A Small Appreciation of Bracey Wright
First off, thanks to those who gave me feedback on how to handle this disheartening point of the season, when the only intelligent thing for the Wolves to do is lose. Which is a bittersweet bit of good fortune, because about the only thing this squad is capable of doing is losing.

But game analysis is a broken record, especially with the departure of Garnett for the season. There are only so many times I can bash Davis-Blount-James before it feels less like insight and more like a grudge. I've tried to go out of my way to praise this troika when they've done well, but since I think they are all still overvalued in the eye of the casual fan (but probably only the most masochistic of the ones who are my readers), and since I don't want to simply echo conventional wisdom, I still wind up hammering them more than is necessary.

Let's get positive for just a second then, and talk about Bracey Wright. Word is the Wolves drafted Wright largely on the enthusiasm on then-assistant GM Rex Chapman, and I confess to being bewildered at the choice at the time, before remembering Kevin McHale's history of throwaway second-round picks--since remedied by Craig Smith. And, belatedly, Bracey Wright. No one denied the kid could shoot, and certainly not after he finished 4th in scoring in the D-League at better than 21 ppg last year. It's just that he's relatively frail, not very quick, not very athletic, really; an undersized 'tweener guard of the sort who's upside is making close to six figures in a European league.

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The sad part of this tale is that I still don't see him being anything more than someone at the end of an NBA bench. But all that said, if you paid attention on his quick cameoes, including last night's loss to the Nuggets in Denver, you can't help but be impressed with Wright's poise. Once he finally joined the Wolves in Minnesota last season, he jacked up jumpers whenever he was open, then endured a brief experiment when the braintrust tried to turn him into a point guard--which could well have been camouflage for tanking.

This season he's played a grand total of 175 minutes and is shooting less than 40% from the field. Even his most impressive stat, a team-best +49 (KG is second at +10 and Rashad McCants' +6 is the only other positive), has been accomplished almost exclusively in garbage time or the substitute-rich middle periods of the game. But what catches your eye is that Wright has been feverishly polishing the important "little" things about the game, like fostering ball movement (a totally lost art on this dysfunctional squad), making sound judgments on defensive rotations, not trying to extend himself beyond his skill set with foolish passes or showboating, and generally displaying a consistent effort with a generous attitude despite the circumstances. Last night he played a season-high 26:29 and canned 13 points (5-11 FG, 1-5 3P, 2-4 FT) with 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a pair of steals versus one turnover. Playing on the floor with the NBA's ultimate jitterbug in AI, with absolutely no interior defense behind him, he once again didn't embarrass himself. Most likely two or three years from now he'll be a vague footnote in our collective memory banks, but last night and during a disastrous three-month stretch where the Wolves have compiled the second-worst record in the entire NBA (only the Milwaukee Bucks, at 11-33, undercut Minnesota's 12-33 mark) Bracey Wright has instead been a minor but not unappreciated grace note. Good for him.

2. The Great Brittons
You know the blog ethos has gone to my head when I start naming award picks after myself (full name: Paul Britton Robson Jr.) in a desperate bid to break the monotony. Anyway, the virtual statuettes go to:

Coach of the Year
1. Jeff Van Gundy
2. Sam Mitchell
3. Jerry Sloan
Van Gundy weathered injuries to Yao and McGrady and has his team primed to be the foe nobody wants to face in the playoffs. Mitchell likewise has contended with injuries, early-season rumors about his own firing, and a slew of rookies, to post more than 45 wins, albeit in an inferior conference. Sloan has mixed and matched his talent with an unconventional front line and produced perhaps his most creative season. Honorable mention to Don Nelson, Flip Saunders, Avery Johnson, and, as Steve Aschburner astutely pointed out on Sunday, Dwane Casey.

6th Man
1. Leandro Barbosa
2. Manu Ginobili
This really is a two-person contest. The Suns' high-powered offense actually kicks up a notch in speed and productivity when Barbosa enters the game. Ginobili is an erstwhile stud-starter who has sacrificed a bit of ego for the good of his team. Former contenders Ben Gordon and Mike Miller are starters this year. Honorable mention, way back, goes to Jerry Stackhouse, Antonio McDyess, and Earl Watson.

