3QC Mid-Season Awards: Biggest Surprise

That shot is so sweet that I am almost always surprised when it doesn’t go in. Plus I wanted to vote for Rashard on at least one of these categories.

Honorable mention to the Rook’s first year contributions to the team and J.J. playing solid defense and finally showing some promise.

Going 33-8

No offense intended to Jameer Nelson, who has a chance to win the league’s Most Improved award this year, but my vote is for Courtney. I thought he’d be good… but I didn’t think he’d be this good. I mean, if you told me before the season that Nelson would average 17 and 5, and be 5th in three-point shooting at the halfway mark, I might have believed you. But if you would have told me that Courtney would be playing this well, even starting, and I would not have believed you.

Jameer Nelson

I too would have liked to have given Shard at least 1 vote in a category (cos i’ve been saying how overlooked he is by the media) but Jameer’s play has been off the charts. Would be criminal to give it to anyone else.

never would have imagined any of our draft picks improving so dramatically and eventually starting for us.

I really thought he’d be relegated to spot duty but he has actually been starting games and doing very well for himself.

lee has been a surprise, especially after the first couple of weeks when he wasnt logging minutes and wasnt doing anything in the limited time he had. The improvement jameer has made isnt evident with just the sweet stats, but also the floor leadership and confidence he shows on the court.

undefeated as a starter. get some.

I knew Battie was going to help but I was not expecting this much from Gortat. Both bigs have played efficienctly and have been capable role players.

When comparing the scope of their impacts .. Lee was expected to be a decent reserve this year, but he’s blossomed into a legitimate starter. Nelson was expected to be a decent starter at best, but he’s blossomed into a legitimate All-Star.

I believed we could win 60 prior to this season but to be on pace for 66 wins at the half-way mark is well beyond my already positive outlook.

Thought I was going to be an individual here, but I guess you guys are more like-minded than I thought. :D

Easy to go with Jameer, but I remember coming out of that Detroit series thinking Jameer took a huge step, so this wasn’t that big a surprise, although All-star level was more than I expected. To me, the biggest surprise has been the play of the bench, 1) I believed the loss of dooling, evans, and arroyo’s production and another year of foyle would be tough to swallow. 2)I wondered if Battie return would be a bad fit in the offense (i.e. grant hill’s bricklaying). 3) Could the bench give the starters the rest they needed. Turns out 1) Courtney Lee is no Jeryl Sasser or Reece Gaines, kid can flat out play, JJ apparently can still shoot, Gortat is a worker and more athletic than previously believed, Pietrus is all kinds of athletic and w/ the discipline of SVG’s teachings, could be something special on the defensive end. 2) Batie’s a lot better shooter than given credit for, has been the good soldier with playing time and still works as hard as ever. 3) The addition of batie allows SVG to play big (dont remember that at all last year w/ true PF/C) and Lee/bogans/redick allow SVG to go three guard at times. There is a lot more flexibility in the rotation and now he can give more rest to turk/jameer/lewis. I dont remember last year anytime where turk and lewis barring foul trouble had the luxury of both resting. AJ. . .well thats not good.

And our lights out shooting, though I think you can only nominate players and not statistics :)