Former 'Cats contending for NBA awards as season winds down

It was another banner year for Kentucky players in the NBA, some of which will be accepting trophies at the 2022 Awards Ceremony later this summer. With the regular season winding down, let’s take a look at a few ‘Cats who are in the conversation to take home hardware for their efforts this year.

MVP/All-NBA: Devin Booker

As the years add up, Devin Booker continues to get better. He averaged over 25 points a game from 2018-2020 on terrible Suns teams. In 2021, Chris Paul arrived where he and Booker led Phoenix to its first Finals appearance of the century. And in 2022, somehow, the Suns are even better while Booker is matching his career-high in points-per-game at 26.6.

Book was inexplicably left off the 2021 All-NBA teams while Paul represented Phoenix in the MVP race. For his entire career, Booker has been neglected as one of the NBA’s best players because he scored a ton of points on bad teams. Then, he finally started winning while matching his statistical output from previous seasons, and was told Chris Paul was the reason for Phoenix’s success.

In 2022, Paul missed 15 games and Booker is finally garnering the recognition he deserved: MVP and All-NBA recognition. He’s got no shot at taking home the MVP trophy over Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic or Joel Embiid, but a top-five finish is entirely possible. He’d be the first ‘Cat to land in the top-five of final voting since Anthony Davis in 2018.

As for All-NBA consideration, Booker will make his debut at last. There are basically three Western Conference guards battling for two first-team spots. Luka Doncic and Ja Morant post higher per-game averages in point and assists, but Booker captains clearly the best team in the NBA. Voters and I both like the combination of team success and individual statistical production from D-Book. I believe he’ll nab a first-team spot; second-team at the absolute worst.

Sixth Man of the Year: Tyler Herro

Herro’s production in year three trumps that of a great sixth man. At 20.6 points per game for the East’s one-seed, Herro is a fringe All-Star and one of the most productive young scorers in the entire league. Frankly, it’s unreasonable that he comes off the bench. He’s arguably Miami’s most dynamic offensive weapon. However, he’s come off the bench in 54 of his 64 games this year, officially qualifying him for the Sixth Man of the Year award. Spoiler alert: he’s going to win it.

Only two players in NBA history averaged more points while coming off the bench for an entire season. Sixth Man legend Lou Williams did so a few years ago, as did Eddie Johnson for Phoenix back in 1989. He’s a historical Herro at just 22 years old too. And his progression as a scorer is eerily similar to the previously 6-foot-5 Kentucky shooting guard.

Defensive Player of the Year: Bam Adebayo

More hardware for Kentucky guys on the Heat. Bam is the second betting favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award at +300, but is doubtful to do so given that he’s missed 25 games. If he played closer to 70 games, DPOY would be his to lose.

What makes Bam such an impactful defender? It all starts with his versatility. Other great defensive centers such as Rudy Gobert and Embiid are of a different mold. Utah and Philly anchor their entire defensive philosophies around closing out hard at the three-point line and funneling drivers towards their behemoth paint patrollers. Miami, on the other hand, runs a switch-heavy scheme, asking Adebayo to swap onto guards, wings, virtually every sort of player. He doesn’t wait to meet everybody at the rim, he attacks the best players in the league up to 30 feet away from the rim. And he’s just as effective guarding Steph Curry as he is guarding Kevin Durant or Joel Embiid.

No defender in the NBA guards such a variety of players at an extremely high level like Bam Adebayo. That’s why he’s such a great defender. For a further breakdown of Adebayo’s efforts on the defensive end of the floor, I suggest checking out this in-depth video.

Other All-NBA contenders

As discussed, Booker is making an All-NBA team, marking the sixth year of the last seven where a Wildcat is represented. Here’s the list of ‘Cats on the All-NBA teams since 2015:

• 2015: Anthony Davis (First Team), DeMarcus Cousins (Second Team)
• 2016: DeMarcus Cousins (Second Team)
• 2017: Anthony Davis (First Team), John Wall (Third Team)
• 2018: Anthony Davis (First Team), Karl-Anthony Towns (Third Team)
• 2019: None
• 2020: Anthony Davis (First Team)
• 2021: Julius Randle (Second Team)

Gosh, what a run by Anthony Davis. Four First Team All-NBA selections in six years. That matches the most First Team appearances of any player since 2015, tying James Harden and LeBron James.

Anyway, this year I project two ‘Cats to All-NBA teams. Booker on the First or Second Team and also Karl-Anthony Towns. Now, his case is tricky. All-NBA teams distribute two spots to guards, two to forwards and one to a center. However, this season, the two leading MVP candidates are both centers in Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid. Traditional voters will likely slot one on the First Team and one on the Second Team. But some folks are pining for voting Jokic as a forward to game the system and get the NBA’s two best players in 2022 on the First Team. Makes sense, right?

So, depending on how the voting shakes out, Towns could land anywhere from Second Team center to off the final ballot completely. After Jokic and Embiid, Towns is essentially battling Rudy Gobert in the center voting. Gobert had a typical year for him, extraordinary defensively, career-high in field goal percentage (70.9%) and rebounds (14.7 per game) — two categories where he leads in the entire NBA — and he also scores 15.3 points a night. Lovers of analytics will pencil him in over Towns.

The case for KAT lies on the offensive end of the court, where the seventh-year big man is scoring 24.6 points a night for a surprisingly good Timberwolves team. He’s helped lead a revolution from binge losing to serious playoff contention in 2022 for Minnesota while remaining the NBA’s most efficient big-time scorer. KAT knocks down 41% of his threes and 58.6% of his shots inside the arc.

There are 179 NBA players averaging double-figures a night, and only Karl-Anthony Towns — who scores over 24 a game — shoots 40% or better from three and 55% or better from two. It’s worth repeating because that level of production and efficiency is insane.

Some more craziness: only five individual seasons in NBA history featured a scoring average over 15 a night and matched Towns’ 2022 shooting percentages from inside and outside the arc. Three of the seasons belong to KAT, including this one, and the other two were achieved by Michael Porter Jr. and Steph Curry. Just nuts how great of a scorer Towns is. All-NBA Second or Third Team? Absolutely. Or we riot.