Rookie of the Year
1. Brandon Roy
2. Jorge Garbajosa
3. LeMarcus Aldridge
Roy is so far ahead of everyone else here that he should be a unanimous choice. Garbajosa is the already mature foreign export crucial to the Raptors' early rise, who blew out his leg in brutal fashion. Aldridge is going to be really good and make Joel Pryz expendable in the process. For the record, I'd put Randy Foye and Craig Smith 4th and 6th, respectively, surrounding Rudy Gay.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Shane Battier
2. Tayshaun Prince
3. Bruce Bowen
My rules: Blocks and steals are overrated; rotational help coupled with stolid on-ball defense is paramount, with versatility also important. Battier and Van Gundy is a match made in hell for opposing swing men. Prince helped restore Flip Saunders' defensive reputation by leading the Big Ben-less Pistons to top five finishes in fewest points and lowest FG% by opponents. Bowen needs (or at least gets) six or seven more minutes of rest than the other two, which about the only reason he's third. Honorable mention: Ben Wallace, Marcus Camby, Tim Duncan.

Most Improved
1. Deron Williams
2. Al Jefferson
3. Kevin Martin
Another no-brainer. In Year Two, Williams has become the MVP of a typically tough Sloan-coached team, leap-frogging Chris Paul and stamping himself as most likely successor to Nash as the NBA's premiere point guard. Jefferson's second half has been phenomenal beneath the radar due to the Celts' miserable season--pairing him with Oden or Durant would put them in the second round, minimum, next season. Martin is an overachiever who has probably now reached his ceiling, but you've got to admire the doubled-scoring average, especially on a team with shoot-first cohorts like Bibby and Artest.

MVP
1. Steve Nash
2. Dirk Nowitzki
Another two-person race. For two straight seasons I really grimaced at Nash getting this award, firmly believing it belonged to Shaq and then LeBron, respectively. Now, in what has so clearly been Nash's greatest season, one of the most stunning point guard displays in the history of the NBA, Nash will be denied the award because voters don't regard him as luminous enough to be placed alongside Bird, Wilt, and Bill Russell as three-time winners. And he isn't. But he is the MVP of 2006-07, hands down. Notwitzki would be a mediocre choice even without Nash in the running, but gets extra credit for sublimating his stats for the good of a 60+ win team. Honorable mention to Kobe Bryant, the anti-Nash in that his legend will always be larger than his collection of MVP trophies, LeBron James, who will demonstrate why this award is best voted on after the playoffs, and Tim Duncan, the ultimate glue guy.

3. Rockets-Jazz Playoff Preview
This is the playoff series I am most looking forward to watching. Here are a few reasons why.

* Sloan vs. Van Gundy
Two of the league's best coaches. With his multiple screens, weakside cuts and various picks and rolls, Sloan puts meat-and-potatoes offense on the court as well as anyone in the game. The Jazz ranked second only to Phoenix in team FG% this season, despite finishing next-to-last from beyond the arc. What that means is a bevy of high percentage shots developed through physicality, guile, and unselfish ball movement, all hallmarks of Sloan teams. And this outfit is his most talented since the days of Stockton and Malone. Meanwhile, Van Gundy is one of the NBA's better defensive tacticians, always landing his teams among the top handful is lowest opponent FG% and leading the league this year with a .429 mark. JVG, too, has his most talented team since he took the Knicks to the NBA finals.

* Aces in the hole
The Jazz don't really have an answer for Yao Ming. Their starting center, Mehmet Okur, is an outside shooter--the team's only real three-point threat--who is smart and has a nose for the basketball in the paint, but is hardly a defensive stopper and doesn't even play as large as his 6-11 height, which is a good half-foot shorter than Yao. Their power forward, Carlos Boozer, has brawn but is perhaps generously listed at 6-9.
Expect Sloan to double-down on Yao from a number of angles and try a variety of different players and looks on him. He certainly has some compelling pieces. Swingman Kirilenko is a defensive beast but will probably spend almost all of his time occupying Tracy McGrady. Backup center Jarron Collins is physical and disciplined, perhaps Utah's best answer if the plan is not to front or double Yao too much. Shooting guard Derek Fisher is wily and experienced at doubling down and will be a Yao pest. Backup small forward Matt Harpring is nearly as large as Boozer and plays a tough, physical game.
In any event, the plan most likely will be to deny Yao touches whenever possible, and collapse on him immediately when he does get the ball. Yao is prone to turnovers not only due to footwork but bringing the ball up to the 6-6 level of his chest. But once he catches and squares to the hoop, he's a deadly midrange jumpshooter with a quick release.

