The 2008-09 regular season has come to an end, close to six months since it tipped off with the Celtics defeating the Cavaliers in Boston on Oct. 28, 2008. Fourteen teams ended their run on Wednesday night, and while more than half of the league is still alive in the race for the NBA title, it?s time to hand out RealGM?s hardware for the 2009 campaign.
Just as we voted on the All-Star reserves in late January, nine members of the RealGM family submitted ballots for the seven regular season awards and three All-NBA teams.
Here are the voters:
--Christopher Reina, Executive Editor
--Andrew Perna, Deputy Editor
--Brandon Hoffman, Contributor
--Chris Kreider, Contributor
--Jarrod Rudolph, Columnist
--Louis Roxin, Staff Writer
--Howard Mass, Staff Writer
--Jeff Risdon, Senior Writer
--Jeff Duncan, RealGM Radio
We conducted our voting uniquely, asking voters to simply submit a winner and a runner-up for each of the individual awards. Players were given three points for a first-place vote, and just one point for a runner-up nomination.
Our All-NBA team voting was restricted to simply first teams (All-NBA team, All-Rookie team, and All-Defensive team). That made for some interesting voting, with players receiving a point each time they showed up on a ballot.
Here are some interesting tidbits from the voting:
--The Most Improved Player and Executive of the Year awards were the closest with seven different players/executives having been named on ballots.
--The Most Valuable Player race wasn?t very close at all, with just three players having received votes.
--There were no unanimous winners for individual awards, but there was one unanimous member of each All-NBA team.
--At least ten players received votes for each All-NBA team, allowing us to compile second teams (runner-ups).
Without further ado, here are RealGM's 2009 NBA award winners:
First place votes are in parenthesis.
Most Valuable Player
Winner: LeBron James, Cleveland (7)
Runner-up: Dwyane Wade, Miami (1)
Also receiving votes: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles
Rookie of the Year
Winner: Derrick Rose, Chicago (8)
Runner-up: O.J. Mayo, Memphis (1)
Also receiving votes: Brook Lopez, New Jersey and Kevin Love, Minnesota
Coach of the Year
Winner: Stan Van Gundy, Orlando (4)
Runner-up: Mike Brown, Cleveland (3)
Also receiving votes: Larry Brown, Charlotte, Rick Adelman, Houston, Erik Spoelstra, Miami and Nate McMillan, Portland
Most Improved Player
Winner: Danny Granger, Indiana (4)
Runner-up: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City (2)
Also receiving votes: Devin Harris, New Jersey, Nene, Denver, Jameer Nelson, Orlando, David Lee, New York and Rajon Rondo, Boston
Defensive Player of the Year
Winner: Dwight Howard, Orlando (8)
Runner-up: LeBron James, Cleveland
Also receiving votes: Josh Smith, Atlanta, Kevin Garnett, Boston and Chris Paul, New Orleans
Sixth Man of the Year
Winner: Jason Terry, Dallas (8)
Runner-up: Travis Outlaw, Portland (1)
Also receiving votes: Lamar Odom, Los Angeles, J.R. Smith, Denver and Flip Murray, Atlanta
Executive of the Year
Winner: Mark Warkentein, Denver (3)
Runner-up: Danny Ferry, Cleveland (3)
Also receiving votes: Otis Smith, Orlando, Kevin Pritchard, Portland, John Paxson, Chicago, John Hammond, Milwaukee and Danny Ainge, Boston
All-NBA Team
Guard: Dwyane Wade, Miami
Guard: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles
Forward: LeBron James, Cleveland (unanimous)
Forward: Tim Duncan, San Antonio
Center: Dwight Howard, Orlando
Runner-ups/All-NBA Second Team
Guard: Chris Paul, New Orleans
Guard: Paul Pierce, Boston
Forward: Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas
Forward: Kevin Garnett, Boston
Center: Yao Ming, Houston
All-Rookie Team
Guard: Derrick Rose, Chicago (unanimous)
Guard: O.J. Mayo, Memphis
Forward: Michael Beasley, Miami
Forward: Kevin Love, Minnesota
Center: Brook Lopez, New Jersey
Runner-ups/All-Rookie Second Team
Guard: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City
Guard: Courtney Lee, Orlando
Forward: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Milwaukee
Forward: Marreese Speights, Philadelphia
Center: Marc Gasol, Memphis
All-Defensive Team
Guard: Chris Paul, New Orleans
Guard: Dwyane Wade, Miami
Forward: LeBron James, Cleveland
Forward: Tim Duncan, San Antonio
Center: Dwight Howard, Orlando (unanimous)
Runner-ups/All-Defensive Second Team
Guard: Rajon Rondo, Boston
Guard: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles
Forward: Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia
Forward: Ron Artest, Houston
Center: Chris Andersen, Denver
Andrew Perna is Deputy Editor of RealGM.com and co-host of RealGM?s Radio Show. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com