Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
The regular season is over, the playoffs have begun and Oprah is Twittering. In my book, that means it’s time to recap the 2008-09 fantasy season and hand out some shiny, GMTR hardware. We’ve already discussed this year’s most improved players and the biggest disappointments, so with the help of Erik and Nels, here are the rest: our votes for fantasy MVP, ROY, Coach of the year, and transaction of the year.
MVP
Erik
LeBron James – In terms of fantasy, I feel LeBron was able to edge out Chris Paul ever so slightly this year. We saw him lead many different teams to the podium or at least the playoffs. Various teams that implored a variety of strategies whether it was in roto or h2h. His ability to combine a diversity of stats and an every-game potential to just explode for ridiculous line, whether with a triple-double or an acceptable near-triple-double. He rocks! I’m on my way to the basement and offer some chicken and goat’s blood so that I can have a chance to pick him next season.
Nels
Chris Paul – I mean, when it comes to fantasy, the numbers don’t lie. Paul was number one on both the 8 and 9 category player raters, so I’m not sure how you could come up with anyone else. Yeah, you could argue someone else for #1 pick next season… but this year, Chris Paul stole the MVP trophy. The word “stole” in the previous sentence was intended as a double entendre. Also, did you know that you can’t use entendre by itself? At least not in English. Maybe it means something in French… but according to M-W.com, “double entendre” itself is obsolete French, so they probably don’t even use it ever.
Patrick
Chris Paul – The fantasy MVP race really comes down to a threesome between Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron. I went with Paul because (for the second year in a row) he finished at the top of both our 8 and 9-cat player raters. He also qualifies at PG, which is still a fairly scarce position – at least compared to shooting guard and small forward. If you had the good fortune of riding Paul’s 23 points, 11 assists, 5.5 rebounds (up from 4 last season), 50% shooting, and league leading 2.8 steals a game – then chances are you made your league’s playoffs, no matter what kind of crappy supporting cast you put around him (hey, kind of like the real Hornets).
ROY
Patrick
Greg Oden. Wait. I was holding my list upside down. Really, it’s O.J. Mayo. While Brook Lopez is an interesting choice and gave his owners more relative to his draft position, Mayo was a slightly better rookie (as long as you ignore turnovers, which I find convenient), averaging 18.5 points, 3.8 boards, and 1.8 threes a game for a Grizzles team that desperately need someone who could score besides Rudy Gay.
The best part about this year’s crop of rookies? Their durability: Mayo, 82 games played. Brook Lopez, 82. Derrick Rose, 81. Mario Chalmers, 82.
Nels
Again, fantasy awards are not about heart, or intuition, or guessing, or scoring 36 points in your debut playoff game (and then showing that you really are a rookie by scoring 10 points in your second playoff game). And thus, OJ Mayo is your Rookie of the Year.
Erik
Rookie of the Year: Brook Lopez – As much as I was hoping this would end up to be Greg Oden, before the season began; and as much as I enjoyed watch Derrick Rose and his stats this season; I cannot deny that this award has to go to Brook.
[Editor's Note: Erik already took an extensive look at this year’s rookies in back in January; it’s a highly recommended read if you’d like to get his take on the state of this season’s rookie class. In that post, Erik said that OJ Mayo was top dog of the rookie litter. I’m not sure what changed in his mind between then and now... besides maybe the fact that Brook Lopez helped Erik win the GMTR Readers league... but I’m sure he wouldn’t let something like that could his judgment...]
Coach of the Year
Erik
Mike D’Antoni – Every fantasy manager who has a pet player would just love to see their guy play under Mike. I mean he revitilized Zach Randolph’s fantasy career! I mean, Zach Randolph! Too bad the Knicks traded him off to Sucksville. Mike was instrumental in unraveling to us the fresh and bright future of Wilson Chandler. (Oh crap, time to kill another chicken!) Think about, Mike transformed Larry Hughes from a boring free agent pool regular into a sudden viable plug-in player! He’s simply got the Midas touch as far as fantasy is concerned.
Disclaimer: No animals were harmed during the course of this sick fan’s fantasy rambling.
Patrick
With a nod to Alvin Gentry, who took the reins of the Phoenix Suns from the overmatched Terry Porter and rejuvenated the season of Leandro Barbosa, I’m not sure you can give this award to anyone other than Mike D’Antoni. If you can make Chris Duhon a fantasy commodity, well, that’s how you win fantasy coach of the year.
Nels
Here’s where it gets a little subjective. And I only read Patrick and Erik picks after I made my decision. So, it’s anonymous. Or ambiguous. Or magnanimous. Whatever, it’s Mike D’Antoni. Usually you can find good fantasy players on bad teams (Kevin Durant, OJ Mayo, Danny Granger), but when you start out with Chris Duhon, Quentin Richardson, Wilson Chandler, Al Harrington, and David Lee and make 4 of those guys Top 100 fantasy players, that’s impressive. Not to mention Nate Robinson, and the fact that Larry Hughes was almost worth picking up when he went to NY.
Runner-up was Don Nelson, who probably deserved it just as much as D’Antoni, but had just ever-so-much more talent to work with.
Transaction of the Year
Nels
I’m not sure how much money Detroit got under the table, or if it was just a year’s worth of BJs for the whole team and front office staff, but trading Billups for Iverson was clearly the beginning of the end (or perhaps just the end of the end) for Iverson. He ended up at 154 on the 9-category rater, while Billups was able to maintain his position as a late second-rounder. AI was 11th last season, and a mere 44th the year before. If only there were professional 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 basketball. Iverson would handle that with aplomb.
Erik
I would have to say the J-Rich deal to Phoenix has to be the one. It resurrected Boris Diaw from the undeath of fantasy insignificance. The move reinvigorated, at least for a time, the demoralized Phoenix Suns. The trade had a trickle effect on so many other players. While the trade wasn’t great for J-Rich’s personal numbers this year, I think this places him on queue for a fantasy comeback once the franchise shakes things up.
Patrick
It was one of the first – if not first – move that happened during the 08-09 season and it had one of the greatest impacts: the Billups/Iverson trade. The trade may have been more about cap flexibility than winning for the Pistons, but it effectively ended Allen Iverson’s career as we knew it. His stats were down across the board with Detroit – 17 points, 5 assists, and 0.5 threes a game – and more importantly he also packed it in at the end of the season when the Pistons asked him to come off the bench. The trade also gave J.R. Smith more minutes (which he deserved), destroyed my man Anthony Carter (which he didn’t deserve), and let us see a lot more of Rodney Stuckey.
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