2016 NBA Anti-Awards

It’s hard to believe this is the sixth season where I’ll be handing out the NBA Anti-Awards, which recognize some of the season’s worst and most discouraging statistical achievements. These awards originally lived on my personal blog, the now-defunct Hickory-High, and found a home on Nylon Calculus the past two seasons. I am very excited to bring them with me to FanSided and look forward to handing them out for years to come. If you’re curious about the history of these awards, you can find the full list of previous winners here.

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).

Omer Asik is something special. This season, he had 19.5 percent of his shot attempts blocked. The next closest qualified big man was Alex Len, at 18.0 percent. This season marks the third consecutive time Asik has won this award, and his fourth time overall. In terms of being big, and having your shots turned away at the basket, he is really without peer in today’s NBA. However, we may be in the twilight years of his dynasty. Asik played just over a thousand minutes this season, after playing nearly 2000 the season before. He looked increasingly out of place, offensively and defensively, for the New Orleans Pelicans this season and it’s easy to see his role shrinking even further in the future. Asik is 29-years old and moving out of his prime. Who knows how many years he has left in the NBA? What we do know is that the man is a treasure, and he should absolutely be celebrated while we still have the chance to watch him appear in other player’s highlight reels.

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.

For the second time in the history of this award, things have ended in a tie. For the fourth time in six seasons, DeMarcus Cousins receives at least a share of the award. Both Cousins and Giannis Antetokounmpo fouled out seven times this season. That’s a drop off for Cousins (he won the award last season after fouling out ten times), but still enough to make sure he takes home some hardware. Interestingly, Giannis led the league in total personal fouls with 258, but Cousins had a slightly higher foul rate — 3.8 per 36 minutes, compared to 3.3 for Giannis. The latter played about 600 extra minutes which helped him keep pace with Cousins, who is building quite the foul-out dynasty.

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.

Hassan Whiteside wins this award for the second consecutive year, exhibiting a remarkable amount of self-control. This award favors the big man whose role is primarily to catch and dunk, but Whiteside had much more offensive responsibility this season. Over the course of the season, Whiteside attempted 682 field goals and accumulated 30 assists, edging out many strong competitors including Enes Kanter and Andre Drummond, who won the award in 2014. Whiteside is just 26-years old and is embarking on what should be a long NBA career. He already has fewer assists than anyone in NBA history who has played at least 3000 minutes, an indication that he could be adding a few more of these trophies to his mantle over the next decade.

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.

Nick Young is the Susan Lucci of terrible shooters. In the six years this award has existed, Young has always hovered near the bottom of the league in field goal percentage. However, his efforts have always been undone by a strong finish to the season, or some flavor of the month popping up with an epic bricklaying performance. This season, Young will finally get the recognition he deserves. It took a new career-low — 33.9 percent from the field — to lock up the award, but he earned it. Young made just 42.9 percent of shots within three feet of the basket, and just 32.5 percent of his three-pointers. Opportunities to miss shots were in short supply this season with the Kobe Bryant Farewell Tour dominating the offense, but Young made the most of what he had. It was a job well done.

The Jason Kidd Award

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

This award was ultimately decided early in the season and will be shared by Emmanuel Mudiay, with 11 turnovers on Opening Night, and Russell Westbrook who had 11 turnovers in a November game against the Detroit Pistons. James Harden, Kevin Durant, and DeMarcus Cousins all made a push with games of 10 turnovers, but ultimately no one was able to match Westbrook and Mudiay. Westbrook shouldered an enormous offensive load for the Thunder and this was one of seven games this regular season where he had at least 8 turnovers. Mudiay had 8 or more just twice, but was likely limited by his smaller role. This award has never been won by the same player more than once, but both Westbrook and Mudiay are the kind of high-usage high-wire point guards who could conceivably repeat next season.

The Matt Bullard Award

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

This award was decided by one of the closest margins in Anti-Award history, with Danilo Gallinari edging out Andrea Bargnani by just a tenth of a percentage point — 8.5 percent to 8.6 percent. For Gallinari, this was a bounce-back season, a chance to play healthy and reassert himself as an offensive focal point. This meant plenty of time working on the perimeter on offense, time spent away from the basket. It’s worth noting that this is the highest mark to ever win this award, and by a considerable margin. For example, Damjan Rudez won the award last season with a total rebound percentage of just 2.5 percent. Also, your heart has to go out to Bargnani who missed SO MANY REBOUNDS this season and still couldn’t edge out Gallinari. Bargnani has always been among the favorites for this award, but has continually run into roadblocks from the likes of Donte Green, Steve Novak, Rudez, and Gallinari.

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 2009-10 Finals.

This regular season was, in part, about celebrating the career accomplishments of Kobe Bryant. He finished on a perfect note. In his final game, Kobe locked up the award that bears his name by missing 28 field goal attempts on his way to scoring 60 points. This was the most missed field goals in a game we’ve seen since the award was created, and it was the third time in six years that Kobe won it. It was a storybook ending if there ever was one. The torch will now be passed and there are plenty of young gunners waiting to take their best shot at this award and Kobe’s legacy. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Rudy Gay have all won in the past, but also keep your eyes on Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose heading into next season.

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 stand out in my memory.

This award has always been a three-man race. Dwight Howard had his turn, winning the first four seasons in a row. Last year, DeAndre Jordan won for the first time, missing 18 free throws. Now, it is Andre Drummond’s turn — his 23 missed free throws against the Houston Rockets on January 20 set a new NBA record. All three players will likely be in the league for years to come, and as long as the rules allow it and teams are still turning to the hack-a-whoever strategy, we’re likely to continue seeing these three push each other to new lows.

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 percent (minimum 500 minutes).

Kendrick Perkins and his hands of stone have become legendary. Perkins turned the ball over on 32.3 percent of his possessions this season (the only player in the league over 30 percent with at least 500 minutes played) and won the award for the third consecutive season. Perkins played 542 minutes this season, just barely clearing the minutes requirement. In his awards speech he plans to thank Toney Douglas and Norris Cole for all the bounce passes they threw to his ankles, and Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson for the injuries that cleared the way for him to make history.

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 VORP to determine the winner here. (Minimum 500 minutes)

Emmanuel Mudiay is this season’s winner, with a VORP of -1.2. Mudiay was a rookie who showed promise for a team, the Denver Nuggets, that had room to feed him plenty of minutes and let him learn from his mistakes. While Mudiay’s rookie season has earned him two different Anti-Awards, this is not a category I would expect him to repeat in.

Congratulations to all of this season’s winners, it’s been real. Real hard, apparently.