It's not exactly the true halfway point of the season -- considering most teams have already played over 50 games -- but the All-Star break represents a good cutoff point to judge the NBA season in two parts: pre- and post-All-Star. For that reason, this is a time when most NBA followers reflect heavily on who they think are the frontrunners to win the big end-of-season awards up to this point. We here at numberFire -- and in this case, me in particular -- are no different.
If the season ended today and I had a vote to cast for these awards (neither of which is true), here is who I'd pick. I already know that the other hoops writers at the site disagree with a few of these, so I can imagine some of you reading this do as well. That's fine, discussion is the majority of the fun! Feel free to throw your picks in the comment section below. At the end of the season, when cases are more clearly cemented, you can expect a more roundtable-style discussion from me and my colleagues (if you're into that sort of thing).
For now, you're stuck with my thoughts. Let's do it.
Most Valuable Player
My pick: Basketball-Reference.com, and he plays on the best defensive team in the Association, according to our metrics. When he's on the floor, the Warriors have a 95.4 Defensive Rating, compared to a 101.3 when he's off (the only player the Dubs have a triple-digit Defensive Rating without and an insane 5.9-point swing per 100 possessions). He's also the league leader in Defensive Win Shares (3.6), and third in Defensive Box Plus/Minus (4.3). He joins rookie our metrics, the Hawks are currently second in the entire Association in team nERD, sixth in offensive efficiency (109.8 points scored per 100 possessions), and sixth in defensive efficiency (102.8 points allowed per 100 possessions). Golden State is the only other team to rank in the top-6 in all three of those categories and not a single other Eastern Conference team shows up in all three top-10s.
The Hawks play beautiful, meticulous basketball with solid spacing and defense, fuelled by a team full of players who know their roles and play them well. Look no further than last weekend's All-Star festivities and the fact that Hawks players (Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, and Kyle Korver) made up one-third of the Eastern Conference roster (plus Budenholzer as head coach). Neither of those guys would be well known to the casual fan and the word "superstar" is rarely used to describe either of them, but they all deserved to be there just as much as anyone else.
The Hawks posted the only 17-0 month in NBA history in January in the midst of a 19-game win streak, and those four All-Stars and DeMarre Carroll were rewarded for it by receiving the Eastern Conference Player of the Month honor as a unit (the first time that's ever happened).
The team's long list of impressive accolades this is season is largely coach Bud's doing and the players will be the first to tell you that. The narrative is too fun and interesting not to give Budenholzer the award this year, so he definitely gets my (imaginary) vote (for the season up to now).