Banter's Halftime Awards

We're just about in the middle of the NBA season, with every team at or across the 41-game Halftime threshold. While the All-Star Break won't happen for a few weeks, this is as good a time as any to check up on who's making moves for the league's end-of-season awards. Here are Banter's picks for the first half:

Rookie of the Half: Karl-Anthony Towns

Not even three full months in, the 2015 Draft Class is already looking like a smash. Three of the top four picks are probable-to-certain future All-Stars, and a number of players from all over the board are flashing skills and contributing regularly.

But among all the early hype, Towns has been delivering a rookie season for the books: 15.5/9.5/1.7 in just 29 minutes per game (to contrast, as rookies, Alonzo Mourning averaged 34, Hakeem Olajuwon 35.5, and Tim Duncan just under 40). Towns is a consistent two-way bull who delivers the trifecta of currently-coveted NBA big men skills (floor-running, shooting range and rim protection), while at 85% from the charity stripe is already tied w/ teammate Gorgui Dieng to lead all centers.

Plenty of the names that got called last June sound like they might ring out in years to come, but Towns' already does. Very loudly.

Regards To: Kristaps Porzingis, Jahlil Okafor, D'Angelo Barksdale Russell

All-Rookie Teams
First: G-D'Angelo Russell, G-Devin Booker, F-Kristaps Porzingis, F/C-Jahlil Okafor, C-Karl-Anthony Towns

Second: G-Emmanuel Mudiay, G-Jonathon Simmons, F-Stanley Johnson, F-Bobby Portis, C-Nikola Jokic

Most Improved Player of the Half: CJ McCollum

A lot of guys are making noise for this award, and it's not all from the usual places. Jae Crowder has come semi-out of nowhere to become a highly coveted 3-and-D wing. Draymond Green - last year's runner up - took an unlikely step from fringe All-Star to fringe MVP candidate. And speaking of MVPs, last year's winner is very much in the race for this year's Most Improved, which is maybe the ultimate testament to just how badly Steph Curry is crushing the NBA right now.

But beyond the compelling narratives worn by Green and Curry, McCollum is delivering a textbook MIP campaign that can't be ignored. Obviously the offseason exodus from Portland left huge voids to be filled in the Blazers' lineup, but CJ's responded by tripling his scoring average to over 20ppg, while doubling his rebounding output and more than quadrupling his assists. He's maintained identical shooting clips from the field and on threes through his vastly increased volume, and is shooting a full 10% better from the line (just under 80%). Lots of people expected a leap from him, but McCollum's blown up bigger, sooner than just about anyone saw coming.

Regards To: Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, Jae Crowder

Coach of the Half: Luke Walton

I have no patience for the nonsense about Walton not being credited for the Warriors' wins; far as I see it if he can win Coach of the Month, he can win Coach of the Half. Nor do I think it's valid to hold the ease of coaching the Warriors against him in deciding this award; the ease of playing with them didn't seem to hurt Steph Curry much in last year's MVP race.

Here's an interim coach charged with meeting the sky-high expectations of not only defending the NBA Championship, but silencing the many doubters - media, players and owners alike - who emerged around the league in the months since. He's piloted a roster that's already dealt with more injury issues than all of last season, steering them on course for the best record in NBA history - which is pretty much a benchmark for an automatic COY.

Regards To: Gregg Popovich, Rick Carlisle, Stan Van Gundy

Sixth Man of the Half: Ryan Anderson 

Tough call here. Especially since none of the contenders are putting up Must-Win seasons, and I find it really hard to reward someone on the Pelicans, who've been a gross disappointment. Yes, I know, they started off the season hurt. Everyone's heard that violin. But the Pels have had Tyreke Evans back for 20 games; Jrue Holiday's been back to full duty. They're still 13 games under .500 in a conference where many teams are reeling. They also bafflingly traded away Ish Smith.

But it wouldn't really be fair to punish Anderson for the Pelicans' organizational misfortune; bouncing back from a stretch marred by both serious injury and personal tragedy, to basically become his old self again. With retro-Anderson shooting %'s and a per-36 scoring clip on par with his career high (and a dispiriting lack of growth from Anthony Davis), he's been perhaps the lone consistent bright spot on the Pelicans' roster.

It's tough to say what the second half will bring for Anderson's viability - with his name appearing constantly in trade rumors and Zach Randolph possibly qualifying for the award - but for now he's got the top spot among sixth men.

