Prize Fighters
Recent Awards Season Portends Big Things in Cleveland's Future
by Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG)
5/16/22 | Cavs.com
Last Friday, the NBA handed out its final major award – naming Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman the 2021-22 Executive of the Year – wrapping up the list of postseason honors.
This season’s Cavaliers – three players, their head coach and the man at the top who put it all together – were able to place five candidates into the Top 5 for each category, although none came away with the hardware.
The team’s struggles down the stretch and its failure to reach the actual Playoffs might have been a factor in keeping Cleveland’s candidates winless. But as it stands now – through recent developments over the weekend, including the ousters of Coach of the Year (Monty Williams) and Most Improved Player (Ja Morant) – each winner from the following five categories will be watching the remainder of the postseason from home.
In fact, the only award-winners from the seven-item list that includes Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Executive of the Year, Sixth Man, Most Improved and Most Valuable Player, only two remain standing – Boston’s Marcus Smart, the DPOY, and Miami’s Tyler Herro, the league’s top reserve.
For the Wine and Gold’s part – they might not have taken top honors at season’s end, but they definitely alerted the Association that it’s just a matter of time before the individual and team awards begin flowing through the North Coast again.
And with that in mind, here’s a quick look back at how our Cavaliers fared in each category …
The future is bright for the young Cavaliers -- on the floor, on the bench and in the front office.
Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE Getty Images
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER -- This is annually one of the toughest categories from which to choose a winner. All three of the finalists – including the first two point guards taken in 2019, Ja Morant and Darius Garland – were already well on their way to stardom. San Antonio’s Dejounte Murray – selected with the 29th overall pick 2016 – just took a little longer to get there.
Morant certainly deserved recognition, upping his scoring average by 8.3 points while recording career-highs in minutes, rebounds, steals, free throws made and attempted (7.3) as well as three-pointers made – all while leading his Grizzlies to the Western Conference’s 2nd seed.
Garland improved his scoring average by 4.3 points from his sophomore season and went on to average career-highs in points (21.7ppg), assists (8.6apg), rebounds (3.3rpg), steals (1.31spg), field goal percentage (.462), free throw percentage (.892), double-doubles (29) and minutes (35.7mpg).
Golden State’s Jordan Poole and Memphis’ Desmond Bane rounded out this year’s Top 5.
The five most recent award recipients were Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Pascal Siakam, Victor Oladipo and the Greek Freak.
COACH OF THE YEAR -- Although their season came crashing down in an epic Game 7 collapse, the Phoenix Suns were the league’s most consistently solid team all year long – and Monty Williams was rewarded for that by being named the NBA’s 2021-22 Coach of the Year.
This year, the Suns posted the Association’s best mark at 64-18 and their highest winning percentage (.780) in franchise history. Phoenix finished the season as the West’s top seed after posting identical records (32-9) both at home and on the road.
J.B. Bickerstaff took over Cleveland’s head coaching job after the 2020 All-Star Break and has been gradually placing his stamp on the squad since. This year’s Cavaliers surpassed the combined win totals of the previous two seasons, remaining in Playoff contention for the duration and began building a culture and identity forged on toughness, togetherness and hard work.
Under their current head coach, the Cavs made a 22-game improvement from the previous season and became one of the league’s toughest defensive squads. Bickerstaff was able to sell Kevin Love on a successful Sixth Man role and managed to keep the team competitive as a spate of injuries decimated the roster.
Bickerstaff finished 5th in this year’s voting, behind Williams, Memphis’ Taylor Jenkins, Miami’s Eric Spoelstra and Boston’s Ime Udoka. The Clippers’ Ty Lue and Mavericks’ Jason Kidd also received votes.
The five most recent recipients are Tom Thibodeau, Nick Nurse, Mike Budenholzer, Dwane Casey and Mike D’Antoni.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR -- Only 15 points separated the voting for Rookie of the Year between this year’s winner, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, the and the Wine and Gold’s lithe 20-year-old phenom, Evan Mobley – the smallest margin since the voting format changed in 2002-03.
Taken with the 4th overall pick, Barnes started every game he played in, averaging 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.08 steals in 74 games – leading all rookies in minutes, while ranking third in points and rebounds and finishing fifth in assists, steals and blocks. The former Seminole became the third Raptor in team history to win the award – joining Damon Stoudemire (1996) and Vince Carter (1999).
