Barbosa and Williams only getting one vote each for MIP?! Wow.. These guys are supposed to be experts. These 2 improved massively - and both on good teams, where there is a lot more talent to be competing with.

MIP has to be Kevin Martin from Sac-Town, without a doubt he has been the most improved. Barbosa is second.

Defensive Player, IMO should be Marcus Camby.

TR, any nice words at least for guys that have gone from support cast to stand-out this year like Andre Iguodala and Josh Smith?

Josh Smith...... the dude plays for Atlanta so no chance (sorry Cheeze), only nice words I have for him is "pray for a top 2 draft pick".

Plus come ballot time all people are going to really remember is how he got suspended for shooting off his mouth at Woodson in the last few games (don't really blame him all that much though).

I don't think AI2 has really improved that much. He's always had the talent and skill, just never really the opportunity to get his chance in the spotlight. Just because he's been made the man doesn't really mean he's improved him game.

Interesting to see that they have Dirk in somewhat of a landslide for MVP (10 votes, next best is Nash with 4). I think the actual voting will be closer than that, plus I would like to see Nash win.

Also good to see Sam Mitchell picked for COY, he has done a great job up in T-Dot this year.

For those interested, Bill Simmons has ranked the NBA's LVP (LEAST Valuable Player) through to MVP.

' 287. Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy (tie)
The lesson, as always: Anytime you're considering a six-player NBA trade in which you end up with both overpaid white guys in the deal ... you might want to rethink that baby.'

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070417

Roy is deserving .

Marion should win DPOTY - who else can guard 4 positions and make it look easy ?

Most Improved - agree Martin is up there- but i'd go with Monte Ellis. The guy has improved his PPG by 10 in one season and is a good defender too.

I think NASH will take MVP from Dirk too. 3-peat !

instead of ESPN picking their winners .. why don't they lift their game and cover the NBA Playoffs way better !!! the playoffs start on sunday .. they show ONE game and then nothing for a whole week !!!! last year they also only showed one side of the Conference Finals !!! as NBA fans we really get hammered here in AUS

id say camby for dpoy but wouldn be surprised or upset if marion won it hope Nash wins MVP and achieves his 3-peat.

Speedy, ESPN only have the broadcating rights to a certain amount of games. Looking at the NBA TV schedule, they'll only show 8 first round games over three nights. According to my Fox guide, we'll be seeing (at least) one game on each of those nights (our mornings).

TNT will be showing most of the games, so hopefully Fox Sports can pick lots of these games.

Raja Bell for DPOY anyone?

Brandon ROY has had his name on that award from the start of the season.

(I know it´s the third time I´ve used that joke, I promise it´s the last)

can someone tell me why they'd vote for dirk over say nash or kobe. don't dallas still perform with him out of the line up?

yeah - voting for dirk is stupid - he isnt irriplaceable like nash...who could u put in the suns lineup instead of nash that would give them the same? no one....and with dirk - his position could be filled by plenty of players in the league (bosh, brand, kg, duncan etc.) dirk doesnt make everyone better like nash - he can only change the game by scoring and replacing him with one of the above players would not cause the mavericks record to suffer

Why does McGrady not pop up in these MVP discussions? Strong team. They lost Yao and still performed pretty well while T-Mac's support cast was fairly scrappy.

Bill Simmons says it well:

The lost MVP candidate this season. Lemme know if any of these tidbits interest you:

A. The Rockets were 50-21 when he played this season and 2-8 without him.

B. When Yao went down for 32 games with a fractured kneecap, T-Mac carried the team to a 20-12 record and boosted his stats to a 29-6-6 for that stretch.

C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Shane Battier, Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Yugoslavian gunner Turdo Sandowicz.

'130312' ur actually classing deron williams, chris paul and andre miller in the same boat as nash??? do u even watch phoenix games??? they are no where near the same as nash. and those 'all-stars' u refer to are all-stars because of nash. next time phoenix are on tv u count the number of times amare earns his own points and arent spoon fed to him with an amazing pass by nash...same goes with marion...and how do u think they get so many threes per game? count the open threes nash gives everyone. i would love to see how those guys go on teams without him. also - what about guys like raja bell etc...raja averages for the last two seasons that hes played (with nash) are career numbers (14ppg)...his first three years he struggled to maintain an average of 2! boris diaw played for atlanta before coming to the suns...his averages for the hawks were just below 5pg! then - he gets nash as a point guard - - 14per game! its the same story with lots of guys...the list goes on...look it up..suns roster for the last few seasons and the players that become soo much better because they are getting open shots. guys like chris paul, andre miller etc dont do that...paul in inconsistant and has a guy like david west and should-be-one-of-the best-wing-players-because-of-his-athletism-desmond mason...but they arent better players because of paul...u put mason on the suns and i guarentee u he will get 5 dunks a game and average at least 15ppg...those pg's u mentioned also have no where near the same scoring ability nash has...nash is so dependable in the clutch, constantly hitting daggers in the final minutes (look that up to - the amount of times phoenix need a big shot and guess who hits it - dallas usually go with terry to make a play...and when dirk is called upon he is never a real threat in that situation) and his FG percentages are unbelievebale for a GUARD, especially one averaging just under 20pg (53FG%, 45 3PT%, 90FT%)....and midrange??!!!!???!!! bosh and kg dont have midrange??? bosh is known for his midrange...hes not really a back-down PF, thats his game...midrange...and to say duncan wouldnt make a team as good as dirk would futhermore proves ur lack of knowledge for the game and the league...and so because dirk can hit threes and midrange shots hes the MVP? my argument is that their record would still be at 55-65 wins with another PF like the ones i mentioned because dallas are such a good team and all dirk is doing is leading them in scoring. they are not a good team JUST because of dirk the way the suns are because of what nash does for them. josh howard and jason terry do it themselves...with help like that...they make dirk look good...u put dirk on another team - yes they will be better but not neccassarily a championship contender......where as nash on any roster would instantly bounce them up to that status...a championship calibre team

**** by the way - the suns without nash this year are 2 wins 4 losses...the two wins came against phillidelphia and portland...and dallas havent dropped a game this year without dirk in the lineup besides the 2nd-to-last day of the season when everyone was rested...im just saying...

yes ESPN has certain rights. However when you look at the rights they do have in the Australian region they ONLY show a fraction of the games they have rights to. Either Foxtel is too cheap to pay for the extra games or ESPN thinks Aussies would prefer to watch fishing, poker or hunting during the NBA Playoffs. Theres' really no excuse except for money. In Asia they show at least 2 games a week free to air .. not to mention a lot of games on cable. we pay for cable here .. and we still get close to nothing !!!

Jules i agree with most of what i could handle reading of your post.

Most disorientating post of the year so far. Made me dizzy reading it !

Nash deserves it more than Dirk, i agree.

haha - sorry about the length...i was just inspired by the stupid comments made to go nuts...so thats exactly what i did...

yeah good work jules!! i actually did read that whole thing and it was worth it.its a good read. u make some great points. couldnt agree more, nash for mvp!!!