NBA Mid-Season #AlternativeFacts Awards

Maybe this season’s “favorites” aren’t really favorites at all?

Halfway through the NBA season, the narratives have not only formed, but they’ve already started to go stale. James Harden is the NBA MVP because he turned around a laughingstock Houston Rockets team — unless Russell Westbrook is the MVP for carrying a franchise on his back after Kevin Durant left. Mike D’Antoni is the Coach of the Year leader because of what he’s done with Houston’s offense (and defense!) and Eric Gordon is the favorite for Sixth Man.

Narratives aside, do the facts exist to support what we’ve been led to believe? Remember: It’s 2017 now. Donald Trump is the President of the United States — it’s really, really real — so facts are optional, or something.

Here, then, are your 2017 NBA Mid-Season #AlternativeFacts Awards.

Alt-Rookie of the Year: Buddy Hield

Presumed favorite: Joel Embiid

Look out below, we are coming in hot! Buddy Hield is the alt-ROY. All you have to do is conveniently ignore the facts relating to his performance over his first 20 games.

Everything changed when he returned home to Oklahoma to play against the Thunder on December 4. Since that game, Hield has been absolutely on fire from downtown, shooting a blazing 46 percent from deep with 54 makes in 25 games. During that span, he’s averaging 10.4 points, 1.6 assists, and 3.4 rebounds a game with a true shooting percentage of 55 percent.

Sure, Joel Embiid is averaging 21 points, 8 boards, and 2.5 assists over the same period — while single-handedly making his Philadelphia 76ers relevant again — but even #AlternativeFacts have their limits.

Alt-Sixth Man of the Year: Lou Williams

Presumed favorite: Eric Gordon

Like many of these awards, Sixth Man of the Year is all about narrative and right now, Eric Gordon has it. After years of injury and obscurity in New Orleans, Gordon has been on fire this season, leading the league in three pointers made. He’s arguably the second-best player on the league’s most surprising contender, the Rockets.

Still, Lou Williams has been even better. Take a look at how close the two are on Basketball Reference:

Like Gordon, Williams is averaging over 17 points and 3 assists a game, shooting a shade under 40 percent from deep, but the latter is doing it in six fewer minutes per game with a bunch of kids around him; not an MVP favorite in Harden or a Coach of the Year favorite in D’Antoni.

Gordon is averaging over 30 minutes a game — he’s a de facto starter. His PER is 15.0, the definition of an average NBA player. Williams, on the other hand, has a PER over 22 and he is carrying the Lakers bench. He’s the real 6MOY.

Alt-Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert

Presumed favorite: Draymond Green

Draymond Green is awesome. He is the heart and soul of the Warriors defense, the man that makes Golden State go. He’s also the pivot point for that D, which just so happens to be the No. 1 ranked defense in the league. He is irreplaceable.

But Rudy Gobert is the Defensive Player of the Year.

Utah has the No. 2 ranked defense and is first in points allowed with Gobert manning the paint. Gordon Hayward, George Hill, and Derrick Favors have combined to miss 46 games already — Utah has only played 46 — yet Gobert has kept them right in the mix for the 4-seed out West. He’s leading the league at 2.5 blocks per game and doing it without having huge run-out leads most nights like the Warriors typically do.

Alt-Coach of the Year: Gregg Popovich

Presumed favorite: Mike D’Antoni

Look, D’Antoni has done a marvelous job with the Rockets, but Pop’s San Antonio Spurs could lose their next five games and would still have a better record than Houston. And these are not your grandfather’s Spurs, either. Tim Duncan has finally gone out to pasture. He’s been seamlessly replaced by Pau Gasol and David Lee, who the Spurs have magically turned into star defenders this year. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili aren’t carrying the team anymore, so San Antonio has turned to some dudes named Jonathan Simmons, Dewayne Dedmon, and Davis Bertans at key times this season.

Until proven otherwise, Popovich must be considered an actual wizard at this point — and a believer in #AlternativeFacts, at that! He has taken players off the scrap heap and his Spurs remain the only team outside of Golden State in the top five on both offense and defense.

Maybe if San Antonio beats out the Warriors for the 1-seed out West, he’ll finally (read: for a record, but deserving fourth time) get his due.

Alt-Most Improved Player: Isaiah Thomas

Presumed favorite: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Look, this award is silly. Pick any of the top hundred players in the NBA and they’ve almost certainly improved since last season. Who is supposed to win the Most Improved Player, anyway? Someone getting more minutes than they have in the past? A young guy breaking out? A starter becoming an All Star? Heck, Harden and Westbrook have “improved” since last year.

The rarest of cases seems to be a veteran deep into his career who makes that next-level leap. Yes, the Greek Freak is awesome, and has exploded this year, but 22 year olds are supposed to improve. 5'9 27-year-old NBA players in their sixth seasons are not supposed to explode like this.

It’s become popular around the internet to compare IT to another tiny player at age 27, Allen Iverson, but why settle for an age comparison? Take a look at Thomas versus Iverson’s best year, his MVP 2000–01 season:

Iverson scored two more points a game and had a lot more steals, but Thomas bests him as a passer and is a far better and more efficient shooter. He’s also doing it in just 34 minutes a game, eight fewer than AI. When normalized per-36, Thomas smashes Iverson’s MVP season.

Thomas is one of the most electric players in the league to watch, and he’s carrying the Celtics offense by playing at a level that would garner MVP attention in almost any other season.

Speaking of which …

Alt-Most Valuable Player: Kevin Durant

Presumed favorite: James Harden

This is the best NBA MVP race in years. You could build a compelling case for Westbrook, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul (pre-injury), Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, the aforementioned Thomas, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and, of course, the favorite, James Harden. Every one of those players would probably be in the race most seasons and it’s possible a couple of them won’t even finish top ten. Oh, and by the way, the list also doesn’t include any players from the best team in the league.

And that’s because Kevin Durant is “da real MVP,” right there at the top. No, it’s not a fun narrative. It’s more interesting watching Russ pile up triple-doubles, more compelling seeing Harden at point guard, and more win-one-for-the-Gipper to give the nod to LeBron.

But Durant is the best player in the league this season playing for the best team, and in the NBA, that makes him the MVP.

Durant is shooting six percent higher than his career field goal percentage and he’s averaging career highs in rebounds and blocks per game while having by far a career low in turnovers. He’s at an absurd 66 percent true shooting, averaging over 26 points a game on only 17 shots.

Consider this: We are 45 games into an NBA season and Kevin Durant is averaging over 1.5 points per field goal attempt. Let that sink in.

And, unlike Harden who has been just as absurd offensively, Durant has become a force of nature on both ends of the court. All summer, everyone wondered who Golden State would put at center to protect the rim — did anyone ever consider that it might be KD? Durant has become the Warriors’ best rim protector and is averaging almost three combined steals and blocks per game.

Remember how good Durant was on defense against the Dubs in the playoffs last year? He’s playing like that every night now, and he is the reason the Warriors have rebounded from early defensive struggles to become the No. 1 defensive team midway through the 2016–17 season.

Simply put, KD is a top five player on both offense and defense. And that’s why he’s the 2017 mid-season alt-MVP.

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