For Mobley’s part, all the soft-spoken former Trojan – taken one spot before Barnes – did as a rookie was lead his incoming class in field goal percentage (.508) and double-doubles (20), along with rebounds (8.3) and blocks (1.63) per game, swatting 115 shots and joining Utah’s Rudy Gobert as the only players in the league to average at least 14.0 points, 8.0 boards, 1.5 blocks while shooting better than 50 percent from the floor.
Mobley’s presence changed everything on both ends for the Cavaliers – who stunned the league with their jumbo lineup, partially anchored by the young seven-footer. He has the instincts of a 10-year veteran and no weaknesses to his game that experience can’t fix.
After Mobley in the voting were the league’s most recent top pick, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, followed by Houston’s Jalen Green, Orlando’s Franz Wagner and the Pelicans’ Herbert Jones.
The five most recent winners, respectively, include LaMelo Ball, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons and Malcom Brogdon.
SIXTH MAN -- While the voting for Rookie of the Year was extremely tight, the nod for the league’s top Sixth Man was never really in doubt – with Miami’s Tyler Herro netting 488 total points (96 first place) to 214 total (three first place) for the next runner-up, Cleveland’s Kevin Love.
Of all the unexpected developments from the Cavaliers most recent campaign, the transformation of Kevin Love – from All-Star starter to outstanding Sixth Man – was not just one of the most pleasant surprises, it actually shaped the team’s mindset.
Once Love – the last link to Cleveland’s 2016 title-winning team – accepted his role off the bench, Coach Bickerstaff was able to show his team the value of sacrificing individual goals for the team. Love made the move enthusiastically – and not only did his performance improve, but he was able to stay healthy for the season’s duration. After combining to play in just 103 combined games in the previous three seasons, Love led all Cavaliers with 74 appearances in 2021-22.
The 16th-year man from UCLA came off the bench in 70 of his 74 outings this year – ranking 2nd in the NBA among all reserves with 173 made three-pointers. Among all NBA bench players, Love also ranked 1st in double-doubles (12), 2nd in rebounding (7.1rpg), 4th in scoring (13.4ppg) and 6th in free throw percentage (.840).
Vote-getters following Herro and Love included the Suns’ Cameron Johnson, Utah’s Jordan Clarkson, L.A.’s Luke Kennard and Atlanta’s Bogdan Bogdanovic.
The most recent winners of the Sixth Man award are Clarkson, Washington’s Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams (twice with the Clippers) and Houston’s Eric Gordon.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR -- The league’s Executive of the Year award is slightly different in that while the other categories are voted upon by the media, this one is voted on by competitors’ peers.
This year’s top two finalists – Memphis’ top basketball man, Zach Kleiman, and Cleveland’s Koby Altman – are both under 40 and both have their team poised for massive success in the future.
With 16 of 29 first place votes and 85 total points, the 33-year-old Kleiman eventually won the award – joining Jerry West as the only other Grizz exec to have done so – with Altman and Chicago’s Arturas Karnisovas finishing in a tie for second place with 27 points apiece.
Kleiman has been outstanding in building the hardnosed young Grizzlies, although Memphis top eight minutes leaders were all acquired in prior seasons. Like the Cavaliers, the Grizzlies brass has identified pieces that fit the culture when acquiring talent.
Altman had one hit after another over the past year. Aside from drafting Evan Mobley during the previous offseason, the Cavs President of Basketball Operations made the deal to acquire Ricky Rubio from Minnesota, made the difficult move of dealing Larry Nance Jr. for Lauri Markkanen and inked All-Star center Jarrett Allen to a long-term extension.
As major injuries mounted, Altman and his front office kept the team afloat – making in-season moves to acquire solid veterans like Caris LeVert and Rajon Rondo while picking up contributors like Brandon Goodwin and Moses Brown along the way.
Koby Altman got nudged out of top honor this season, but as Cavaliers Chairman Dan Gilbert recently stated in a tweet over the weekend: “I believe he will be a top contender again next year.”
After the top three, other vote-getters for top exec included the Suns’ James Jones, Miami’s Pat Riley, Boston’s Brad Stevens and Toronto’s Masai Ujiri.
The most recent winners were James Jones, the Clippers Lawrence Frank, Milwaukee’s Jon Horst, Daryl Morey (then with the Rockets) and Golden State’s Bob Myers.