The NBA announced today that Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has been named the Player of the Seeding Games, earning de facto MVP honors for the league’s restart.
Lillard, who averaged 37.6 PPG and 9.6 APG on .497/.436/.888 shooting in eight seeding games, led the Blazers to a 6-2 record, allowing the team to surpass the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed in the West. Portland will earn the conference’s final playoff spot if it picks up a win over Memphis today or tomorrow.
Lillard was the unanimous selection among 22 media voters for the bubble’s MVP award. Devin Booker (Suns) received 19 second-place votes, with T.J. Warren (Pacers) picking up two and Luka Doncic (Mavericks) getting the other one. Booker, Warren, Doncic, James Harden (Rockets) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks) all received third-place votes.
Meanwhile, Suns head coach Monty Williams was named the Coach of the Seeding Games, per today’s announcement. The selection comes as no surprise after Williams led Phoenix to an 8-0 record this summer. The Suns narrowly missed out on a spot in the play-in tournament, but were the only club that went undefeated during the seeding games, despite initially being ranked 21st of the 22 teams invited to Orlando.
Williams was a near-unanimous choice, with Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts receiving one first-place vote and finishing second overall in voting. Nets coach Jacque Vaughn and Raptors coach Nick Nurse were among the other top vote-getters.
The NBA also announced All-Seeding Games First and Second Teams, as follows:
First Team:
- Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers)
- Devin Booker (Suns)
- Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
- James Harden (Rockets)
- T.J. Warren (Pacers)
Second Team:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
- Kristaps Porzingis (Mavericks)
- Caris LeVert (Nets)
- Michael Porter Jr. (Nuggets)
Lillard, Booker, and Doncic were unanimous First Team selections, with Harden and Warren each receiving 18 of 22 First Team votes. Antetokounmpo received the other eight First Team votes.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
So…4 voters had TJ Warren on the first ballot and Harden on the second? My god. People sure have taken Harden’s performances for granted the last few years. Just because it’s common for him now, doesnt make it less impressive.
Even though he’s the best player in the NBA right now, people choose to disregard Harden’s magnificent performances for their own personal reasons. It doesn’t change the fact that he will be among the greatest players in the history of the sport when all is said and done.
He’s not the best player in the NBA. In fact, he’s not the second best player either.
He has finished top 2 in MVP voting 4 out of the last 5 years.
1.Giannis 2.James 3.Leonard and Harden 4th at least until we see what Durant and Curry do upon their returns from injury and how AD and Lillard do in the playoffs.
Best player in the nba ?? What a joke, the guy only cares about his own stats. Who cares about a W when you have the chance to get a triple double right?? Wrong, the guy is pathetic and will never have a ring .
Totally agree! Harden is a phenomenal player & gets completely dissed by fans! He is the steals & points leader in the league! He is a good defender & offensively he is the most lethal player scoring in the last 40 years! Ahead of Jordan! The guy is a beast & is a shame that he plays at MVP level every year… but not quite enough to win it. Every year around 6 players deserve the MVP, so is hard to win it.
That is why Harden & Luka were my fixed players in the 1st team, then was a toss between Lillard & D-Book, although I like a bit more Book, I just putted Lillard ahead, hard to say why.
How high were you when you wrote this ? Lol
As a matter of fact Harden has led the league in points, assists & steals! I beg of you not to show your ignorance with inappropriate & childish comments bro!
So no awards for the first 50 ish games before the quarantine?
They’ll be announced during the playoffs.
They’re just seeding-game awards. For the stars who showed up
Dumbest awards ever created
No. Participation trophies were the dumbest awards ever created.
These were probably created so players could trigger incentives from their contracts since some of the contract language wasn’t possible to achieve with the shutdown.
I was thinking the same thing. Wonder if baseball is going to solve this with no all star game, which is often incentivized in contracts.
Well the awards bothered HardWestMvps when Lillard won not Harden. It will be tough on him if OKC upsets HOU! Could happen. OKC may be as tough as the Lakers, based on current play
These awards have to be the dumbest thing. An award for 8 games? Come on. Are they gonna start giving out preseason awards next year? This is silly
They need to do this every season after each 8 game stretch. That way we could have 10 MVPs and 50 first team All NBA players.
Everybody would get a trophy and then we can have orange slices and Capri Sun and maybe go to Dairy Queen afterward if we are good.
It’s the only way that Dame will get win an MVP. Congrats!!
https://compote.slate.com/images/07777115-b562-4024-a33a-e95b2e2631a7.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=3600×2400&offset=0x0
Has Harden ever sent a playoff team home. Harden is another Melo. Better scorer plays only one way.
Harden is way better on defense than Melo right now. You’re talking about 5 or 10 years ago when his defense was terrible.
He helped send home the Nuggets and Grizzlies in 2011; then the Mavs, Lakers, and Spurs in 2012; then the Mavs and Clippers in 2015; then OKC in 2017; then the Wolves and Jazz in 2018; then Utah again last year. Melo isn’t close to the greatness that is James Harden, deal with it.
Greatness ???? Har en don’t play D. He’s a clock killer. They had Spurs in gm 7 at Hm. He didn’t even want to play. They Had Warriors didn’t show up, Twice. You bring up series they should win easy. No one cares about teams you are favored to win. They were favored to beat Blazers. Har en and the world knew who was getting the ball. What happened. Dame time. Give a series they weren’t favored to win. Two yrs ago a healthy Rockets team couldn’t beat Warriors without KD. Curry n Klay killed Har en. No D in Har en bro. I could score on Harden. You know why. Cause he only wants to outscore me, not beat me. Against Warriors with no curry they lost in 6 at home lol. Harden in the series took 60 more shots than his next teammate. That’s team ball right. Then when Chris got hurt they were up 3-2. Couldn’t close. Har en has never won a series he wasn’t favored to win. Deal with that. Hes a stat guy just like Melo. Only wants the fame and riches. Will never win with Har en. Should of kept CP3 you probably be in finals this yr. with Capela and you would have kept your picks. Never Har en lol. Please be around for OKC. Rockets should be favored even though they have same record. Which tells you more about Har en. This will be a fun series lol.
Since these are BUBBLE Awards, the winners will
be treated to a Bubble Bath, while chewing Bubble Gum and drinking Bubble Up.
WOW !! that just sounds Bubblelicious !!
Maybe they could call them like player of the week or maybe player of the month hell IDK
The Bubble is a one time thing. We hope right. So there are accomplishments that need to be addressed. That’s all, not a big deal. Be happy we have pro sports now.
You guys are taking this way too seriously.
James harden will never win a trophy that matters. The guy only cares about his individual stats. Houston is a pathetic team aswell so I find it laughable that they even think they are a contender. Harden has never won anything, Westbrook has never won anything, what happens when they get out together?? Absolutely nothing. Raptors in 4
Keeping it as simple as possible: start a team with a me-centric player like Harden, or a top level team leader like Lillard. If you get this one wrong you can go to Miami Beach and party with 2000+ 20-somethings sans face mask.
I’m a team guy. Basketball fans get caught up in one player. Specially stats guy. You need a team to win. Har en a great offensive player. Has ball 65% of time. That’s no offense system. Teams can defend that in playoffs. Playoff teams play D. You saw how Grizz took out Dame. But a team has players. Harden is too much iso for me. Plus he doesn’t play D bro. Not my kind of star.