FanHouse AnthonyRandolph

It's trophy time in the NBA, and the FanHouse crew has submitted its ballots. Find out which players deserve to take home the hardware and which ones don't, in our NBA Awards series. Next up: Rookie of the Year.

Coming into the season, most projected the rookie of the Year race to be fairly hotly contested between Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, the top two picks in the NBA draft. But it wasn't: while Beasley spent time learning to contribute coming off the bench, Rose became one of the leaders on a team that made its way back to the playoffs. As such, the young Bull was our unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year honors.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Denver needed a win to clinch the Northwest title over Portland. Sacramento, fresh off a disappointing last-second loss to the Spurs, provided the muse. The Kings actually stuck around for three quarters and change. Then, J.R. Smith happened.

Smith scored 45 points, 23 of them in the fourth. In total, he shot 11-of-18 from 3-point range, blowing out the fire emanating from his hand by the end of the joint. In the last eight minutes of the game, Smith helped the Nuggets turn a six-point lead into a 20-point victory. The Northwest belongs to Denver.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Suddenly, Dallas' offense is clicking like a metronome. That bountiful output to (virtually) eliminate Phoenix on Sunday hardly shocked -- it was Phoenix -- but pitching two 60-point halves on Utah ... even away from Salt Lake ... name me impressed. The Mavs racked up 130 points. The Jazz, only 101.

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry did the damage, with 31 and 21 points respectively. Deron Williams tried to shoot the Jazz back into it, but 5-14 from the field didn't quite cut it. Josh Howard is still struggling with consistency on offense, but seven steals always help. Always!

Wasn't Anthony Randolph supposed to have an attitude problem? Wasn't there talk of immaturity and a questionable work ethic from the Warriors' 19-year-old?

Well then, something doesn't quite add up because the Randolph you see on the court and the Randolph you talk to these days sure doesn't seem like any kind of problem.

In fact, if you're talking Warriors, this kid looks like the solution.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

Great piece over at FreeDarko, featuring words by Shoals and some killer "spectrum of positionality" graphs from Ziller. The Anthony Randolph one is the best: "[H]ere's Anthony Randolph's profile. We flipped it on its side and added some pentagrams to make it even weirder than it already is. ... They should only further affirm what we have discovered to be true." -- FreeDarko

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The magnetic pull between the rim and Carmelo Anthony's fingertips could not be stronger. A night after wallopping Dallas for 43 points, 'Melo poured in 31 points against Golden State. OK, 31 points, no big deal, right? Well, those came in 30 minutes on 21 FGAs. Quick work, man. Anthony also had six rebounds and five assists, and the Nuggets lead by 30 after three quarters.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Vinny Del Negro needs to stop watching X-Files before games. How little does the Notorious V.D.N. trust his bench? He basically played a six-man rotation Tuesday against the Pistons, with seventh man Lindsey Hunter and burning man Tim Thomas each getting four minutes off the bench beyond Brad Miller's 23.

Derrick Rose missed his first game of the season with a bruised wrist. Kirk Hinrich filled in well, scoring 24 points (on 23 FGAs) and totaling eight assists. Tyrus Thomas was a beast for Chicago, with 18 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

LeBron James' triple-double streak ended at three, keeping Michael Jordan's modern-era streak record (seven) safe. LeBron, however, knows a few different methods in which to peel a potato. Usually, it's the Swiss Army knife -- carving off the skin with a variety of tools, each one at the ready for immediate use and abuse.

Friday night in Sacramento, LeBron decided to use a hachet. With his Cavaliers down 14 to the Worst Team in the League, LBJ scored 16 points in the fourth and six points in overtime to get Cleveland the victory and by extension the Central Division crown. The Chosen One finished with 51 points and nine assists.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Tim Duncan is known for many things -- his stellar defense, his killer bank shot, his mastery of the wizard class -- but he's never been the type of dude to rack up triple-doubles. Timmy has two triple-doubles in almost 900 career games ... but he almost added a third Tuesday night in New Jersey.

Duncan finished with a game-high 27 points, a game-high nine rebounds, and a game-high eight assists, as well as four blocks -- which happened to be more than every other Net and Spur combined. An encore performance from Matt Bonner (22 points, 8-10 shooting) helped, but this was Tim Duncan's world.

How bad are things in Oakland? ESPN's Chris Broussard was on the teevee this morning reporting that Chris Mullin (the GM) and Don Nelson (the coach) aren't speaking, and that Nellie is trying to trade Mully's players out from under him.

All out war has been brewing in Golden State since June, when (potentially at Nellie's behest) team president Robert Rowell vetoed Mullin's three-year, $39 million contract offer to Baron Davis, who had been prepared to sign. But apparently now the hold of the floundering franchise is at stake. Broussard reports that Nellie told Anthony Randolph's agent to try to find a trade opportunity -- Randolph has played only 12 minutes in the last three games, despite a bunch of Golden State injuries. A Randolph-Raymond Felton swap has been rumored but denied from the Warriors end.

Atma from Golden State of Mind sides with Nellie and pins many of Golden State's shortcomings on Mullin's shoulders. And it's true: Mullin has made some bad choices in the draft and free agency. But look at the two supreme bright spots on the team, Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. That's Mullin's work. An undersized two-guard without a deep stroke and a 7-footer with no J? You think Nellie wants anything to do with that? Nelson, at this point, is Larry Brown on hallucinogens: fickle, domineering and insane.