Shouldn't the ROY award have been shared?

[Randy]

Okay, for a moment let's step away from the hype.  

LeBron -- outstanding season and THE player for Cleveland.  In fact, Cleveland dumps a couple of scorers (Miles and Davis) to make sure that LeBron gets his shots, looks, etc.  LeBron's numbers are quite impressive even if he is on one of the lowest teams in the NBA.  

Anthony -- also an outstanding season and while Denver has more talent than the Cavs, Carmello leads his team to the playoffs.  Look at the stats, Carmello isn't playing the point and with the exception of assists, is right there with LeBron in every category -- even leading in many.  The difference?  This kid led his team from the cellar to the playoffs.  I also think that Mello is the better defender -- LeBron still has a LOT to learn about defense (although I wouldn't say that Mello is an outstanding defender).

I think there are many people who allow other factors to play in here:  

For LeBron:  all the hype that has surrounded him, he IS the guy for his team, he has been a fan favorite

For Mello:  some hype, he has brought his team out of the cellar to the playoffs, exhibited selfishness.

I think if you can JUST look at what these players have done on the court and take away the hype with James, the selfishness by Mello -- I think you have a deadlock -- and I, personally, think the ROY, this year, should have been shared.  But, IMO, you can't take the risk of offending the leagues biggest hype machine.

[Lurker]

IMO the best rookie was actually in Miami.  However because he had no preseason hype he has been overlooked all year.  And he help lead a lottery team to the #4 seed in the East....something that the ROY can't claim to have accomplished.

Anthony gets too much credit for the resurgance in Denver.  A healthy Camby, Nene with an additional year of experience, Andre Miller, even Barry & Lenard brought key contributions.  Kiki did an excellant job of putting together a team that added the #3 pick and improved.  But to credit the #3 pick for the improvement is the work of casual fans & sportswriters.

LeBron did a great job of living up to the hype....but that is about it.  He led the Cavs in stats only.  If James was such a great leader (and player) then why did the loss of their point guard down the stretch cost them so many games?  James has charisma & great talent.....but he did not lead his team anywhere.  Basically LeBron had to LOSE the award which was handed to him in the preseason.

[JoMal]

Even after all of that, Lurker, James looked to be the cream of a very talented rookie class. While I would not suggest he unanimously be awarded the ROY, Melo looked to be a notch below him and Wade had to miss twenty-one games this season from injury, so it is hard for him to qualify.

Statwise, Anthony put in 21 points a game, James 20.9, and Wade 16.3, Anthony rebounded the best and James had the most assists per game. But Wade had by far the best shooting percentage (46.5% compared to 41.7% for James and a woeful 36.5% for Melo).

Any of these guys would win the ROY hands down if they were the only hyped up rookie who came out for this season, but because of the competition, it looks to me that James has it in the bag.

That's truly a pity.

[Lurker]

I agree that Wade missing games should disqualify him from the award....I have always been a big proponent of the fact that players should earn awards on the court & not in their press clippings.

However over the last 4-5 weeks of the regular season I would say that Daniels in Dallas has been the best rookie.  Hinrich in Chicago and Bosh in Toronto deserve mention also.  

But then I also believe you should look past just the raw stats.  What did the player do on the court that really helped his team succeed?  Wade brought a lot of things to the Heat including running the point (IMO the hardest position in the NBA to learn) and helped them achieve home court advantage.  Not slip in as the eighth seed, not miss the playoffs.  But produce in a on-court leadership position down the stretch to win home court on the last day of the season.   For this I say he is possibly the best rookie in this class....but missing over 1/4 of the season costs him the hardware.

[Randy]

IMO the best rookie was actually in Miami.  However because he had no preseason hype he has been overlooked all year.  And he help lead a lottery team to the #4 seed in the East....something that the ROY can't claim to have accomplished.

Anthony gets too much credit for the resurgance in Denver.  A healthy Camby, Nene with an additional year of experience, Andre Miller, even Barry & Lenard brought key contributions.  Kiki did an excellant job of putting together a team that added the #3 pick and improved.  But to credit the #3 pick for the improvement is the work of casual fans & sportswriters.

