NBA Anti-Awards: Final Edition

By Ian Levy
(This post originally appeared at Hickory-High)

With the regular season now in our rear-view mirror, bloggers and basketball writers will be posting their choices for winners of the NBA’s postseason awards. Earlier this year, in a bout of malaise and general curmudgeonliness I created a handful of awards for some of the worst and most discouraging achievements of the season. The games have been played, the turnovers have been tabulated. It’s time for the NBA Anti-Awards to be handed out.

The Shawn Bradley Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller who has had the highest percentage of his shot attempts blocked (minimum 500 minutes played).

Bulls’ rookie, Omer Asik, led this category almost from start to finish. As the season wound down he was briefly overtaken by a late charge from the Hawks’ Zaza Pachulia. However, with Pachulia taking three shots without being blocked on the final night of the season, Asik passed him to win this award by the slimmest of magins. Pachulia finished with 19.0% of his shots blocked, Asik with 19.1%. Asik’s unique blend of size and general awkwardness should make him a contender in this category for years to come

The Shawn Kemp Award – This award goes to the player who has fouled out of the most games. From 1986 up through the present, Shawn Kemp is the NBA’s leader in foul outs with 115, 35 more than his next closest competitor.

DeMarcus Cousins locked this one up, fouling out twice in his last eight games. Cousins finished the season with 10 disqualifications due to personal fouls. He put in a lot of work to make this award possible, committing 328 personal fouls on the season, 65 more than the next closest player. Cousins would like to thank his colleagues for all their wonderfully well-executed pump fakes.

The Jahidi White Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest ratio of Ast/FGA (minimum 500 minutes played). The award is named for White who assisted on just 1.7% of his teammates’ baskets over a 334 game career.

Serge Ibaka is this year’s Jahidi White Award winner. Ibaka totalled 21 assists against 613 field goal attempts, for a ratio of 0.03. It’s tough to fault Ibaka. Playing alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, a guy has to take any opportunity he can to get a shot up.

The Darrick Martin Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest FG% and a minimum of 300 attempts. The award is named for Darrick Martin, a career 38.2% shooter who played 514 games over 13 NBA seasons.

As I mentioned in previous updates there was a lot of movement in this category throughout the season, as players who shoot under 40% tend to find themselves outside the playing rotation. Pacers’ second-year point guard, A.J. Price, bucked the trend seeing progressively more playing time as his FG% plummeted. Price shot 35.7% on the season, narrowly edging cagy veteran Jason Kidd. Well done young fella’!

The Jason Kidd Award – This award goes to the player with the most turnovers in a single game. Jason Kidd has had a Hall of Fame career with many terrific positive statistical contributions. He’s also had 3 career games with more than 12 turnovers.

Amare Stoudemire’s 11 turnover game against Washington, on December 10th, finished the season as the highest in the league. Derrick Rose made a late charge, posting games of 9 and 10 turnovers in February and March, but ultimately fell short. Rose will have to console himself with the NBA’s MVP award.

The Matt Bullard Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller with the lowest Total Rebound Percentage. (Minimum 500 minutes)

This was one of our most competitive awards. At times Brook Lopez, Danilo Gallinari, Hedo Turkoglu and Andrea Bargnani all looked like clear favorites. In the end, dark horse candidate, Donte Green of the Sacramento Kings emerged as our winner. Greene, who stands 6 feet, 11 inches tall, grabbed just 7.4% of the total rebounds available while he was on the floor.

The Kobe Bryant Award – This award goes to the player who has missed the most shot attempts in a single game. The award is inspired by Kobe’s performance in Game 7 of the Finals last season.

Surprisingly, this was our only category that finished with a tie. Kobe Bryant’s 21 missed field goals, on November 11th against Denver, were matched just 16 days ago by Monta Ellis. Both players would probably rather throw this award away then put in on their mantles. I hope it doesn’t take them 21 tries to get it into the garbage can.

The Nick Anderson Award – This award goes to the player who missed the most free throws in a single game. Anderson was actually a decent free throw shooter. But his four missed free throw attempts in the 1995 Finals against Houston kind of stand out in my memory.

As expected Dwight Howard easily takes this award. This season he has missed 12 free throws in a game once, 11 free throws three times, and 10 free throws three times. Hopefully, taking home this hardware will lessen the sting of missing out on the MVP.

The Chris Childs Award – This award goes to the player who has posted the highest Turnover Percentage so far this season. It’s named after former New York Knick Chris Childs, who retired with a career Turnover Percentage of 22.8%. (Minimum 500 minutes)

Joel Pryzbilla just barely topped our minutes requirement, stealing this award from Chris Duhon. Pryzbilla finished the season with a TO% of 34.2%. That means more than one out of every three Pryzbilla possessions ended with an offensive foul, a wild pass into the stands, or a dribble off his own leg.

The Andrea Bargnani Award (Formerly the Darius Songaila Award)– This award goes to the player who has provided his team with the least overall production. I use Wins Produced to determine the winner here. (Minimum 500 minutes)

Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani has been the favorite all season, and in the end, he did not disappoint. With a WP48 of -0.122 he’s “contributed” -6.0 wins in 2,353 minutes. As promised to several disgruntled Raptor fans, this award has now been renamed The Andrea Bargnani Award.

Congratulations to all the winners, it was a wonderful season of folly and futility!