Regards To: Victor Oladipo, Will Barton, Zach Randolph

Defensive Player of the Half: Kawhi Leonard

It's hard to say whether Leonard will pull off the DPOY double-dip; history certainly isn't on his side.You'd have to go back to 1984 and Sidney Moncrief - the award's first winner - as the only perimeter player ever to repeat.

That said, Kawhi's a transcendent defensive player, spearheading a team that is just crippling the league on D this season. He could make history, and should, as he's far and away the best defender in the NBA right now. I've legitimately stopped playing my fantasy teams' swingmen against San Antonio.

Regards To: Draymond Green, Kyle Lowry, Hassan Whiteside

All-Defense Teams
First: G-Kyle Lowry, G-Tony Allen, F-Kawhi Leonard, F-Draymond Green, C-Hassan Whiteside

Second: G-Chris Paul, G-Jimmy Butler, F-Anthony Davis, F-Serge Ibaka, C-DeAndre Jordan

MVP of the Half: Stephen Curry 

Obviously Steph Curry is on an island right now in terms of the MVP race, we can just get that out of the way. Instead of waxing poetic or dropping rhetorical stats about all the ways Curry is revolutionizing basketball right now, let's instead hypothetically imagine (god forbid) he were to bust his ankle tomorrow and be out until til the playoffs. Who then emerges as the favorite?

Chris Paul - Had a shaky, turnover-heavy start to the season, but has been absolutely dominant for a Clippers team that's completely turned its season around despite the absence of Blake Griffin (who himself was an MVP candidate prior to his injury).

Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook - The Thunder are starting to roll with Durant healthy and Westbrook doing Westbrook things, but regardless of how high they lift OKC, they're likely to sabotage each other's chances here.

LeBron James - Kept the Cavs safely atop the East through Kyrie's absence with the usual LeBron stat-stuffing we've come to take for granted (although note that he's shooting a rancid 29% on four three-pointers/game).

Kawhi Leonard - He's slowly swimming out to Curry Island. With every passing game, the Spurs solidify themselves as a historic regular-season team perhaps on par with Golden State. And Kawhi's dominance on both ends can't be ignored. Easily the NBA's best defender and flirting with a 50/50/90 (a mark nobody has ever hit for a season), for a team on pace to win 71 games with the best net rating ever.

But give Curry credit where it's due, he was already on top of the basketball world, then took flight up into the ether. We may only be halfway, but it seems like barring that hypothetical injury, he may not be brought down.

Regards To: Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook 

All-NBA Teams
First: G-Stephen Curry, G-Russell Westbrook, F-LeBron James, F-Kawhi Leonard, C-DeMarcus Cousins

Second: G-Chris Paul, G-Jimmy Butler, F-Draymond Green, F-Kevin Durant, C-Pau Gasol

Third: G-Kyle Lowry, G-John Wall, F-Paul George, F-Anthony Davis, C-Andre Drummond

That's all for now - check back next week as we try and make sense of this mess called "All Star Voting".

PED Watch '12: The Early MIP Candidates

Last year was an exciting one for the Most Improved Player race; a bunch of young guys primed for blow-up seasons delivered on their immense promise and made for a wide-open contest before Kevin Love went all Vince in Oakland while hardly leaving the floor.

This season, PED Watch is back for another thrilling drive to the MIP in what might be the perfect year for widespread outbreaks. Everything about this 66-game clusterfuck lends itself to young guys with upside getting opportunity: veterans being out of shape from the long offseason (and expected no-season), fresher legs having more energy every night, more injuries, more lineup changes, and the added X-factor that only 3 of 30 NBA teams are definitely not in dice-rolling mode. Ya, things have been pretty hectic so far, but who's stood out among the rest? Here's some love for the guys who really spent the extra down time last year puttin' in work:

Kyle Lowry, Houston Rockets - The Rockets had a pretty awful year due to some bullshit out of their own control, from sources both indirect (the Chinese government) and very direct (David Stern), that collectively crippled this otherwise well-managed team. When the transaction they'd spent years saving for was corruptly denied, Houston had little to smile about. Then Lowry came out guns-a-blazin', doing his best Kevin Johnson impersonation and leading the Rockets attack with a poise that put an already-stacked class of NBA PG's on notice. Had he kept up his early pace, this column may not have been worth writing, but despite a recent shooting gaffe (a 9 game stretch where he went 30-99), he remains the strongest contender.