LeBron did a great job of living up to the hype....but that is about it.  He led the Cavs in stats only.  If James was such a great leader (and player) then why did the loss of their point guard down the stretch cost them so many games?  James has charisma & great talent.....but he did not lead his team anywhere.  Basically LeBron had to LOSE the award which was handed to him in the preseason.

Anthony gets too much credit for the resurgance in Denver.  A healthy Camby, Nene with an additional year of experience, Andre Miller, even Barry & Lenard brought key contributions.  Kiki did an excellant job of putting together a team that added the #3 pick and improved.  But to credit the #3 pick for the improvement is the work of casual fans & sportswriters.

Do you disagree that Anthony led the Denver team this year?  I don't discount any of the contributions that key players made like Nene, Camby, Lenard (he did an incredible job for me for a while when some key contributers went down on my FNBA team), Miller (although I was a bit disappointed in Miller's contribution -- I still don't think he is living up to his potential), and Barry was big off the bench (still amazed that Detroit let that guy go and the Lakers didn't try to pick him up).  

Bottom line for me is that I think Anthony led his team (led, not did it all himself) -- and in a team that makes it to the playoffs, I think that goes beyond stats.  I would agree with Wade as well -- although I think the Heat have other leaders other than Wade (I'm not sure that's the case with Denver).  

[Lurker]

No, I don't agree.  IMO Melo did not lead the Nuggets.  He may be the best athlete on that team but I wouldn't give him the mantle of leadership yet.  In fact the Nuggets slid into the eighth spot as much because Utah & Portland had tougher season ending schedules than the Nuggets than anything that Anthony did.

Besides the fact that he quit on his team down the stretch one game,  his immaturity and self-centered attitude are not signs of a leader.  Take Barry & Miller off that team and it is in the lottery again.  Anthony is a solid player...potentially an all-star....but is furthest away from being a leader.

[Randy]

I'm not discounting Mello's immaturity but I think you neglecting his emotional leadership on this team for the year.  Listening to players like Barry talk about his leadership on the court makes me think that he was the leader of this team on the court.  And I don't disagree with the comment that without Andre they wouldn't be in the playoffs -- but while Portland and Utah had tough games down the stretch, Denver came out hot and played their tough games earlier -- everyone in the West plays against the same teams.  

[JoMal]

Bottom line for me is that I think Anthony led his team (led, not did it all himself) -- and in a team that makes it to the playoffs, I think that goes beyond stats.  I would agree with Wade as well -- although I think the Heat have other leaders other than Wade (I'm not sure that's the case with Denver).

Randy, Wade managing to upgrade the Heat appeared to me to be a bigger jump then the Nuggets, with all the other improvements made by Denver. The Heat were not playoff material last year with just about the same players, but put Wade in that mix and Miami is suddenly looking very good.

Anthony is going to be a very good player once he realyzes that he has teammates around him.

[Randy]

Bottom line for me is that I think Anthony led his team (led, not did it all himself) -- and in a team that makes it to the playoffs, I think that goes beyond stats.  I would agree with Wade as well -- although I think the Heat have other leaders other than Wade (I'm not sure that's the case with Denver).

Randy, Wade managing to upgrade the Heat appeared to me to be a bigger jump then the Nuggets, with all the other improvements made by Denver. The Heat were not playoff material last year with just about the same players, but put Wade in that mix and Miami is suddenly looking very good.

Anthony is going to be a very good player once he realyzes that he has teammates around him.

Umm, did you forget about Lamar Odom?  This is a VERY gifted player who added a lot to the Heat -- who wasn't there last year.  I would rather have Odom than Andre Miller, wouldn't you?  I'm not discounting Wade -- but I never considered Wade because of his injuries -- just like I wouldn't do for players who were injured for the MVP.

[westkoast]

First of all Ive debated this same subject at least 5 seperate times on other message boards and in person with fellow basketball fans.  The topic has been beat to death IMO.  The ROY was going to Lebron either way.....im suprised people didnt already just assume since the media/nba hyped him up so much.  With that being said I believe he was the better player of the two.  Also I am very tired of people acting like Melo put the Nuggets on his back and carried them into the playoffs.  Thats knocking Boykins, NeNe, Barry, Camby (most of all Camby IMO), Miller, and Leonard.  All of the above pitched in quite a bit and all were important in this team turning it around.  For some odd reason this idea is floating around that this is the same exact Nuggets team as the previous season.  In fact the last three arguments with people on message boards all have brought up the same reply 'This is the same exact Nuggets team as last year'.  No its not.  Just having a healthy Marcus Camby makes a world of difference for this team.

