PREDICTIONS: REGULAR SEASON AWARDS

With the regular season coming to a close, we head into what will be an interesting playoff race (for the Western Conference, at least.) But before we get into our playoff predictions, we're gonna give our predictions for who wins the regular season awards, with the exclusion of DPOY.

Tenz:

MVP: LeBron. As much as I hate to say it, he's gonna get it again. Though I will say, I think Melo deserves the MVP more for what he's done with the Knicks. In a weakened Eastern Conference, he has his best shot to reach the conference finals than he's ever had in his career. But I can't see him beating the Heat in the ECF, and if I had to choose between the two, I'd have to pick LeBron.

ROY: Damian Lillard, and it doesn't need much of an explanation. The kid is head & shoulders above any other rookie playing right now. He went head to head with Kobe in Portland dropping 38 points on 12-25 shooting, even Kobe gave him props on Twitter. Given that he stays healthy in Portland, he's gonna be a force to be reckoned with & lead a team no one will want to face in the future.

Sixth Man: I gotta say JR Smith. He's a huge reason why the Knicks have been playing as great as they have. I've been a fan of him since his days in Denver, and I knew the potential was there for him to do big things, and now he has his best chance at going to the Finals with the Knicks. He edges out Jamal Crawford.

MIP: Earl Clark, and it's really not even close in my mind. A lot of people will say James Harden deserves this but it's pretty safe to say people had way higher expectations for him than they would Earl Clark. We knew Harden had what it took to be a superstar & he's proven it. What could you have said about EC before he went to the Lakers?

Coach Of The Year: George Karl. His Nuggets have essentially no star player and yet they're 3rd in the Western Conference. They've had to deal with injuries to Ty Lawson & Danilo Gallinari, but they're still winning games.  The Nuggets are 3rd in PPG, 2nd in RPG, and 3rd in APG.

Randall:

MVP: Lebron is gonna get the MVP once again this year. I don't think that he deserves more than some other players in the league (Melo, Kobe) but his numbers are just as good as any other MVP season that he's had and the Heat have the best record in the league. They also had a 27 game winning streak this year which was very impressive and glorified by the media. There's no way the voters are gonna give it to anyone but Lebron.

ROY: There is no debate here, Damian Lillard. Lillard is by far the most impressive rookie in the past few years. He set the record for most threes hit in a season by a rookie which was set by Steph Curry a few years back and he's the first rookie to record 500 assist in his rookie year since the one-time MVP Chris Paul. Lillard will be a top 5 PG once he reaches his prime. Just hope he can stay healthy unlike the other top picks the Blazers have drafted.

Sixth Man: JR Smith has my vote for this one. He's having the best year of his career in New York playing beside Melo. He's hit some clutch shots and his game has really matured. He's also tallied up the most 30 point games off the bench in the league this year.

MIP: Paul George gets my vote for the Most Improved Player this year. He's come a long way from a year ago. With Danny Granger out for basically the entire year George really stepped his game up. Took his scoring from 12ppg to 17ppg while averaging 4 assist and nearly 8 rebounds. He uses his length great on the defensive end as well averaging 1.7 steals per game. Not to mention he made the All-Star team for the first time in his young career. He wasn't anywhere close to making the team last season. Paul George, easily.

Coach of The Year: I have to say that Mark Jackson deserves the award more that any other coach in the league for the job he's done in Golden State. They went from a non play off team last year, to a team that was battling for home court until after the All-Star break. They're stumbling into the playoffs only in the 7th seed but for a team that was expected to be bottom feeders in the west, they made a big slash. A lot of people, including myself, expected them to drop from playoff contention after a while but they stayed tough. Gotta credit Mark Jackson for that. Arguable choice, to say the least.