(Picture above from USA Today Sports)

Now that the Washington Wizards’ season is over after a disappointing Game 7 loss, I will give my MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Most Improved Player awards out to the team for both the regular season and playoffs.

Regular Season

MVP: John Wall

This was the easiest award to dole out. No offense to Bradley Beal, but John Wall is a superstar and best player on this team. He was tied for the team lead in points per game (23.1) and led the team and ranked second in the league in assists per game (10.7) and steals per game (2.0). Wall makes his teammates better with his passing and takes over games with his scoring. He scored a career-high 52 points in a game against the Magic earlier this season and dished out a career-high 20 assists against the Bulls this season. Wall is the Wizards’ All-Star, All-NBA deserving, top-10 MVP candidate. Without him, the team does not make the playoffs.

Get you a point guard who can do you both:

Defensive Player of the Year: Ian Mahinmi

The Wizards were a bad defensive team. They ranked 20th in the league in Defensive Rating and 21st in Opponents Points Per Game. They would have ranked even worse if Ian Mahinmi didn’t suit up and play 31 games off the bench. They would have been better if he had been healthy enough to suit up for all 82 games. Mahinmi was signed during the offseason to be the team’s defensive anchor off the bench. When healthy, Mahinmi lived up to those expectations, averaging 1.1 steals per game (3rd on team) and 0.8 blocks per game (1st on team). He led the team in Defensive Box Plus/Minus by a huge margin. The difference between his DPBM (2.9) and second place was bigger than the difference between second and ninth place on the team. The only thing Ian Mahinmi needs to do better next year is stay healthy because the Wizards need his defense.

Rookie of the Year: Tomas Satoransky

The options for ROY were not very enticing. The Wizards had three rookies on their roster at the end of the year: Satoransky, Sheldon Mac (formerly McClellan), and Daniel Ochefu. Satoransky is a draft-and-stash player from 2012 who signed with the Wiz in the offseason and was a 25 year old rookie. He was the closest thing the team had to a rookie rotation player in the 57 games (3 starts) he played. Sato averaged 2.7 ppg, 1.6 apg, and 1.5 rpg. Not much. However, he does have the potential to be Wall’s backup at the point guard spot next year, as many hope he will be better now that he had a season to adjust to the NBA. He’s a 6’7″ combo guard who shot 38% from three overseas. Oh, and he can dunk like this:

Here’s some more of his dunks

Most Improved Player: Bradley Beal

This was easily the hardest award to decide, with Beal and Otto Porter both having their best seasons this year. At the All-Star Break, Otto Porter would have won this award, but he fell off a little after the break and allowed Beal to ascend to the top spot. Beal set career-highs in points (23.1), assists (3.5), field goal percentage (48.2%), free throw percentage (82.5%), and shot 40.4% from three on a career-high 7.2 attempts per game. The advanced stats also loved him this year with a career-high 60.4% true shooting percentage at the same time as upping his usage rate to a career-high 26.5%. He also stayed healthy, which has been a problem so far in his career, playing in 77 games. Beal was an All-Star snub this year, but if he continues to put up numbers like this he will make a lot of All-Star teams and be a star for at least a decade. Brad lived up to the expectations put on him from his $128 million contract.

Playoffs

MVP: John Wall

Beal made a late case for MVP with his 35.5 ppg in Games 6 and 7, but Wall raised his scoring to almost 28 points per game, still dished out over 10 assists per game, and had a combined 3.1 blocks and steals per game. No other player met these averages during the postseason. Wall also put the team on his back for most of the playoffs while Beal was inconsistent, Morris battled foul trouble, Porter struggled from three, and Gortat was just bad. Without Wall, the team does not even sniff Game 7. He is my MVP. He also had this signature moment:

Defensive Player of the Year: Markieff Morris

Really, this award should go to no one because the Wizards were atrocious on defense throughout the postseason. But, since I have to pick someone, I’m picking Morris. He had the best defensive rating of any player (minimum 6 games played). Morris also averaged about 2 combined blocks and steals per game. Again, the Wizards were not good defensively and Morris was prone to fouling and not rotating on defense.

Rookie of the Year: None

No rookies received any significant rotation minutes or played a big role in any of the playoff games. They only played in garbage time, so therefore I do not think there is anyone deserving of the Playoff Rookie of the Year.

Most Improved Player: John Wall

Somehow Wall got better in the playoffs after already having the best season of his career. He raised his scoring by over 4.5 ppg and his three percentage was hovering around 38 percent until his 1/8 showing in Game 7. He passed the eye test too as he made big plays when his team needed him to. Just re-read his Playoff MVP paragraph if you still aren’t convinced (You should be).

(All stats via Basketball Reference)

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