Mid-Season Awards

                                             

   

    After a very up and down first half, I thought it is time to give out some first half awards. I'm not going to be giving out traditional awards, but I'll be giving out most surprising (in a good way), most disappointing, and 2nd half breakout player. I will also be giving my reasons for each as well as a runner up for each award. 

    Most Surprising: Payton Pritchard, Prichard was the 26th pick in this years draft class and I didn't really have any expectations for him. I thought he was going to get minutes while Kemba was out, but thought he probably would get shelved when the Celtics were at full strength. He played so well in the beginning of the season it was impossible not to play him for the rest of the season. He has easily been our best bench scorer and he is doing it very efficiently. This team is relying heavily on Pritchard and we'd be much worse off this season if we didn't have him. The runner-up for this award is Robert Williams, I had pretty high expectations for him coming into this year and he has still exceeded them. He has provided such a huge role off the bench this entire season, and will continue to do so in the 2nd half. 

    Most Disappointing: Jeff Teague, I thought when we first signed Teague it was a great pickup. Last year we needed a facilitator off the bench and better spacing from our bench unit, and in the past Teague has done that. He is shooting well from three, but has been terribly inefficient from every where else on the court. He also hasn't been the facilitator I had hoped he would. He did play well the last few games before the break, so hopefully he can continue to use that momentum in the 2nd half. My runner-up is Grant Williams, Grant was a guy I had hope to play major role for this team and provide spacing and be a versatile defender. The biggest problem with Grant is he cannot stop fouling, it is to the point where he is averaging almost six fouls per 36 minutes. If he can fix that he can be a very productive player in the 2nd half. 

    2nd Half Breakout: Romeo Langford, we haven't seen Romeo yet this year and I think he is poised to play a big role in the 2nd half. I really didn't want to go with Romeo because it seemed too easy, but I don't see very many guys who have the opportunity to improve on their first half performance. I think Langford will start slow when he first comes back, but still play a large role for this team as we've been lacking wing production. Nesmith seemed to have the opportunity to take a lot of those Langford minutes in his absence, but the last few games has been shelved. My runner-up is Grant Williams. Grant has been disappointing, but he has earned minutes the last few games and looks to have the opportunity to earn back his minutes in the rotation. Like I said earlier, he needs to stop fouling and continue to be a consistent three point shooter if he wants to have a significant role for this team.