But the Jazz have their own ace in point guard Deron Williams, and it is to their advantage that point guard is where Houston is weakest, with Rafer Alston running the show. Alston shot 37.4% from the field and dished out only 5.4 assists per game. Both stats are a little unfair because more than half his shots were treys (and he made more than 36% of them) and his assist total is deflated because McGrady dominates the backcourt ball possession. But Alston is hardly John Paxton to T-Mac's MJ; he's the opposite of ice water, a streaky, emotional player who makes only 74% of his free throws. But Houston has no viable second option: Alston led the team in minutes played this season.

More importantly, Alston is no match for Williams when the Rockets are on defense. Williams is not only an inch taller but 30 pounds heavier than Alston, and through the tutelage of Sloan and John Stockton (who always played bigger and heavier than he actually was) has learned to excel at shielding the ball with his body on drives and passes. Alston is 16th in the league in steals, but Sloan and Williams are generally too smart to present many opportunities for that.

More likely, Van Gundy will figure out ways to bump Williams off stride, perhaps mixing in a matchup zone and trapping the corners. One advantage for Houston is that with the likes of Yao or Mutumbo underneath, they can gamble and press up on the perimeter. Another intriguing possibility is putting Shane Battier on Williams. (Battier could also find himself guarding Okur on the perimeter while Yao contends with Boozer. That Battier is a plausible option on both the center and point guard attests to his value.) It could backfire--Williams is obviously quicker--but it also might throw a huge monkey-wrench into the best thing the Jazz have going. Put simply, the Jazz don't win unless Williams has a superb series.

* Battle of the boards
With a pair of leviathans in Yao and Mutumbo, a pair of capable forwards off the bench in Juwan Howard and energy guy Chuck Hayes (who may not play much), and a pair of large swingmen in Battier and McGrady, *and* a defensive that generates more missed shots than anyone in the league, Houston grabs a lot of rebounds--43.5 a game, good for second in the NBA, a tenth of a rebound behind the Bulls. But despite its relative lack of size, Utah parlays Sloan's fundamentals into being titans on the boards, owning the largest rebounding differential by far--more than 5.3 per game--of any team in the league.

*Kirilenko on McGrady
It is amazing that only now are we getting around to McGrady. The guy had a fabulous year, averaging 24.6/5.3/6.5 in points/rebounds/assists. Who guards him? Not Derek Fisher--too short and probably too old. Not Gordan Giricek, who is rangy but usually a defensive liability. One interesting choice would be Ronnie Brewer but he's a rook--expect foul trouble if he's on T-Mac. The best bet is obviously Andrei Kirilenko. In fact he's probably the ideal McGrady foil; the problem is, who guards Battier at the other forward spot? Between Yao and T-Mac, not to mention three-point specialist Luther Head off the bench and Battier and Alston also bombing from outside, Sloan is going to have to do a lot of rotating and switching on defense anyway. Whether Kirilenio--a marvelous, Swiss army knife kind of defender, like a more wiry Kevin Garnett--can be as much of a disrupter on D as T-Mac is an igniter on O will be another key to Utah's chances.

* Prediction
I love the Jazz and have great respect for Sloan, but this isn't a good matchup for this team. The six weeks or so Yao sat out with an injury only rested him a bit and made the Rockets more dangerous by gaining confidence from the wins generated in Yao's absence. The Jazz have to figure out a way to fluster both Yao and McGrady--possible, but hardly probably. They can exploit Alston, but the streaky point guard will also be a positive factor at least once. On top of everything else, Houston has earned the home court advantage. The Rockets in five or six.