Reverse NBA Awards: The Antawn Jamison Award For Most Empty Calorie Stats
- Jerami Grant
- Christian Wood
- Anthony Edwards
Think “best player on a bad team” for this award. It’s a strong year for the MIP award. Sometimes we’re forced to give it to a guy who should have won the Antawn Jamison award, but by virtue of the numbers and lack of outside success, we bestow upon them the MIP.
Luckily this year Julius Randle has the MIP locked up, but for those poor saps who toiled away on rat teams putting up the numbers they did, welcome to the ballot for The Antawn Jamison Award.
Edwards is young, and for a rookie wing stats are stats are stats, but anyone arguing his merits versus LaMelo Ball’s is clearly only watching the box scores. Edwards is shooting every time he touches the rock, but not before pounding it into the hardwood and sucking the offense in like a black hole.
Wood and Grant haven’t been as blatantly stat feeding. As forwards and bigs, the opportunity to dominate the ball is lesser than, but they still get every shot they want all the time. I know I sound like I’m discrediting these guys (ok, I am a bit), but it takes the ability to put up the numbers they do no matter the circumstances. Will it ultimately amount to anything? No, but it shows the league everything they can offer, and hopefully, get them meaningful minutes in lesser roles for better teams in the future.