NBA Pre-season awards

Thought this was a very good article, may be useful for drafting tomorrow

From http://www.hoopsworld.com

Preseason Awards

In two days, the real NBA season gets underway. We've waited months for real, meaningful basketball to return and finally, we're about to have out palettes satiated.

The preseason, however, was a rather tasty hors d'oeurve that gave us a little bit of an indication as to what we can expect over the course of the next 82 games. Miami is still the enigma, having not really had ample time to play together due to injuries, but most other teams and players have shown us quite a bit over the last few weeks. With that in mind, let's dole out some preseason awards.

Preseason MVP

Amar'e Stoudemire (25.7ppg, 5.7rpg) – If you factor in assists, LeBron James had better preseason numbers than Stoudemire, but the MVP still goes to STAT for a couple of reasons. The first is simply the effect Stoudemire will have on the Knicks this season; he will be more valuable to his team than LeBron will be to his for the simple fact that without Amar'e, the Knicks aren't very good. Without King James, the HEAT live on with a pretty stacked roster. And leads us to the second reason Stoudemire is the preseason MVP—had Dwyane Wade played, would the numbers have been as good? Bottom line is that Stoudemire's play and impact outweighed that of James this preseason, which is why he gets the nod over last season's actual MVP.

Runner Up: LeBron James (24.2ppg, 5.3rpg, 4.8apg)

Preseason All-NBA Team

Monta Ellis (21.1ppg, 3.5apg, 2.5rpg) – Ellis's 41-point outburst to wrap up the preseason allowed him to finish 4^th in scoring. He's got one of the easier times scoring of anybody in the league, and no other point guard (or point guard-like figure) really outplayed him. 

Dwight Howard (15ppg, 11.7rpg, 2.8bpg) – This easily could have been Brook Lopez, who scored more points than Dwight, but Howard was second in preseason rebounding, first in blocks, and his team was easily the most dominant of the October exhibitions.

Carmelo Anthony (23ppg, 7.2rpg, 3.4apg) – Outside of LeBron, nobody had a better statistical preseason than Anthony, who finished third in scoring and, a little surprisingly, in the top 20 for rebounds.

Amar'e Stoudemire

LeBron James

Preseason Rookie of the Year

Blake Griffin (17.3ppg, 12.3rpg) – This kid has been absolutely dominant, leading the entire league in rebounds and finishing in the top ten in points per game. He's had the opportunity to shine and has been fantastic, at least in the preseason.

Runner Up: John Wall (15.7ppg, 7.9apg, 2.6rpg) – Wall has been an assist machine early in his NBA career, doling out enough dimes to finish the preseason second in that category behind only the great Chris Paul. The difference between those two, however, is that Wall scored twice as many points. Were Griffin not technically classified as a rookie, Wall would be running away with this award. As it is, it seems this particular class has two truly transcendent rookies.

Preseason All-Rookie Team

DeMarcus Cousins (14.3ppg, 8rpg) – In seven preseason games, Cousins tied last season's Rookie of the Year, Tyreke Evans, for points per game despite playing fewer minutes. Cousins led his team in points and rebounds and showed that there was no way he should've slipped to pick number five in last June's draft.

Jordan Crawford (13.8ppg, 3.2apg, 2.8rpg) – We knew this would be the case, but Atlanta's younger Crawford has shown what a terrific scorer he's going to be. If he keeps this up, the elder Crawford will almost certainly be moved by the deadline or be allowed to have his contract expire at season's end. At least in the preseason, Jordan has proven more valuable than Jamal.

Dominique Jones (9.9ppg, 2.9apg, 2.9rpg) – He's fourth on the Mavericks in both scoring and assists, but what's really been impressive with Jones is his athleticism and slashing ability. He's a real sleeper in this rookie class, especially if Dallas can afford him 20-25 minutes per game this year.

John Wall

Blake Griffin

Preseason Most Improved Player

Roy Hibbert (17ppg, 8.7rpg, 3.1apg, 2.3bpg) – This could finally be the year that Hibbert breaks out. It was, at least, the preseason when Hibbert breaks out, leading the Pacers in scoring and proving to be one of the better rebounders and shot-blockers in the league. He looks awkward out on the floor, but the numbers don't lie. Hibbert is close to becoming an elite Eastern Conference center, at least if the preseason is any indication.

Runner Up: Aaron Afflalo (20.4ppg. 4.2rpg, 2.9apg) – Who saw this coming? Afflalo finished the preseason as one of only six players to average 20+ points per night, and the other five guys are regulars in the discussion for the NBA's elite. Afflalo isn't that by any means, but he definitely is a candidate for MIP with numbers like he's put up so far.

Preseason Defensive Player of the Year

Dwight Howard (2.8bpg) – He hasn't lost a step, averaging pretty much the same number of blocks in the preseason as he did last season when we actually won DPOY. The difference is that he swatted away 2.8 blocks a game in the preseason in only 26.4 minutes per night.

Runner Up: James Harden (2.6spg) – OKC's blooming sophomore led the league in steals per game for the preseason, enough to get him in the conversation here, but not enough to dethrone Dwight.

Preseason Coach of the Year

Stan Van Gundy – Orlando not only finished the preseason undefeated, but they ran darn near every team they played right off the court. Van Gundy's was the best team in the league over the course of the last few weeks, and the coach deserves some credit for that.

Runner Up: Lionel Hollins – Did anybody see Memphis finishing the preseason 8-0? Didn't think so.

How many of these awards will translate over the regular season? Probably quite a few, but there's enough mystery here to keep the regular season more than interesting enough. We do, after all, still have Dwyane Wade and Carlos Boozer to eventually throw into the mix, and who knows how that will change things? In the meantime, hunker down for the start of the regular season on Tuesday, and get ready for some basketball that actually counts for something.