On April 17, the NBA announced the finalists for each award, which the Cleveland Cavaliers had 3 players in.
For the 6th Man of the Year, the Cavs had Kevin Love, one of the best bench players in the league this season. For Most Improved Player, the Cavs had Darius Garland, a 3rd-year guard who broke out this season, making the All-Star Game for his first time, and probably not last time. Finally, for Rookie of the Year, Cleveland has Evan Mobley, a 6’11 big man drafted out of USC in the 2021 NBA Draft 3rd overall. For each award, I will talk about each players’ chances of winning the award.
Kevin Love – 6th Man of the Year
No offense to Love, this award seems like a lock for Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat, who is coming off of a stellar 3rd-year campaign, averaging 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game, only starting in 10 out of his 66 games this season. It seemed often that Kevin Love would torch opposing defenses with his range for a big man, rebounding prowess, and hail-mary passes down the court.
Love averaged 13.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game while having 43/39/83 shooting splits. In prior seasons, Love would struggle to see time on the court, as injuries seemed to weigh him down. However, this season, Love played in 74 out of 82 possible games, a huge success considering the prior season he only played in 25 games out of 72.
Love said this about coming off the bench earlier this month in an interview with Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post.
"‘You know, I didn’t fight it,” Love told The Post about coming off the bench — a move that he discussed with Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff right before the season. “I trust in our team, I trust the front office that put us in a place to have success. And I knew that.”’"
Love had previously been known to be aggravated with the prior state of the roster, considering the Cavaliers were once one of the worst teams in the league, as Kevin Love was seemingly wasting his time on a rebuilding team. But now, Love is being one of the most important players on one of the best defensive teams in the league, that is for much of the season at least.
On Dec. 31, 2021, right before the new year, Kevin Love dropped his season-high 35 points, also while hitting on 7/14 of his 3-point attempts. However, Cleveland lost this game without one of their best players, Darius Garland. Even while they lost, it showed that Love was definitely a top bench player in the NBA.
The other finalist for the 6th Man of the Year is Cam Johnson of the Phoenix Suns. The Suns have the best record in the league at 64 wins this season.
Johnson has averaged 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game while shooting the 4th-highest 3-point percentage in the league this season at 42.5%. Cam Johnson was selected 11th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but later traded to the Phoenix Suns with Dario Saric for the 6th pick, Jarrett Culver.
Darius Garland – Most Improved Player
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com said this about Darius Garland’s rookie season in the 2019-20 season, for initial context.
"“Garland was last in Win Shares, Value Over Replacement Player and ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus — a player’s estimated on-court impact on team performance, measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and defensive possessions that also takes into account teammates, opponents and other additional factors.”"
Darius Garland was statistically the worst NBA player that season, so obviously, he had a lot of room to grow. In his defense, he only played 5 games in college at Vanderbilt, so he did not really have a lot of time to progress there. At Vanderbilt, he averaged 16.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game on 53/47/75 splits, very good for a freshman in college. However, he had a meniscus injury in his left knee, meaning he would not play the rest of the college season.
His rookie year was rough at times. Averaging 12.3 points, 3.9 assists, and 1.9 rebounds per game on 40/35/87 splits was not the best, but his free throw percentage showed that he would eventually should be a good shooter. His poor shooting performances proved enough to not put him on either of the All-Rookie teams, consisting of 10 players. His sophomore season showed improvements, averaging 17.4 points, 6.1 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game on a very much improved 45/39/84 shooting splits.
This year was definitely his best year, no doubt. Making his first All-Star team, leading the Cavaliers’ offense, and being arguably the best player on the Cavaliers. He averaged 21.7 points, 8.6 assists, and 3.3 rebounds, and had the 6th-most assists per game in the league.
He has 2 other players he is competing against, both also very deserving of the award. One player is the Memphis Grizzlies’ point guard, Ja Morant. Morant is a 22-year-old guard who was an unranked recruit in high school.
Making his first ever All-Star Game, he averaged 27.4 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game. His points had an increase of 8.3, his rebounds up by 1.7, and his assists only down by 0.7 per game. His efficiency also increased, as his field goal percentage went up 4.4% to 49.3%, which is a good amount. His 3-point percentage went up 4.1 percent to 34.4%, which is a respectable number considering Morant’s main skill is driving to the paint.
The other finalist for the award is point guard Dejounte Murray of the San Antonio Spurs. Murray was the youngest player ever to make an All-Defensive team, as he made it at the age of 21. Murray has always been a stellar defender, but his offense needed to come around considering former Spur, DeMar Derozan, left the Spurs in the offseason to the Chicago Bulls.
To end the season, Murray averaged 21.1 points, 8.3 assists, and 7.1 rebounds, while also leading the league in total steals with 138 and steals per game with 2.0 per game. Murray deservingly made his first All-Star appearance this season, and also should have a say in the All-Defensive team. As a side note to that, Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics won the Defensive Player of the Year.
Evan Mobley – Rookie of the Year
Not only is Evan Mobley a great defender for a rookie, he is a great defender in general. He averaged the 6th-most blocks per game at 1.7 and had the 8th-most blocks at 115. His offense wasn’t bad, either. With 15.0 points and 2.5 assists per game, his offense looked tremendous at times, and overall, he’s been invaluable even for such a young player.
Many people, including me, had concerns with Mobley playing in the frontcourt alongside Jarrett Allen. People were worried about the spacing and perimeter defense. However, Mobley’s shooting range was better than expected, and both Mobley and Allen can hold their own against guards on the perimeter.
For one of the finalists, there is Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons. Cunningham was the first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and was the consensus first pick, for good reason, averaging 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game for Oklahoma State.
The 6’6 point guard averaged 17.4 points, 5.6 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per game for the Pistons this year. However, his shooting splits were not the best, having splits of 41/31/84. Even with his shooting splits, he has often looked like one of the best players on the Pistons, and looks like he has a promising career ahead of him.
The other candidate is Scottie Barnes, a 6’9 forward playing for the Toronto Raptors. Barnes played for Florida State in college, averaging 10.3 points, 4.1 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game, showing his all-around game there. For Toronto this season, he averaged 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game, showing off his great passing for a rookie big man.
Barnes won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month twice, for February and March. Barnes currently is in the playoffs, facing off against the Philadelphia 76ers, who have an MVP candidate in Joel Embiid on their team.
The Cavaliers have 3 finalists for each award, with each player having a deserving season to be named as a finalist.