As the regular season winds down, most of the big guns have effectively settled into pre-playoff mode as they’ve secured their slots and their seeds and have nothing much to play for in the last couple of days. This means resting key players and some ‘interesting’ line-ups being played as the games become increasingly meaningless except for those few teams still scrambling for the last couple of playoff slot like the Grizzlies. As a result I thought I’d use this opportunity to dish out my regular season awards, as barring some serious miracles I think for all extents and purposes these are all locked up as the players have basically shown all they’re going to show for the season. However, as I am being slightly premature I do realise I’m opening myself up to the potential of serious ridicule... But that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Finally, although I don’t have time to go into them, here are my picks for the All-NBA Teams...

1st Team – Curry, Harden, James, Durant, Noah

2nd Team – Paul, Wall, Anthony, Love, Jefferson

3rd Team – Dragic, Lowry, George, Aldridge, Duncan

Rookie of the Year

Who? Mason Plumlee

Why? - ROTY is an award that has two schools of thought surrounding it - either it should go to whoever is putting up the best numbers (even though these players are nearly always on mediocre teams so these stats are completely empty), or it should go to whoever has slotted into a team and pushed them over the hump (like Steven Adams). I’m a believer in the latter, which is why I picked someone who’s averaging a seemingly-average 7.2 ppg and 4.2 rpg.

Mason’s role on the Nets is more valuable than his stats though, for two main reasons. Firstly, he’s enabled Kevin Garnett to take it very easy this season and stay fresh for the off-season (well, as fresh as a 37 year old can be) by being a solid option at the 5 spot, which the Nets desperately needed due to their aging roster. Secondly, he’s a nice change of pace from the rest of the roster. Nearly every other player in the rotation is either old, un-athletic, or both, so Mason’s raw athleticism and ability to convert alley-oops and put-backs prevents the team from resembling something out of an over 40’s social league. Yeah, people like Carter-Williams and Oladipo have better figures, but Plumlee provided a lifeline to a playoff-bound team that was on the verge of complete collapse.

Defensive Player of the Year

Who? Joakim Noah

Why? For a very large chunk of the season, it seemed like Roy Hibbert’s name was probably already engraved on the trophy. Then the past few weeks happened, and his stock dropped faster than you could say overrated. He has popularised verticality in the league and his impact at the middle of the Pacers defence is undeniable but I think even I could get more rebounds than him, and he seems to fall over a weirdly high number of times every game. Contesting shots is all well and good, but because he can’t rebound despite being 7’2 and because he’s really quite gumby, I don’t think he’s earned it this year.

By contrast, Noah has been an absolute beast all season, which is even more impressive when you remember that this Bulls team is missing a certain former MVP. Unlike many of the more passionate players in the league Noah has talent besides yelling and enthusiastically waving towels, but his energy and dedication to his team seem to be infectious and be at the heart of this Bulls team. He can cover a lot of ground on D rather than being stuck under the basket, and seems to be able to channel pick and rolls to his ideal spot rather than trying to meet them at the rim every time – defence is more than just how many blocks you average. His raw enthusiasm and ability to play both lockdown D and block shots (surprisingly rare) evoke images of a younger KG, and I’d be fairly surprised if he didn’t win the DPOTY this year.

Hoping for more of this in the post-season

Most Improved Player

Who? Goran Dragic

Why? It wasn’t so long ago that Dragic was just some foreign guy with a weird name who was playing spot minutes as Steve Nash’s backup - hell, even last season he wasn’t anything more than an average starting PG. But as long-time NBA fans will know all too well, the landscape of the league can change all too quickly (remember when Brandon Roy and Greg Oden were going to lead the Blazers to a decade of dominance?), and he’s now one of the top 10 PGs in the league at a time when the position is absolutely stacked. Getting stats on a terrible team is easy however, so the fact he’s averaging over 20 PPG and 7 APG and has lead the Suns to a potential spot in the playoffs despite having a roster that looked abysmal before the season started can’ t be overlooked.

Sixth Man of the Year

Who? Nick Young

Why? I’m going to admit it, as a die-hard Lakers fan this is a complete homer pick. Nick Young has injected at least a tiny bit of fun into this nightmare of a Lakers season, with his Swaggy P antics probably being the only thing keeping many fans tuning in to games. His obvious love for both the game and for being a Laker is infectious, and you’d be hard pressed to find more than a couple of other guys who are as stoked to be playing for their teams. His reputation as a knucklehead chucker has all but disappeared, and his spark off the bench has actually inspired this otherwise dire team to a few big wins. Plus, dude is dating Iggy Azalea so he’s definitely living up to the Swaggy P moniker.

Having said all of that, if I had to vote for someone not from the Lakers, it’d be Taj Gibson – he doesn’t offer the scoring punch of someone like Jamal Crawford, but his role on the team is so valuable that I don’t think the Bulls would be anywhere near as good without him.

Most Valuable Player

Who? Kevin Durant

Why? Before anyone out there accuses me of voter-fatigue and picking KD simply because I really don’t like LeBron, let me first offer why I don’t think he’s earned it. In the MVP race, the two major things brought up tend to be stats and team record, and KD has outdone LBJ in both this year. Yes, Wade was missing for a bunch of games, but LeBron has also appeared to be cruising at times this year, particularly on defense, and quite simply I don’t think you can give the MVP to someone who is basically on cruise control waiting for the playoffs.People seem to have a love/hate relationship with stats when it comes to the MVP – on one hand, they can be misleading, but on the other they are concrete evidence of player’s achievements. In the case of KD I feel that some of his numbers from this season are simply insane and really help to tell the story of his MVP-worthy season - 41 games with 25+ points (longest ever, overtaking MJ) and a 32 points per game average which is the most since 05-06. He’s an absolute scoring machine, and has to be the most terrifying player in the league to go up against.

These aren’t empty stats though as he’s lead the Thunder to the 2nd best record in the league despite having Westbrook out for a significant number of games. It’s also not a repeat of the Sixers of the early 2000s where Iverson was dragging a bunch of scrubs up and down the court every night, as KD enables his role players to focus on playing their roles rather than having to score – you don’t want someone like Perkins putting up more than a few shots a game. So, because the Durantula has completely and utterly feasted upon his competition this year, the MVP must go to him.