OK, you may have been expecting Part II of the Draft series. You may also have something to say about how I copied this idea from the fine folks at Mile High Hockey. Whatever. I've given them credit, and since it seems like nobody else has done this yet, I'll be the first to do so. (By the way, for Part II I have a more reasonable situation, but I'm stuck on what player to do. I might do multiple).
So behold, the 2009-2010 Nuggets Players Awards! (but a health lesson on Nuggets will be first!)
Let's start off with the boring ones and end with the good ones!
The Yakhouba Diawara Award for the Player who gets Playing Time but does freaking nothing with it: Malik Allen
This was a no-brainer no matter how you look at it.. In my opinion, Diawara was a waste of minutes, as although he supposedly played defense, he couldn't do shit on offense, and he couldn't pass, he couldn't rebound, he couldn't stay in front of his man some of the time, and he couldn't put the round, orange ball with those black thingys on it into the orange plastic circle with a net attached. Malik isn't as bad as Diawara because he averaged more tacos per game than Yak-Yuk-Yak did, but still. He deserves it more than Air Conditioner because at least Anthony Carter had this 5-game stretch where he played well.
The
The Alexis Ajinca Award for the backup French big-man who doesn't get playing time: Johan Petro
OK, Petro is infinitely more talented than Ajinca, but I couldn't think of any other backup French big men in the league, and "Alexis Ajinca Award" can be shortened to AAA, which also stands for Absolutely Awesome Anchovies (as well as Arron Augustine Afflalo). Petro really deserved to play more when the other big guys were injured, as although he does have his limitations in fighting in the post and scoring outside of the paint, he is/was much better than Malik Allen, who sometimes got more playing time than him.
The following is funny...
The Ryan Bowen/Leon Powe Award for the energy guy without much game: Joey Graham
If you don't remember Ryan Bowen, he was that hard-working guy on the bench of the horrible 2002-03 team, and one of the only two players on that team (the other being Juwan Howard) who actually gave a crap. Joey Graham played hard and had the occasional random 20-point game that came from purely hustle and layups (remember Game 6 of the Nuggets-Jizz series? Did that remind you of Game 2 of the 2008 Finals?). This is meant as a compliment, as I kinda wish that our starting lineup exhibited the energy that Graham exhibits.
Here is a picture of Bowen (right) and Tskitishvili in practice. I'm assuming that Skita is attempting to post Ryan up, and I'm assuming that Bowen is flopping appalled that Skita is actually posting him up (Skita was known for taking and badly missing ill-advised jumpers).
The Latrell Sprewell Award for the exciting, explosive, athletic shooting guard that is remarkably inconsistent: JR Smith
I hate to put Sprewell's name in the same sentence as JR, but Earl Smith III is going the same down the same path as Sprewell (minus the coach-choking fiasco) unless he puts his head on straight and realizes that scoring is not the only important part of the game, and that making money is not the only part of life that one should be interested in persuing.
The [Somebody in the comments section please think of an apppropriate name for this] for the player who finds his stride around Christmastime and starts totally kicking @$$ and pounding the boards until getting injured award: Kenyon Martin
The Nuggets would have finished the season in the 7th or 8th seed had it not been for Kenyon Martin's reinvigorated play in January and February. He went from being solely a defensive PF to being a 14 ppg, 12 rpg monster during those two months while some of the Nuggets' other key guys were out with injuries.
"The Tim Duncan award for the experienced Veteran player who is fundamentally strong and can fill it up on a nightly basis but isn't considered 'flashy'": Chauncey Billups
Thanks to Agiliarept for the idea. This one is obvious, as Billups is the consummate veteran leader that doesn't do the flashy stuff to win, but has a winning attitude (whatever the heck that is). However, Billups wasn't always this type of guy. Here are some of his highlights from George Washington, CU, Celtics, Nuggets (first time), Craptors, and TWolves.
By the way, in the next video (unrelated), Steve Hess is just so funny.
The Spud Webb Award for the short guy who can dunk: Ty Lawson
This too...:
You were expecting me to put the dunk on Mbenga, right? I think this dunk is just as good, but since it isn't against a big-market team like the Lakers it isn't as well-known.
And finally...
The QPU Award for the MOST VALUABLE QUITTER: CARMELO "QUITTER" ANTHONY!!!
'Nuff said.
If you have any more ideas, please write them down in the comments section and I'll be sure to post them.