Here is why I think Lebron deserves it.......Not because of hype but because of a few other things.  First of all the pressure put on this kids shoulders to perform at a very high level comming fresh out of high school.  Thats not easy for anyone let alone the next Mike :rolleyes: .  Second he, along side the coaching staff, got this to be a team.  The last few seasons this was not a team, it was 5 guys in the same uniform.  Ricky Davis had to take all the attention, they played alot of 1 on 1, and there was not a whole lot of sharing going on.  Thats not the case now.  It started with the coaching  and ended with Lebron's unselfish play.  His unselfishness is something that went overlooked for someone who has been crowned the next Mike.  Melo certainly let his status go to his head at times...James did not.  Lastly, the Cavs dont have alot of talent on the offensive end.  This team needs James to drop 30 points and dish out 8 to 10 assists every night to be in the running.  Plenty of times this year he has been an offensive monster....certainly alot to ask of someone who has yet to really learn how the NBA game is played.

[JoMal]

Bottom line for me is that I think Anthony led his team (led, not did it all himself) -- and in a team that makes it to the playoffs, I think that goes beyond stats.  I would agree with Wade as well -- although I think the Heat have other leaders other than Wade (I'm not sure that's the case with Denver).

Randy, Wade managing to upgrade the Heat appeared to me to be a bigger jump then the Nuggets, with all the other improvements made by Denver. The Heat were not playoff material last year with just about the same players, but put Wade in that mix and Miami is suddenly looking very good.

Anthony is going to be a very good player once he realyzes that he has teammates around him.

Umm, did you forget about Lamar Odom?  This is a VERY gifted player who added a lot to the Heat -- who wasn't there last year.  I would rather have Odom than Andre Miller, wouldn't you?  I'm not discounting Wade -- but I never considered Wade because of his injuries -- just like I wouldn't do for players who were injured for the MVP.

Umm, I am picking James for ROY, not Wade. Look at my post above.

You mean, would you pick Odom over Camby? Miller and Odom is like comparing apples and oranges, but since Camby is not the scorer that Odom is, Lamar made a bigger difference there, sure. But how many other players did Melo have join him on the Nuggets compared to Wade and Odom on the Heat.

The Nuggets added a healthy Camby, Andre Miller, Melo, Voshon Leonard, Jon Barry, Earl Boykins, and Michael Doleac (earp) to Nene. So how can you separate out what Melo did for this team with all those new faces around him?

Does Odom and Wade alone equal seven players?

[SPURSX3]

I think carmelo and james should have split it,  thier numbers are very close, besides, carmelo got his team to the playoffs, while james is the whole enchilada and then some (this kid is "The Game" as far as i am concerned).  I think carmelo deserves to have split the award this season.

[Guest]

I think carmelo and james should have split it,  thier numbers are very close, besides, carmelo got his team to the playoffs, while james is the whole enchilada and then some (this kid is "The Game" as far as i am concerned).  I think carmelo deserves to have split the award this season.

I have no problem when people say 'he helped his team get to the playoffs' but this idea that hes the main reason why they are in the playoffs is just not true.  Camby is having one of his best season in years, Barry has had strength to the outside shooting, Boykins gives plenty of teams all kinds of trouble, Miller gives them a point guard they've been lacking since Van Exel took off, and NeNe has been real solid.

[Derek Bodner]

In fact the Nuggets slid into the eighth spot as much because Utah & Portland had tougher season ending schedules than the Nuggets than anything that Anthony did.

Did they not play the exact same teams over an 82 game schedule?

[Lurker]

And Cleveland & Miami played the same 82 game schedule.  So Wade led his team to a #4 seed.  James' team gets ping pong balls.  

Last year Amare won over Yao based on his team making the playoffs.  This year the rules change?

I'll go back to my original statement.....IMO the best rookie was in Miami.