isn't playing - that's how much of a difference he makes. The only reason I have him slightly behind the next two guys is because he has an elite defensive team, a great coach and another elite scorer in Klay Thompson - I think if you replace Curry with an average player they'd still be very good. But seriously, he'll probably win the MVP and it's well deserved.

2nd place: James Harden
I can't believe that the incredible season Harden has had doesn't even get him the MVP, he's been incredible. Did you know that only 1 other Rocket had a 30 point game this season? He carried a team with Trevor Ariza as the 2nd most productive player (Dwight only played 41 games) to the #2 seed in the brutal western conference. The Rocket who was 2nd to Harden on the team in Usage was Josh Smith... Seriously, how does that team win 56 games? The answer is James Harden. His stat line was 27.4 points, 7.0 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 26.7 PER. The only other players to ever do that are Bird, MJ, LeBron, Wade and Westbrook - not bad company. If you put Harden on the Sacremento Kings, you have a team just as good, if not better than the Houston Rockets - so I think he's been worth like 30 wins this year, its incredible. Houston are nothing without him and he well and truly deserves the award if it comes to him.

1st place: Chris Paul
Bet you didn't see this coming, but people don't realise how good CP3 has been this season - by far his best year as a Clipper. His stat line was 19.1 points @ 49% shooting, 10.2 assists, 1.9 steals and only 2.3 turnovers. No player ever apart from CP3 has put up those numbers. His assist to turnover ratio of 4.41 is just insane, no one else in the NBA is over 4. He played every single game on a team that won 56 games, coming in at #5 in the league for minutes played. He led the league in assists, 2nd in steals, 5th in PER, 1st in Offensive Win Shares, and 3rd in ESPN's 'Wins Above Replacement'. When CP3 on the court, the Clippers offensive rating is 118.3 - no team in NBA history has had higher. But when CP3 heads to the bench, the Clippers offense ranks second last in the league at 98.4.. Insane, one of the best offenses in recent years is worse than this year's Knicks when Paul goes to the bench. I know that's inflated because of how bad the Clippers bench is but that's not Paul's fault. And that's just his offense, he's also one of the best defensive point guards in the league and has been for years now - and that's what separates him from Harden and Curry, he is elite on both ends of the court. People will probably point to Paul having Blake Griffin as a reason he's had such a good year but Griffin only played 67 games, and when he was out, Paul averaged 21 points, 12 assists and 4 rebounds with shooting splits of 49 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the line. Remember this award is the most valuable player and I don't see anyone who has brought more value to their team than CP3.

oooooh CP3!

[Jay]

Yep crazy game!

Warriors another 10+ point win. They're unbelievable

Gotta feeling that Pels will force their way back to the Oracle this series.

[R.Griffen]

The only issue I have with Pels just winning a game is, at some stage in each and every match Golden State catch fire. Yesterday's game 2 for anyone who watched it will notice it was a Draymond Green 3 pointer that got the team on a run. Shots started coming from everywhere and it opened up a quick lead in what was a tight game.

I just don't see Pels especially them stopping the Warriors when they start knocking everything down as when the big shots needed to be made last night Gordon, Evans both missed huge 3 point opportunitys to put pressure back on Golden State.

4-1 from here

Not every night Gordon and Norris Cole of all players are going to dominate for a certain period of the game

[Jay]

Wow that foul on Bradley was a horrible call. Penalised for playing top notch defense ::) just because he makes a shot contested, doesn't mean there was contact...

Hopefully we bring Crowder in for Turner for the last 2.5 minutes.

[Jay]

Oh damn :( Boston played their asses off today.

[R.Griffen]

Wow that foul on Bradley was a horrible call. Penalised for playing top notch defense ::) just because he makes a shot contested, doesn't mean there was contact...

Hopefully we bring Crowder in for Turner for the last 2.5 minutes.

I know, didn't make the slighest contact on the shot

As much as I hate to say it James dominated in the second half

James post game "I've had 11 turnovers in 2 games that's 5 and a half a game" wow he can count

[My Chumps]

Has anyone got a good link to stream the games? The one I usually use has gone AWOL  :-X

[Sideboob Bob]

Not every night Gordon and Norris Cole of all players are going to dominate for a certain period of the game

good call.

Oh damn :( Boston played their asses off today.

Boston did play well. Stevens is a great coach.

Has anyone got a good link to stream the games? The one I usually use has gone AWOL  :-X

Dont know how much you know about/use reddit, but in r/nba (nba subreddit) someone posts a link to a HD stream, always good quality.

[Jay]

Can I change my pick to Houston? :P

Dallas are no chance.. Don't have the defense on the frontline apart from Tyson Chandler and Dirk seems like he's done.

[My Chumps]

Has anyone got a good link to stream the games? The one I usually use has gone AWOL  :-X

Dont know how much you know about/use reddit, but in r/nba (nba subreddit) someone posts a link to a HD stream, always good quality.

Sweet, cheers dude

[jvalles69]

Has anyone got a good link to stream the games? The one I usually use has gone AWOL  :-X

Dont know how much you know about/use reddit, but in r/nba (nba subreddit) someone posts a link to a HD stream, always good quality.

Sweet, cheers dude

Can watch the games live on Sportsbet.