Ryan Anderson, Orlando Magic - As if Otis Smith didn't already look stupid enough for signing Rashard Lewis, but he's managed to cushion the insult to his own injury by unearthing a guy who does everything Lewis did for them (arguably better) at a zillionth of the cost. While even Anderson hasn't been immune to the recent plague of disconnect on an injured and obviously distracted Magic squad, he's having a career year, offering a unique combination of tough, versatile defense from the 4 with deadly 3-point shooting. Pat Garrity must be proud.

Greg Monroe, Detroit Pistons - Having NBA League Pass is awesome for any number of reasons, most of all the ability to see teams that never get any burn on TV. It's great being able to watch the young, exciting Wolves come of age, the under-repped Pacers prove their threat, or the clueless Wizards just try not to kill each other. There's one team that I can find no time for: Detroit. Because they're a fucking quagmire of everything that's wrong with the NBA these days: horrible contracts, maligned talent, no identity, untimely stagnation, awful coaching, and the lack of balls to fire the guy with deep franchise roots whose front office savvy expired quicker than a Radio Shack warranty. It's a shame because Greg Monroe's just an absolute beast who's going to be a perennial All-Star once Dwight changes conferences and/or he gets the hell out of Detroit.

Nikola Pekovic, Minnesota Timberwolves - Playing the game with an aggressiveness that matches his Russian gangster/kodiak bear stature, Pekovic has blossomed in his newfound starting role as Kevin Love's bash brother and Ricky Rubio's low-post muse. Apparently thriving under the tutelage of 80's great and Wolves assistant Jack Sikma, the fans in Minny have been treated to Peko's re-defined court awareness, and improved footwork and finishing (there's been a lot more Godfather music echoing through the Target Center lately), as well as a sense of primacy: he's playing like he knows he's a force, and making Love's responsibility to dominate that much easier. Looks like another blown shot for Darko.

Paul George, Indiana Pacers - While it's hard to really blow up on a team as well-balanced and mundane as the Pacers, George has done his best to make his name ring out. His surgical long-range trigger's given him the confidence to exploit less athletic defenders off the dribble, and while his finishing in traffic and mid-range decision making aren't always as smooth as his perimeter game (including on D), he's shown many flashes of greatness this year and will only get better with more, well, as the rappers call it, "swag".

DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles Clippers - There's a valid but finite argument to made about a guy's candidacy for this award when his numbers are up across the board and he's second in the League in blocks and FG%. Jordan's improvement this season goes far beyond the numbers and delves into his role as the backbone of, let's call a spade a spade, an awful defensive unit. Sure, Chris Paul's as good an on-the-ball defender as you'll find in the backcourt, but behind him? Mo Williams plays defense like Lebron plays 4th quarters. Caron Butler's clearly lost the quickness that made him so effective on D and appears to have gone the way of Metta World Peace. Chauncey was already a step slow and now isn't stepping at all. And Blake? Serious case of Defense ADHD. Jordan's gotta force himself into the role of Tyson Chandler as a 3rd-year player, on a woeful defensive team facing the greatest expectations and hype, with Vinny Del Negro as his coach. And he's doing a pretty good job so far.

I'd also like to add an honorary nomination for the entire Philadelphia 76ers roster; although I can't find the gumption to nominate a single player (what, is Spencer Hawes finally growing a pair really that impressive?), they're vastly improved as a unit and playing above the sum of their parts by such a wide margin over anyone that it needs its own footnote. They made no significant roster changes, just gave a good coach another season to continue developing their young talent, worked hard on their games, and made the adjustments they needed to win together. They embody everything this award does, and that they've done it as an entire team makes it all the more impressive.

A few names you might've expected to see here that got the slash; Andrea Bargnani (because he was almost playing above Raptor status, God had to smite him), James Harden (as well as he's playing he kinda crashed his own MIP party too hard last spring), Jeff Teague (ditto), Jeremy Lin (because one week's not enough, even though I'm sure the Knicks' backcourt sucks enough for him to keep stylin' on 'em), and DeMarcus Cousins (when you spend an entire year hearing "oh, he's worth the headaches" you kinda just expect him to play well).

That's all for PED Watch '12. I'll be back in a few days to take some time off the poker grind and drop a live game blog (haven't figured out which one yet). I've been meaning to do one for awhile, just gets kinda overwhelming balancing several tournaments with the quad-game view on League Pass Broadband (#seizures). Anyways, til then, peace.