Previewing the 2014-2015 NBA Anti-Awards

Oct 6, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) looks on during the first half against the Denver Nuggets at Valley View Casino Center. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It’s less than two weeks until the return of regular season basketball, which means it’s time to start thinking about The NBA Anti-Awards! These awards (playfully) recognize some of the most miserable and discouraging statistical achievements in basketball. A feature at Hickory-High for the past four seasons, The Anti-Awards now have a new home at Nylon Calculus and you can find the full list of previous winners here.

We’ve had plenty of surprise winners in the past and these awards can be incredibly difficult to predict. But we’d be missing out on a ton of fun if we didn’t at least make an attempt at handicapping each race. Feel free to let me know your favorites in each race in the comments, on Twitter @NylonCalculus or at the site’s Facebook page.

The Shawn Bradley Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller who has had the highest percentage of his own shot attempts blocked (minimum 500 minutes played).

Last season Omer Asik became the first repeat winner in the history of The Shawn Bradley Award. There’s every reason to think Asik’s mechanical post moves and awkward touch around the basket will keep him the running again this year. However, there are some other enticing possibilities as well. Inexperience with NBA defenders can give a young player the edge here, so rookies like Joel Embiid (assuming he’s able to play towards the end of the season), Nerlens Noel, Mitch McGary and Noah Vonleh all deserve a look. If you’re looking for a dark horse, then Ian Mahinmi may be the guy. Last season he finished seventh in this category, with 12 percent of his shot attempts being sent back. The Pacers will be without their two best offensive players from last season—Paul George and Lance Stephenson. Everyone will be asked to step and do a little more and that added pressure may be just enough to push Mahinmi over the top.

The Shawn Kemp Award – This award goes to the player who has fouled out of the most games. From 1986 up through 2011, Shawn Kemp was the NBA’s leader in foul outs with 115, 35 more than his next closest competitor.

Last season Jason Thompson took this award, almost by default, with just five foul-outs all season. There are a lot of strong candidates this season including Steven Adams, Gorgui Dieng and Mason Plumlee, who had high foul per-minute rates and are likely to see a big increase in minutes this season. Rookie big men are also usually a good bet, but Nerlens Noel had an extremely low foul rate in college. One other intriguing possibility is Orlando Magic rookie, Aaron Gordon, a hyper-aggressive defender who is still growing into his physical abilities. The Magic have every interest in feeding Gordon as many minutes as possible meaning he’ll have the opportunity to play through mistakes and rack up enough fouls to actually be dismissed from games.

The Jahidi White Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest ratio of Ast/FGA (minimum 500 minutes played). The award is named for White who assisted on just 1.7% of his teammates’ baskets over a 334 game career.

JaVale McGee won this award in both 2012 and 2013, but missed essentially all of last season with injury. In his absence Andre Drummond snuck his way into the mix and locked down his first Jahidi White Award. Bismack Biyombo and Amare Stoudemire were both within striking distance last season, but assuming he’s healthy, this award probably comes down to McGee and Drummond. Both players function almost entirely as offensive endpoints, attempting to dunk the ball as soon as it’s in their hands. Drummond’s horrific free throw shooting gives him a little added incentive to get the ball out of his hands quickly and he’d be my gun-to-the-head selection to take him the award this year.

The Darrick Martin Award – This award goes to the player with the lowest FG% and a minimum of 350 attempts. The award is named for Darrick Martin, a career 38.2% shooter who played 514 games over 13 NBA seasons.

A different player has won this award every season, although Mike Bibby really set the pace, shooting 28.2 percent in 2012. I don’t think we’ll see a performance that historic this season, but there are a whole host of players who have a legitimate shot (or lack thereof). Kirk Hinrich and Brandon Jennings are fan favorites who have just missed out on this award multiple times. Ricky Rubio won in 2013 and is still a strong contender. But my eye is on Rodney Stuckey—a wing with a scorer’s mentality but lacking a scorer’s jump shot. Stuckey will be asked to handle a lot of the scoring load for Indiana this season and, if last season is any indication, a lot of those offensive possessions will be isolations or sloppy pick-and-rolls. Stuckey is a career 42.3 percent shooter but has finished three separate seasons with a field goal percentage below 41.0 percent. Often these awards come down to circumstance and I think it’s very likely that this year everything will be coming up Stuckey.

The Jason Kidd Award – This award goes to the player with the most turnovers in a single game. Jason Kidd has had a Hall of Fame career with many terrific positive statistical contributions. He’s also had 3 career games with more than 12 turnovers.

Kobe Bryant and his policy of offensive isolationism is usually the favorite here. He’s won two of the last three seasons and nother collection of sub-par teammates makes it likely that Kobe will be valiantly (hopelessly) shouldering the offensive load, negative consequences be darned. However, Kevin Durant’s injury means this may be one of the most competitive categories this season. Durant’s injury opens up a roughly six-week stretch where Russell Westbrook running through walls will be the center of the Thunder’s offense. Westbrook has some high turnover totals in his career and the opportunity to run the show without KD could push things to new heights on certain nights.

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The Matt Bullard Award – This award goes to the player 6’10″ or taller with the lowest Total Rebound Percentage. (Minimum 500 minutes)

As long as he meets the minimum minute requirement, this award belongs to three-time winner Steve Novak, now and forever. If he falls below 500 minutes played this season, keep an eye on waif-ish power forwards like Perry Jones, Andrea Bargnani and Channing Frye, all of whom have been lurking, waiting for Novak to falter.
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The Kobe Bryant Award – This award goes to the player who has missed the most shot attempts in a single game. The award is inspired by Kobe’s performance in Game 7 of the 09-10 Finals.

This one seems like even odds between Kobe and Westbrook, for pretty much the same reasoning as The Jason Kidd Award. Last year’s winner, Rudy Gay is a dark horse but I think Sacramento knows enough to cut him off after 20 misses.
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The Nick Anderson Award – This award goes to the player who missed the most free throws in a single game. Anderson was actually a decent free throw shooter. But his four missed free throw attempts in the 1995 Finals against Houston kind of stand out in my memory.

Dwight Howard has taken this award every year since its inception. However, several other big men have caught up to him the stomach-churning free throw percentage department. Andrew Bogut, Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan are all likely to challenge Howard this season. It will just come down to which team is willing to Hack-A-Whoever on a given night, giving Howard and company enough attempts to rack up the double-digit misses it will take to bring him the hardware.
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The Chris Childs Award – This award goes to the player who has posted the highest Turnover Percentage so far this season. It’s named after former New York Knick Chris Childs, who retired with a career Turnover Percentage of 22.8%. (Minimum 500 minutes)

This may be a wild pick, but I like Steven Adams. His teammate, Kendrick Perkins, won last season and Adams, who finished 10th last season, should be taking a lot of Perkins’ minutes. He should also get a nice bump with Durant out to start the season, an opportunity for him to try out a slightly larger offensive role. If you don’t like the odds on a big man winning, keep an eye on Kendall Marshall, Dennis Schroder and Phil Pressey.
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The Andrea Bargnani Award (Formerly the Darius Songaila Award) – This award goes to the player who has provided his team with the least overall production. I use Wins Produced to determine the winner here. (Minimum 500 minutes)

I put every player from the Philadelphia 76ers on a roulette wheel and took a spin. Henry Sims, come on down!