After the end of December, when the new crown epidemic was in turmoil, the selection of the best player of the month in the East and West was indeed controversial. Joel Embiid pressed DeRozan to be named Eastern Conference Player of the Month, Donovan Mitchell pressed Stephen Curry and LeBron James to be selected as the Western Conference Player of the Month, all of which have aroused doubts.
Why is this result controversial? In the final analysis, it is the scourge of the epidemic. More than 200 people triggered health and safety agreements were quarantined in December, multiple recruit attendance plummeted, multiple teams were affected by untidy records, and the competitive environment was out of balance, with Embiid (major rivals with too low attendance) and Mitchell (the jazz's only team uninfected before today) being the beneficiaries.
However, Mitchell has caused significantly less controversy than Embiid, after all, his data and team record are there. Curry and James lost to Mitchell, one because of personal overall data, the other because of the record, and the loss was not too unjust.
Embiid "Lie Wins"
Embiid was elected the Eastern Conference's best of the month, with the Bulls reacting the most. The Bulls' official Twitter immediately sent DeRozan's stats and led the team's record response, and Zach Lavin also complained about his teammates. After all, Embiid's 13 games led the team to 8 wins and 5 losses, which is far less than DeRozan's perfect 8-0 losses, or even less than Antetokounmpo's 7-2 losses.
But this involves the criteria for the selection of the best player of the month, the best player of the month selection has always considered the player's attendance, data, and team record, of which the weight of attendance is very high, most of the time if the attendance rate can not be guaranteed, no matter how good the performance, the team record is not counted, the anti-heaven performance and record are extra points but not hard conditions.
Embiid's efforts and performance must be acknowledged, he averaged 29.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 49.6% shooting when the 76ers were out of the lineup. But it must also be admitted that Embiid was elected in part because his rivals missed too many games due to the pandemic (which, of course, is not under Embiid's control).
A natural month is only a maximum of 15 games, among the other candidates of the Eastern Conference of the Month, Antetokounmpo has only played 9 games, DeRozan, Durant, vanVleet have only played 8 games, their personal data, team records are not impeccable, but attendance can get them stuck.
"DeRozan only played 8 games in December, which may have hurt his chances of getting the Eastern Conference's best of the month," bulls accompanying reporter K.C Johnson said.
In the Eastern Conference's Best of the Month, cavalier garlander and Heat guard Lowry were also nominated, but these two look like they are here to make up. Garland averaged 20.8 points and 7.5 assists per game, but in a defensively-based team, Garland is not even the first core. Lowry averaged 15.8 points per game, 8.5 assists and a record of 8 wins and 5 losses.
Curry lost the election due to performance
Against the backdrop of the Warriors firmly occupying the league's top spot, Mitchell's pressure on Curry to be the Western Conference's best of the month has naturally attracted controversy. But in fact, compared with the performance of the two and the record of the team, Mitchell overpowered Curry's election controversy.
In December, Mitchell averaged 30.2 points plus 5.2 assists from 50.2 percent shooting, and the Jazz were 10-2, and he averaged 9.2 points per game.
For comparison, Curry averaged 27.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game in December, shooting just 40.4 percent from the field and 37.4 percent from three-point range. Curry played 9-3 in 12 Games for the Warriors, who averaged 9.1 points per game. That said, except for rebounds, Curry has no stats that overwhelm Mitchell, and even his three-point shooting rate is 0.3% lower than Mitchell's. In Curry's career, it was almost the worst month of his work.
That's right, Curry first surpassed Ray Allen to become the all-time three-pointer in the regular season in December, then became the first player in history to hit 3,000 three-pointers, and then hit a new all-time record by hitting three-pointers in the 158th consecutive game against the Jazz. In the head-to-head match against Mitchell, Curry was also the final winner. And Curry led the team 9 wins and 3 losses in a single month in the case that Wiggins, Poole, Green, Damian Lee, the main players have all missed the game due to isolation.
These are all reasons why Curry should be the player of the month, but unfortunately, the judges first have to compare attendance, statistics and records. The extra plus, the sympathy point, wasn't enough to get Curry to overpower Mitchell.
Zhan Huang lost the election due to the record
James's defeat, like Curry, is one of the three hard indicators that did not meet the standard, the difference is that James lacks the team's record.
James averaged 30.7 points plus 9.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in December with 55.5 percent shooting and 40.4 percent three-point shooting. James played 14 games in a single month and had no problem with attendance. The problem is that James only led the team to 6 wins and 8 losses in a single month, and the winning rate was less than 50%. The 2 winners of the East and West Player of the Month, plus 9 nominees, totaled 11 people, and the one who led the team to the worst win rate was James.
Like Curry, James has extra points, sympathy points, and he has scored at least 30 points in seven consecutive games, the first player in history to do so at the age of 37. Anthony Davis was injured and James was forced to top the fifth position. The Lakers are plagued by injuries and epidemics, and James has averaged 36.8 minutes per game in a single month. But also like Curry, James can't beat Mitchell with these extra plus points and sympathy points.
Including Alexander, another nominee player in the West, he averaged 26.2 points, 5.9 assists per game, and played 13 games with attendance, but it was too general to lead the team to 7 wins and 6 losses.
epilogue
Overall, december's monthly best selection has been greatly affected by the epidemic, many of Embiid's competitors have not been recruited enough to attend, Mitchell has enjoyed the benefits of a neat team lineup, and the lineup around Curry and James has changed frequently. Fortunately, after entering 2022, the NBA's epidemic crisis shows signs of easing, the number of recruits in the past 5 days has been controlled in single digits, and the teams are recovering intact, and I believe that the January monthly best selection should reduce a lot of controversy.