Rec’ing on…2006 WNBA Superlatives

With the regular season winding down, the time has come to determine who will be the various "…of the Year"s. This isn’t a list of who I think will get the votes, but who I think most deserves the honor. Some of these choices are difficult since I don’t like to be a slave to stats or records; I think intangibles have their place. With that in mind, let’s see who are my picks for this season….

Most Improved Player of the Year — For me this is the easiest of the picks

. Erin Buescher has clearly elevated her game to where she’s become an important cog on her team. On many people’s lists is Tamika Whitmore, but my feeling is that she simply didn’t have to do much more than peek out from the shadows cast by Leslie and Holdsclaw. Also, all other things being equal, I have to give the nod to players who improved while still with the same team and the same system. Katie Douglas is in the same boat as Whitmore in that I don’t think she had to change much in order to improve her standing with the team.

Defensive Player of the Year — There are so many factors that go into what makes someone a standout on defense. What makes this area so difficult is that bigs and guards play defense differently and have different responsibilities. So, although I’m so tempted to simply hand the award to Tamika Catchings, I’m going to wimp out and declare a tie, giving the second spot to that perennial defensive pest, Tully Bevilaqua.

Rookie of the Year — All season long, the two leaders in this category have been Seimone Augustus and Cappie Pondexter, so it will come as some surprise that Candice Dupree is my choice for the honor. Clearly I’m not simply looking at the stat sheet. By that measure, Augustus should get the award hands-down. A motivating factor was not only what the rooks brought to the stat sheets but also the intangible of leadership. I picked Dupree not only because she’s put up respectable numbers, but because she’s been a more obvious leader of her team. Cappie could have been that player, and if her numbers hadn’t been muted due to her injured knees I might have chosen her. Augustus…well, I just have never gotten the impression that she’s leading the team in any way other than with stats.

League’s Most Valuable Player of the Year — For me, this starts with considering who I think are the most valuable players for each team, i.e. the player on a team who the team absolutely needs to have. Stats matter a lot, but so does leadership, and heart, and all the other intangibles.

So, here’s the pool I’m looking at: Tangela Smith (CHA), Candice Dupree (CHI), Katie Douglas (CON), Deanna Nolan (DET), Sheryl Swoopes (HOU), Tamika Catchings (IND), Lisa Leslie (LAS), Seimone Augustus (MIN), Becky Hammon (NYL), Diana Taurasi (PHO), Yolanda Griffith (SAC), Agnieszka Bibrzycka (SAS), Lauren Jackson (SEA), Alana Beard (WAS).

From these I’ll pick five that have the complete package for this season in terms of stats, leadership, intangibles, and an ability to raise the level of their teams, themselves, and the league: Katie Douglas, Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, Lauren Jackson, and Alana Beard. I’m going to drop from consideration Jackson and Beard because LJ has just been too injured (although her numbers haven’t suffered), and Alana didn’t really come on until later in the season. While Dee has had a season for the books, the system she plays under has required her to become a little more specialized than in previous seasons, so I reluctantly have to pull her from the list.

That leaves Douglas and Leslie. It’s difficult to keep from dismissing Leslie’s season as more of the same. She’s just plain great year-in and year-out. On the other hand, when I saw Katie earlier this year, it was clear that she’d found an extra gear. It wasn’t in ability so much but in confidence and leadership. Still, Leslie’s numbers are clearly better across the board. So, I’m going to go with an intangible to decide this…one of team focus. In this I think that in this season one team gained focus more through their coach than to their court leader. Using that as the deciding factor, I give Katie Douglas the nod for MVP.

Coach of Year — So often people want to give this award to the coach of the team with the best record, or of the team that had the most dramatic turnaround. I like to look at the coach who actually made the most positive difference in their team. A lot of fingers this year are pointed at Mike Thibault for his consistency with Connecticut. Another intriguing candidate is Richie Adubato in Washington for turning that franchise around. Me? I choose instead a coach who righted the sinking ship in LA: Joe "Jellybean" Bryant. He brought back to LA the professional attitude that had been lost with the departure of Michael Cooper. It’s this environment in which Lisa Leslie thrives and is the most important factor, I think, in the renewed passion from the Sparks.

And that’s about it for this round. There are so many players that are such important cogs to their team’s machinery that it’s a shame not to mention them (but I’m not). In terms of these superlative lists, they often happen to just miss due to something one of their teammates has done, or maybe just a bad patch of a few games. With a short season you pretty much have to be a star in every one you play in, and you have to play in almost all of them. There are players I’d love to give an award to simply because they make me want to watch them play…but then this long list would become truly ridiculous. So, unfortunately, some great players slip through the cracks. C’est la basketball.