For Rip City Project’s newest Roundtable, three writers discuss who wins various awards within the Blazers roster and why.
Unfortunately, the Blazers won’t have any players representing at this year’s end-of-season NBA awards. Most recently, CJ McCollum won Most Improved Player and Damian Lillard won Rookie of the Year.
Dame certainly made his case for being in the MVP discussion, but a short playoff run crushed any potential of closing the gap on James Harden and LeBron James.
Instead of wallowing in our absence from the award ceremony, three Rip City Project writers decided to select winners for six various “awards.”
Through the next six slides, they’ll explain selections for MVP, MIP, Defensive POY, Sixth Man, Most Disappointing Player and Best Single Game Performance.
Most Valuable Player
- Matt George Moore: Damian Lillard.
This is a no-brainer. Despite what some local naysayers think, the Blazers’ all-everything guard is indispensable — not just on the court, but off it, too. He’s a fabulous player and a terrific representative for the Blazers and the city of Portland. As for stats: He led the team in points, scoring average, assists, free throw percentage and minutes played. His defense improved, and he is the indisputable team leader. As Dame goes, so go the Portland Trail Blazers.
- Shawn O’Connor: Damian Lillard.
This one is easy. Portland’s All-Star guard led the team in points, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and player efficiency rating. Lillard dominated this season and was the clear cut MVP of the team.
- Dayton Brown: Damian Lillard.
I mean, he more than earned it. Lillard has embodied the leader role on this young Portland team. He was the team’s only All-Star this season, and will most likely be first or second team All-NBA. In 73 games of 36.6 minutes, Lillard averaged 26.9 points (fourth in the league), 6.6 assists (tenth in the league), and 4.5 rebounds. He did all this while shooting 44% from the field and 36% from three-point land. He was also very efficient at the line, finishing third in the NBA at 91% on the season.
His importance to the city of Portland is unmatched on the team, as well. He always gets the loudest cheers, most recognition, seems to be more loyal than anyone in the league, and dons “The Letter O” in honor of, among other things, the state he plays in. Lillard is the face of the franchise and was able to put up amazing numbers to back his play up.
Most Improved Player
- Matt George Moore: Jusuf Nurkic.
I probably wouldn’t have said Nurkic was the MIP if I’d been asked this question at mid-season. For much of the early part of the 2017-2018 campaign, Nurkic was prone to missing easy shots — dunk the ball, Nurk! — and sulking when he was frustrated.
But he upped his game in the second half of the season and showed Rip City glimpses of the kind of versatile center he can be. Nurk’s season averages in points, rebounds, assists, field goal percentage and free throw percentage were all better than his career averages. He has much room for improvement — maybe I’ll give him this award next year, too! — and he’ll be just 24 years old when next season tips off.
- Shawn O’Connor: Shabazz Napier.
In the 2016-17 NBA season, Shabazz played 53 games, starting only two. He
averaged 4.1 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 9.7 minutes per game. This season, however, he stepped it up in a big way. Shabazz played 74 games, starting nine. He recorded 8.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 20.7 minutes of play per game. Napier is the clear cut Most Improved Player of the Portland Trail Blazers.
- Dayton Brown: Maurice Harkless.
Defensive Player of the Year
- Matt George Moore: Al-Farouq Aminu.
Chief is a lockdown defender. His long reach and ability to stick to opponents like he’s their shadow makes him our defensive leader. For long stretches of many games this season, it appeared that Aminu wasn’t playing much of a factor, but I think that’s because we typically judge a player’s presence by his offensive numbers. The reason I think Aminu sometimes seemed to disappear into the background was because he was so busy — and effective — cloaking his opponents in his smothering defense.
- Shawn O’Connor: Jusuf Nurkic.
Nurkic leads the team in blocks and rebounds while playing the third most minutes per game on the team. However, he does lead the team with 3.1 fouls per game. I considered putting Al-Farouq Aminu in this spot because of Nurkic’s foul issues, but the minutes that Nurkic plays pushed the scales in his favor.
- Dayton Brown: Al-Farouq Aminu.
Portland’s defense was greatly improved this year. In 2016-17, they ranked bottom-10 in defensive rating. In 2017-18, they finished top-10, and found themselves as a top-5 defensive team for a good chunk of the year.
Of the top-15 individual per-game defensive ratings, the Blazers had five of their own, most of any team. All five were bench players, but the highest Blazer starter on the overall list is Al-Farouq Aminu (181st). In 30 minutes per game, Chief averaged over 6 defensive rebounds, 1 steal, and 0.5 blocks.
