Sure it may not have been completely official, but the NBA pretty much announced two of its regular season awards in one day. After announcing the Magic’s Hedo Turkoglu had won the Most Improved Player award, word started spreading that the Hornet’s Byron Scott would be the coach of the year winner.
Turkoglu played amazing this season and was a huge reason why Orlando won their division. He may not be the best player on his team but still was an integral part of the Magic’s lineup. He also had big shoes to fill after Grant Hill’s departure. Nobody took as big of a leap talent-wise as Turk did.
As for coach of the year — to be formally announced today — Scott is a good choice. He helped turn around the Hornets and coached them to second place in the hardcore West. He may have had Chris Paul running the floor but he didn’t have as much depth up front as I thought they did going into the season.
I would really like to know who does the voting for some of the NBA awards as well. It is apparently by a panel of sports writers across North America but some votes are just too dumb to have been cast by people who follow the sport for a living.
Honestly, who could possibly think that Shaquille O’Neal was the second most improved player this year? What an idiot. Oh, there were other questionable votes too: LeBron James, while steadily improving on his greatness, should not be getting a first place vote. Al Jefferson falls somewhat into the same category. Giving Monta Ellis some votes is kind of questionable considering he won the award last year. Come on, most improved in the entire league twice in a row? Andrew Bynum greatly improved but was injured for half the season.
Personally, I think that Hedo deserved it and I would have given the second place vote to Jose Calderon while David West would get my third place vote.