NBA Awards Watch: Week 1

Trying to predict the major award winners for the 2015-16 season is particularly frustrating because it feels mostly like trying to fill out a bracket for March Madness. You’d be hard pressed to find a person willing to bet against LeBron James, but the four-time MVP winner finished in a comfortable third place last season.

Or, maybe James isn’t your cup of tea, but how could you ignore former MVP Kevin Durant? Well, he looked like a pretty solid choice until he fractured his foot in October, sat out until December, then re-injured his foot in February, before eventually ending his season to have surgery in March.

Instead, we got to root for Stephen Curry’s crossover, James Harden’s beard, and Russell Westbrook’s insanity.

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The point? Picking chalk, even in NBA Award Races, is not only unreliable, but it’s not really fun either. Could it be Paul George’s return to the MVP conversation? Does Rudy Gobert have what it takes to win Defensive Player of the Year? Can Fred Hoiberg finally get the Bulls over the LeBron-sized mountain? These, especially this early on, are the questions worth asking.

So, without further ado, welcome to Week 1 of Hoops Habit’s Awards Watch. This will be your weekly look at the six major awards and how candidates evolve, emerge, and disintegrate between now and April.

There are only a couple games are in the books, but that hasn’t stopped us from putting together a little early season primer. Here you’ll find some obvious picks and more than a few speculative selections as we guide you towards who and what you need to pay attention to in 2015-16.

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