Wednesday October 28 2009 – 12:19am Eastern – Toronto, ON
Alright, I was out at the “More Than A Game” movie premiere with the likes of Matt Devlin, Jack Armstrong, Paul Jones, Sherman Hamilton, Leo Rautins, and more …
And Devlin started bustin’ my chops about my “predictions” blog on Raptors.com (http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/eric_smith_blog.html) … which was originally posted on Tuesday afternoon. He was sayin’ his “commentary” needed to be added to his picks (Note: He was the ONLY one of the “experts” that provided any kind of commentary or explanation for his selections).
So, to take care of my boy Matty D … here’s the “play by play” of Devlin’s end-of-the-season awards …
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
- Tough one. Blake Griffin on a better team or Tyreke Evans – plenty of shots on a bad team? I’ll go with Blake. (NOTE: Selection was made before Griffin’s injury was announced)
SIXTH MAN:
- Rasheed Wallace. Almost every year you can give it to Manu Ginobili, but this year Rasheed gets it in Celtic Green.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
- Dwight Howard
MVP:
- Lebron James. Back to back.
COACH OF THE YEAR:
- Stan Van Gundy. Although … maybe we should all vote for Jerry Sloan…seeing that he is a Hall of Fame coach that has never won the award!
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER:
- Andrea Bargnani. The time is now.
Again, the original blog (sans Devlin’s analysis) can be found here: http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/eric_smith_blog.html
Thanks again to Mike Ganter, Doug Smith, Michael Grange, Leo Rautins, Eric Koreen, Paul Jones, Jack Armstrong, and Devlin for their help.
I’ll be back with more GAME-DAY / OPENING NIGHT bloggin’ later today … including Devlin’s thoughts on the Raptors’ record this year … as well as his East and West predictions as well (and predictions from the above “panel” as well).
E. Smith
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