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Wednesday, April 5
From Shaq to Payton to Rogers, West earns awards

By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com

In a spirit of benevolence, I am hereby declaring that the Indiana Pacers' Jalen Rose should win this season's NBA Most Improved Player award.


	It might be a near sweep when it comes to awards out West, including top rookie Steve Francis.

Rose has emerged this season as one of the best players in the Eastern Conference, and not merely because he finally has gotten into the Pacers' playing rotation, as most often is the case with players whose numbers jump so dramatically from one season to the next.

No, Rose has emerged because he has improved his shot and his decision making, to the point he rivals Reggie Miller as the key to the Pacers' success.

Give him that Most Improved Player nod.

So what does Jalen Rose have to do with the Western Conference?

It is my contention he could be the only player keeping the West from making a clean sweep of all the NBA's post-season awards, including the All-NBA first team.

The evidence, your honor:

MVP
A no-brainer: Shaquille O'Neal. (And, as mentioned here last week, O'Neal should be followed in the voting by Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone and Tim Duncan, with Alonzo Mourning maybe cracking the top five.) It probably won't happen, but O'Neal ought to be a unanimous choice. In the 15 seasons I have covered the NBA, few MVP races have been easier to judge.

Coach of the Year
I'm sure my good friend Jeffrey Denberg, Mr. Eastern Conference, is going to insist that Orlando's Doc Rivers merits the award this season for convincing a group of undertalented players in Orlando to overachieve to the point they are about to make the playoffs. The fact Rivers is one of the nicest guys in the business and played much of his career for the Hawks while Denberg was covering them no doubt will add to Denberg's passion for Rivers' candidacy.

But how can anyone, even Denberg, in good conscience vote for a coach other than Phil Jackson? The argument that Jackson had the most talent with which to work won't hold water for the very reason that the Lakers have essentially the same roster they had last season, when they were such a disappointment.

Besides, O'Neal gives Jackson much of the credit for his own emergence this season into the completely dominating player everyone always has predicted he could be. Plus, he has found a way to make O'Neal and Kobe Bryant peacefully co-exist. His lone "coaching" failure this season was his inability to get his dear friend and ex-Knicks teammate, Bill Bradley, the Democratic Presidential nomination, but we won't hold that against him.

Jackson ought to be as much of a no-brainer for Coach of the Year as O'Neal is for MVP.

Defensive Player of the Year
The trouble with that award is it is more difficult to quantify than most, with blocked shots the most dramatic measure, which explains why centers have won seven of the last eight awards. But I just witnessed Gary Payton's ability to dominate a game from the defensive end of the floor, in Seattle's 106-93 win over the Nuggets Tuesday night, and that was all the reminder I needed that Payton remains the very best defensive player in the game and one of the greatest who ever played.

Sixth Man Award
Another easy win for the West. Phoenix' Rodney Rogers has been everything a coach could want a sixth man to be: Reliable, productive and totally accepting of his off-the-bench role, even when the injuries to Tom Gugliotta tempted the Suns to make him a starter. The fact Rogers played some of his best basketball of the season while Gugliotta was out of the lineup only serves to reinforce his value as a sixth man.

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Rookie of the Year
OK. I'll grant you, this is a very close race, and I haven't yet made up my own mind how I will vote. I think it is really a two-man race, between Chicago's Elton Brand and Houston's Steve Francis. Lamar Odom? Sorry, his season got Clipper-ized.

Brand has had an outstanding season, to be sure. He is the top rookie scorer and rebounder, and that is hard to overlook. He also was immediately plugged in as Chicago's No. 1 scoring option, which accelerated his development. Francis has had to learn the toughest position on the floor, point guard, and on a team that went through a tough transition from playoff contender to also-ran because of the injuries to Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. Francis averages 17.6 points, second among rookies to Brand (19.4), but he leads all rookies in assists (6.6) and is on track to become just the seventh rookie in NBA history to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists.

If it comes down to what I believe is truly a 50-50 proposition, I may cast my vote based on my belief that Francis faced much tougher competition at his position in the West than Brand did, at his position, in the East.

All-NBA first team
Here is my team: Payton and Kobe Bryant at the guard spots, O'Neal at center, and Kevin Garnett and Karl Malone at forward.

Any arguments?

In case you're wondering, Bryant has a higher "Birdie" figure (points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, minus missed shots, missed free throws, personal fouls and turnovers) than either Vince Carter or Allen Iverson.

Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com


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