Dallas Mavericks: End of season awards predictions roundtable

Surprise Team of the Year

Los Angeles Clippers

“Personally, I thought the Clippers had no chance of making the playoffs. I was lower on them than a lot of teams. I respected Doc Rivers as a coach but just felt there wasn’t enough talent there in a loaded West. Boy was I wrong. To not only make the playoffs, but also make the Warriors sweat it out a bit in the first round is truly amazing.” –Sean Bush

“The Clippers have cemented themselves as the team to watch out for this offseason. Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have the opportunity to be paired with two max free agents this summer, specifically Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard.

If the Clippers added both of them, they would immediately become the favorites to win the NBA championship. Doc Rivers is an elite coach, and the supporting cast is already in place for the two max stars. The Clippers are head and shoulders above the Lakers and could become the league’s most dangerous team in just one year.” –Evan Siegel

Brooklyn Nets

“There is actually a two way tie between the Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets for me, but I believe the Nets have been the more surprising team than a team coached by legend Doc Rivers led by (future) sixth man of the year Lou Williams. I wasn’t even expecting Brooklyn to make the playoffs, especially with Caris Levert gone for an extended period of time.

Then, D’Angelo Russell happened. The Nets have a long lasting future if they made the team with four of their starters younger than 27. I would see them making a few changes next season and they could have a chance to be included in the exclusive four teams in the east.” –Arsal Hussain

Portland Trail Blazers

“I’m not surprised that the Blazers clinched a three seed and have moved on to the second round, but a lot of people are. After last year’s sweep at the hands of the Pelicans, everyone wrote Portland off. Well, they’re back with a vengeance and Damian Lilliard is out to prove that last season’s defeat was a fluke. I saw a lot of people predict the Blazers would miss the playoffs completely. I think they’re going to the Western Conference Finals. That’s a surprising turnaround.” –Ben Zajdel

Denver Nuggets

“The Denver Nuggets was a fun team to watch this season. The quirkiness of the Denver team is unmatchable. Nikola Jokic is an unconventional superstar, Jamal Murray is a microwave in human form, the potential of players on the bench is comforting, and the coach is outspoken.

In addition to the team being fun to “root” for, the Nuggets found surprising success finishing with the second-best record in the Western Conference. Even if the team is not a true contender, it’s clear the future is bright for the young Nuggets.” –Lance Roberson

Los Angeles Lakers

“This one is too easy. The Los Angeles Lakers should be considered far and away the biggest surprise team of the year in the NBA. Obviously this is for a not so good reason, unless you enjoy watching LeBron James-less playoffs as much as I do. The dysfunction that came out of that organization the second LeBron got there speaks volumes, but few want to see the correlation. Expect the Lake show to be back in the mix next year, though.” –Kohl Rast

The NBA Awards show will be televised on Monday, June 24th, when we can see just how close we all were to correctly predicting the awards. In the end, we can all feel pretty confident about our Rookie of the Year pick at least.