Ric Bucher on ROY race

[THE HCP]

Bucher-

I like drama as much as anyone, but there isn't any to be found in this year's Rookie of the Year race. At least

not based on what I've seen both firsthand and on TV of Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis. Forget statistics, for a moment; whatever success the Trail Blazers have had this season -- and it has been appreciably more than the Hornets -- Lillard has had a direct hand in, and on, it. Davis, for all his tremendous potential, remains a complementary player for long stretches and there were times in Wednesday's game vs. the Warriors I had to search for him on the floor because his presence was not obvious. To be fair, I was told by someone in the New Orleans' organization that the 6pt, 9reb effort (2 for 11 shooting) might've been his worst performance of the season; fair enough. It still would be a major miscarriage of justice to reward Davis for an eye-catching 10-12 game stretch over Lillard, who has been integral for the Blazers all season long. That Davis averages more points and rebounds in losses than wins doesn't help his case, especially when every one of Lillard's basic stats is higher in wins than losses, except for turnovers and blocked shots. Bradley Beal being out for the rest of the season (stress fracture) eliminates his chance of jumping past Davis on my ballot, but that might be it for any uncertainty about my three choices and their order. As much as I'd like to give some love to Alexey Shved, Mo Harkless, Dion Waiters, Harrison Barnes or Andre Drummond, they simply weren't directly instrumental in enough wins or played enough games to vault what I saw from Lillard, Davis and Beal. I suppose if anyone has a chance to impact my ballot it is Barnes with a few performances that preserve the sixth seed for the Warriors, but he'd reeeeeally have to do something special.


Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!

 

[NOVoodoo]

Ric's stating the obvious here.

You know there'll still be some hipster douchebag writers that'll try to make a point and vote for someone like Beal, Davis, or Drummond though, just like when P.J. Brown got votes for the All-NBA teams.

At the end of the day though, these things are clear -

MVP - LeBron James
ROY - Damian Lillard

Every other award can be debated, but those two are pretty locked in and rock solid.

 

[Natebishop3]

I think this is a good opportunity to laugh at the following people:

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview2012/story/_/id/8517262/2012-13-nba-predictions-rookie-year

Marc Stein
J.A. Adande
John Hollinger
Chris Broussard
Chad Ford
Israel Gutierrez (whoever the fuck that is)
Michael Wallace (whoever the fuck that is)
Jackie MacMullan (whoever the fuck that is)
Henry Abbott (Traitor!)
Chris Palmer
Larry Coon (Stick to the CBA noob!)
Royce Webb (the rapper?)
Tom Haberstroh (now they're just making up names)
Dr. Jack Ramsay (you broke my heart Dr. Jack)
Adry Torres
Bruce Bowen
Maurice Brooks
Adena Andrews
Arash Markazi
Chris Ramsay
Scoop Jackson
Tim MacMahon
Chris Forsberg (the hockey player?)
Ian Begley

Props to the following people for picking Dame:

David Thorpe
Brian Windhorst
Kevin Arnovitz
Tim Legler
R. Shelburne
Beckley Mason
Keith Lipscomb
Dave McMenamin
Nick Friedell
Justin Verrier
Mike Mazzeo

 

[BrianFromWA]

That's ironic, because Thorpe seems to have been going out of his way this year to hype Davis as "really being a contender".

Jackie Mac really knows her stuff, but only when it comes to the East Coast (she's Boston, iirc).
Israel Gutierrez became known while hyping the LeBron-to-the-Heat angle for the Miami Herald, then got guest gigs on Around the Horn/etc.
Same with Haberstroh. He's basically a Golliver/Quick hybrid that works for ESPN covering the Heatles.
Dr. Jack is mostly senile anyway.
Abbott's been a reverse homer since before Oden was drafted. Zero...ZERO surprise there.

 

[NOVoodoo]

I don't understand why ya'll are reacting so adversely towards some sports writers that predicted the #1 pick will win ROY, in OCTOBER.

I'd like to meet the Blazers fan that thought, pre-draft, Damian Lillard would be this year's ROY.

I'm a college basketball diehard. I knew all about Lillard, but even I didn't think he'd rise to be the ROY of this class. That's no disrespect to his game, that's just an amalgamation of putting too much trust in other players, underselling circumstances, etc.

At the end of the day, all of those analysts predicting a different ROY in OCTOBER is a non-story.

What are we going to do next, put all of the analysts that had Durant as MVP on blast?

 

[julius]

Nate, you call yourself an NBA fan and you don't know who Jackie MacMullan is? How can anyone who watched more than 3 minutes of ESPN in the 90's and early 2000's not know who she is?

 

[THE HCP]

^THAT WAS A CHIC!?


Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!

 

[Rhal]

This is my ESPN comment right after Thorpe wrote his last column trying to advocate that there was in fact a race.

This isn't a race, infact the RoY race has been over for awhile. NBA.Com knows that but "Thorpe" wants to stir up controversy were there is none.
Go look at NBA.com and you'll see this
Lillard's rookie season can be put into perspective by a few comparisons. First, with the past: Lillard is the fastest player to 1,200 points and 400 assists (64 games) since Allen Iverson in 1996-97. And second, with the present: Lillard is currently one of six players this season with at least 1,300 points and 400 assists. The others? Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. That's some good company, past and present.
Add that to the fact that he is 3 threes away from breaking the all time 3's made as a rookie with 10 games left is astounding.
Here are a few more facts about Lillard
became the first NBA player to record 1,000 points and 300 assists in his first 55 career games since LeBron James did it (2003-04)
Lillard is the only player in NBA history to score 900-plus points and make 100-plus 3-pointers in his first 50 career games.
Damian Lillard is first NBA rookie to ever record 35 points, nine assists and no turnovers since turnovers became a stat in 1978-79 (Elias).
Only 4 rookies have ever averaged what Lillard is averaging (19pts 6.5 assists http://bkref.com/tiny/xZM1P
) and thats Damon stoudamrie/Oscar robertson/Allen Iverson/Damien Lillard.
The race is over and has been, anyone who thinks otherwise has no clue what they are talking about

 

[PapaG]

Ric's stating the obvious here.

You know there'll still be some hipster douchebag writers that'll try to make a point and vote for someone like Beal, Davis, or Drummond though, just like when P.J. Brown got votes for the All-NBA teams.

At the end of the day though, these things are clear -

MVP - LeBron James
ROY - Damian Lillard

Every other award can be debated, but those two are pretty locked in and rock solid.

Brook Lopez as Comeback Player of the Year seems like a near lock, too.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I don't understand why ya'll are reacting so adversely towards some sports writers that predicted the #1 pick will win ROY, in OCTOBER.

I'd like to meet the Blazers fan that thought, pre-draft, Damian Lillard would be this year's ROY.

I'm a college basketball diehard. I knew all about Lillard, but even I didn't think he'd rise to be the ROY of this class. That's no disrespect to his game, that's just an amalgamation of putting too much trust in other players, underselling circumstances, etc.

At the end of the day, all of those analysts predicting a different ROY in OCTOBER is a non-story.

What are we going to do next, put all of the analysts that had Durant as MVP on blast?

Pre-draft you would be correct. Post Summer league/ October.........I think a lot of us thought his chance of being ROY were high based on how he looked in Vegas and the fact we knew he would be given the keys to the car with the opportunity to put up big numbers. Lots of minutes and lots of shots.

 

[Natebishop3]

Pre-draft you would be correct. Post Summer league/ October.........I think a lot of us thought his chance of being ROY were high based on how he looked in Vegas and the fact we knew he would be given the keys to the car with the opportunity to put up big numbers. Lots of minutes and lots of shots.

Exactly. There were a number of us who thought he had a legit shot at the ROY after watching him in SL. I think most of us thought it was going to be a good race between Dame and Davis. Of course, nobody could predict how fragile Davis would be, or how many games he would miss, but I personally thought that Dame would get it because he's a starting point guard on a bad team. He's going to get more shots, more numbers, etc.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Here's how you predict ROY:
1. Pick a player who will get big minutes, usually because his team sucks (or sucks at his position, at least)
2. Favor guards, because they don't have to rely on getting the ball from somebody else, and if they hog the ball their stats will look good
3. Favor older rookies.

MANY people picked Brandon Roy for ROY, even though none of them thought he should've been picked in the top three.

 

[maxiep]

I didn't think Lillard would be so good in Summer League.

I didn't think Lillard would have the same success in the regular season he had in Summer League.

I didn't think Lillard could sustain his performance all year, that he would hit the rookie wall.

I guess I didn't think. Lillard has surpassed my expectations every step of the way.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

I expected all of this.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I expected all of this.

I expected that you expected.

 

[HailBlazers]

I knew

 

[PapaG]

I called it!!!! :MARIS61:

 

[KeepOnRollin]

We all called it except for Fez, Blaze01, and Ed O eh?

I think a lot of us defended him against those who didn't want to draft him but I don't see anyone who thought he would be quite what he is this early.

Some said decent chance of Rookie of the Year but not with these numbers (and maybe more importantly not with this poise).

 

[3RA1N1AC]

i had high hopes, and he blew them all away

thats pretty fucking amazing

 

[Mediocre Man]

5 in a row