I always think MIP award should go to somebody who gets consistent minutes and somehow does even better with those same minutes. Guy who averages 10 minutes one year and then suddenly 30 minutes the next, may just triple their productivity or at least get more than double their previous year. There's no surprise in that a la Zach Randolph and others. Also, it should be a guy who doesn't know very many moves to begin with (is very raw) and then suddenly learns a whole bunch of them and puts them on display. But then again... that's very hard to pick a list of candidates... because people who aren't very good or nba ready don't get the minutes to begin with. But, when they do better, then they get the playing time increase... I think this season, the guy I'm most suprised by is Luol Deng. Didn't think he'd be a star player, but I think he's doing things that make him better than Jrich in terms of year to year improvement. He's becoming a big star. With the same coach and roughly the same minutes, he's improved in field goal % despite more shot attempts, he's increased his overall production despite playing only slightly more minutes than last year. He's not raw though... That's the problem. He's pretty polished. So that probably doesn't count. And of course... all this is probably due to finding out his limitations over the past 3 years... in other words, 3 point shooting and learning to avoid taking his lowest % shot. He takes less of them and finds something else he can definitely make and get anytime he wants, he gets higher % shots. I swear if Jrich can clean up his ballhandling and use his spin moves from the free throw line area, he can hit the fadeaway any time he wants. It's undefendable and he's consistent at doing that. Instead he shoots these threes or takes the ball right into trouble where he can't even operate that move or pass out of the double team defensive pressure... But going back to Ellis. Pretty darn impressive for a young rookie like that to do a variety of things this year. He just finishes well at the rim despite weighing less than most nba guards... He's so quick, but yet he's very strong in terms of balance.
Here's a good Monta segment on TNT Overtime. I am not sure what to say about it. Maybe it's a little bit of repeates of what you all know, but I'll just - post it here to let you guys give it a peak. It won't be bad. http://broadband.nba.com/cc/playa.php?cont...nel&nbasite=nba
<div class="quote_poster">Clif25 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Here's a good Monta segment on TNT Overtime. I am not sure what to say about it. Maybe it's a little bit of repeates of what you all know, but I'll just - post it here to let you guys give it a peak. It won't be bad. http://broadband.nba.com/cc/playa.php?cont...nel&nbasite=nba</div> Thanks Clif!
