No contest: Rose, James headed for decisive victories
There's no need to survey voters because it was obvious back in November that Derrick Rose was on his way to an easy win for rookie of the year. That forecast most likely will come to fruition sometime during the Bulls' first-round playoff series.
Another vote that has been obvious all season is LeBron James steaming toward his first (of many) Most Valuable Player award. The ballots are due Thursday, so here's a rundown of my picks for the NBA's meaningful honors:
Rookie of the year: Rose is the clear winner, but a number of guys could make a strong argument for No. 2, including Memphis' O.J. Mayo, New Jersey's Brook Lopez, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Minnesota's Kevin Love and Memphis' Marc Gasol.
I'm going with Rose, Lopez and Mayo as the top three. My all-rookie team would add Westbrook and Love, with a second team of Gasol, Eric Gordon (Clippers), Michael Beasley (Miami), Mario Chalmers (Miami) and Jason Thompson (Sacramento).
Most valuable player: We all knew this was coming. James' numbers are similar to last season (28.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.3 assists), but his defense and Cleveland's team success put him over the top.
Second place is an interesting call between a guy who did more for his team, Dwyane Wade, and the guy with more team victories, Kobe Bryant.
Voters choose five, so my call is James, Wade, Bryant, Orlando's Dwight Howard and Denver's Chauncey Billups.
Coach of the year: This might be the toughest choice. In my view, there are six finalists and all are subjective calls.
Cleveland's Mike Brown posted the best record, but it's easy to ask why he waited so long to open up the offense. Miami's Eric Spoelstra did a nice job on the defensive end and is working on a plus-26 improvement, but he does have Wade. Don't overlook Atlanta's Mike Woodson, who is going to improve by 10 wins with the same group as last year.
In the West, Houston's Rick Adelman and Portland's Nate McMillan coach rising teams and the Rockets had to deal with a bunch of injury and trade issues. I also think Rick Carlisle deserves credit for approaching 50 wins with a seemingly old and flawed Dallas roster.
This could go a number of different ways, but I'm going with Adelman, Woodson and Carlisle as the top three.
Most improved player: There are more strong candidates in this category than usual. I would have gone with Orlando guard Jameer Nelson, but he only played in 42 games due to a shoulder injury.
The others are Indiana's Danny Granger (19.6 to 25.5 ppg), New Jersey's Devin Harris (15.4 to 21.5 ppg), Utah's Paul Millsap (8.1 to 13.5 ppg), New York's David Lee (10.8 to 16.1 ppg) and the Bulls' John Salmons (12.5 to 18.6 ppg).
The thing about Harris and Granger is they did nothing to make their teams better. The Bulls are 13-6 with Salmons as a starter.
I've talked myself into it: Salmons, Millsap, Nelson, though any of the six I mentioned are deserving.
Sixth man award: Jason Terry of the Mavericks has averaged nearly 20 points off the bench, though there is no compelling reason why he doesn't start ahead of Antoine Wright. Terry, Denver's J.R. Smith, Portland's Travis Outlaw.
Defensive player of the year: Are there any lockdown defenders anymore? Howard, Chris Paul, James.
All-NBA first team: Wade, Bryant, James, Howard and Dirk Nowitzki.
All-NBA second team: Paul, Tony Parker, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming.
All-NBA third team: Billups, Brandon Roy, Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett.
It should be perfectly logical why I have Billups fifth for MVP, but third-team all-NBA. What's strange is Paul has turned in one of the greatest seasons ever by an NBA point guard (22.9 points, 11.0 assists, 2.8 steals, .502 field-goal percentage), but won't make first-team All-NBA because of Wade and Bryant.
Out of curiosity, I looked for the all-time greatest point guard performance and settled on Magic Johnson in 1986-87 when he posted 23.9 points, 12.2 assists, 6.3 rebounds and .522 field-goal percentage. Oscar Robertson averaged his triple-double in 1961-62 (30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 11.4 assists), but I don't know if he was truly a point guard.