When Aminu sprained his ankle and missed 13 games early in the season, nearly half (six) saw the Blazers give up 100 or more points. This includes 110 to the Lakers, 125 to the Nets and 123 to the Pelicans. Aminu is an anchor on the perimeter, and his size permits him to do work down low around the basket as well. He was clearly the defensive juggernaut for the team, while also improving upon his three-point shooting.
Sixth Man
- Matt George Moore: Ed Davis.
This one was tough. The Blazers aren’t really deep enough to actually have a sixth man in the traditional sense of the term. I think a case can be made for Ed Davis, Zach Collins, and even Evan Turner (when Maurice Harkless was starting). But I’ll go with Davis on this one.
He appeared in 78 games (playing about 19 minutes per), scoring 5.3 points and grabbing 7.4 boards per game while shooting 58 percent from the field. Plus, he’s an excellent mentor for Collins, who can learn much from his veteran teammate. In fact, maybe the Davis-Collins show is the Blazers’ true “sixth men” of the year.
- Shawn O’Connor: Evan Turner.
Despite starting just over half of his season, Turner was truly a sixth man. He came off the
bench when the roster (Maurice Harkless) was healthy. Turner averaged 8.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. Turner was also third on the team in assist-to-turnover ratio, with 1.7 dimes per giveaway.
- Dayton Brown: Shabazz Napier.
Most Disappointing Player
- Matt George Moore: Maurice Harkless.
Perhaps no Trail Blazers player had as much of a roller coaster season than Maurice Harkless. A potentially dynamic starting wing, Harkless was a no-show early in the season and then sat the bench for long stretches in December and January. His scoring and rebounding averages were both lower than his career averages, and then an untimely injury left him out of the lineup for the final nine games of the season and two games of the playoffs. Rip City certainly expected — and continues to expect — more from Harkless moving forward.
- Shawn O’Connor: Maurice Harkless.
Although Moe helped Portland win this season, he regressed after a solid previous campaign. In the 2016-17 season, Harkless played 77 games, starting 69. He averaged 10 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 28.9 minutes played per game. This year, he regressed in all statistical categories. He played 59 games, starting 37, amassing 6.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 0.9 assists in 21.4 minutes played per game. Although Moe did deal with injuries , his performance is a disappointment when compared to last year.
- Dayton Brown: Jusuf Nurkic.
It was either the Bosnian Beast or Evan Turner for this “award.” Turner’s monstrously unnecessary contract almost put him over the top for this one.
However, in a contract year, Nurkić’s performance took Rip City from “we need to do anything we can to retain the Beast this offseason” to “is he really going to be worth that money?” Nurkić didn’t have bad stats compared to his career in the league. But, he played in and started more games this year than he ever has. He averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists in 20 games for Portland last season. He was only able to play 26 minutes per game this year and all of his stats went down. The Blazers were expecting a borderline 20/10 average from Nurkić, but his lack of filling the third “Big 3” roll was a huge indicator of what Portland needs to address this offseason.
Best Single Game Performance
- Matt George Moore: CJ McCollum & Damian Lillard.
Both McCollum (Jan. 31 against the Bulls) and Lillard (not long after: Feb. 9 against the Kings) had 50-point scoring games this season. And they both did it while playing less than 30 minutes, making Dame and CJ two of the three players to have ever accomplished that feat. Either of those 50-point games are worthy of “best performance.”
But I think McCollum’s was more entertaining. McCollum was unconscious, shooting 72% from the field (18/25 — and from all over the court), including 6/9 from three. He also made all eight of his free throws. It was a scintillating performance — and a career-high for McCollum.
- Shawn O’Connor: CJ McCollum.
On the last day of January, CJ went off in the Moda Center. In a 124-108 win on the second half of a back-to-back, CJ dropped 50 points on 18/25 shooting from the floor, with 6/9 shooting from deep. He went a perfect 8/8 from the charity stripe and added 5 rebounds and 2 assists to his impressive stat line. Oh, and he did all this in only 29 minutes.
- Dayton Brown: Damian Lillard.
On Feb. 9, Damian Lillard scored 50 points on 16/26 shooting in 29 minutes against the Sacramento Kings. This kicked off a huge scoring spree for Dame over the next several games, strengthening his case for being in the MVP discussion. He joined Klay Thompson and teammate CJ McCollum as the only players in history to score 50 points in less than 30 minutes.