2014 ACC Player of the Year

[cbarry]

I think Paige gets POY. He is an impressive PG. After watching the UNC- State game, I'm a believer. I just hope we can contain him on Saturday. UNC is mediocre without him, but a legitimate top 10 team with Paige. That says a lot about a player.

[Duvall]

I think Paige gets POY. He is an impressive PG. After watching the UNC- State game, I'm a believer. I just hope we can contain him on Saturday. UNC is mediocre without him, but a legitimate top 10 team with Paige. That says a lot about a player.

Wait, when was UNC without Paige? They've had him all year, and haven't been a top 10 team, legitimate or otherwise.

[FerryFor50]

I think Paige gets POY. He is an impressive PG. After watching the UNC- State game, I'm a believer. I just hope we can contain him on Saturday. UNC is mediocre without him, but a legitimate top 10 team with Paige. That says a lot about a player.

I don't think UNC is a top 10 team with Paige. But they definitely would not be as good without him.

But they wouldn't be NC State bad if they lost TJ Warren...

And Duke contained Paige the first time they played. Paige only scored 13. He had most of those in the 2nd half. It was Leslie McDonald and the 10 min scoring drought that killed us.

[cbarry]

What I meant to say, is that Paige is head and shoulders above the rest of his mediocre teammates, and makes average players look pretty darn good. That says something about a PG, plus he is quite a scoring threat. I thought we contained Paige very well in the first game-- he is a different beast now, and I fear he will torch us. I still have a good feeling about the game. We should win without too much trouble.

Losing Paige would decimate UNC. Losing Parker would hurt us a lot, but we could still compete. (Losing Warren would also decimate NCSU, so I guess those 2 would be my finalists for POY).

I really like Parker's game, and will miss watching him in a Duke uniform next year, but I don't fault him at all for going pro after this year. And for those who think there is even a slight chance he will stay... I have some swampland in Arizona to sell you. I would love to see Hood stay, but he is probably gone also.

Wait, when was UNC without Paige? They've had him all year, and haven't been a top 10 team, legitimate or otherwise.

[FerryFor50]

What I meant to say, is that Paige is head and shoulders above the rest of his mediocre teammates, and makes average players look pretty darn good. That says something about a PG, plus he is quite a scoring threat. I thought we contained Paige very well in the first game-- he is a different beast now, and I fear he will torch us. I still have a good feeling about the game. We should win without too much trouble.

Losing Paige would decimate UNC. Losing Parker would hurt us a lot, but we could still compete. (Losing Warren would also decimate NCSU, so I guess those 2 would be my finalists for POY).

I really like Parker's game, and will miss watching him in a Duke uniform next year, but I don't fault him at all for going pro after this year. And for those who think there is even a slight chance he will stay... I have some swampland in Arizona to sell you. I would love to see Hood stay, but he is probably gone also.

UNC has plenty of talent other than Paige.

Tokoto, McAdoo, McDonald, Meeks, Johnson... Any of those guys could start or play a lot of minutes for *any* ACC team, including Duke.

Paige has been their most consistent player, but he's not that far ahead of his teammates.

[vick]

UNC has plenty of talent other than Paige.

Tokoto, McAdoo, McDonald, Meeks, Johnson... Any of those guys could start or play a lot of minutes for *any* ACC team, including Duke.

Paige has been their most consistent player, but he's not that far ahead of his teammates.

What's funny about McAdoo is that I can easily imagine him getting third team this year, instead of second like last year, despite the fact he's been a much better player this year than last.

[FerryFor50]

What's funny about McAdoo is that I can easily imagine him getting third team this year, instead of second like last year, despite the fact he's been a much better player this year than last.

What's funnier about McAdoo is that he listened to Roy and didn't bolt after his freshman year... Bwahahaha!

[Newton_14]

It just looks like Harris has way more help than anyone imagined that he would. Harris is a really good, solid player, but his PR came from the 36 points against Duke. His team is also more balanced offensively in terms of who can produce with Brogdon and the rest, so Harris doesn't have to be the primary scorer, and their pace of play is so slow that he doesn't have the chances others have to rack up numbers.

I just cannot believe that Paige will win this award, and I don't think Warren should because his team is no good. Is that his fault? No, but Erik Green shouldn't have won last year either. I'd be okay if Fair one, I guess, since it is probable that Cuse will finish higher in the standings than Duke and he was pre-season POY anyway. Writers may as well make themselves look good.

Here's why my vote goes to Warren. He is in rarified air in a couple of categories and at least as of right now, State still has a chance to be a tourney team. They are no where near last year's Vatech team.

Warren is not only leading the league in scoring, he is leading the league in FG%. There are only two other players to ever accomplish that. One was Tim Duncan. Drawing a blank on the other at the moment. To accomplish that as a perimeter player is huge. In terms of number of 20 point an 30 point games at NC State he is now reaching numbers that only David Thompson and Rodney Monroe acheived. Plus he plays defense.

The 36 in the one point loss to the cheaters, and then the 41 point game in the win at Pitt last night seals it for me. Warren has earned it. No one on Duke, UVA. Cuse, deserves it more, and I have to give the nod to Warren over Paige due to consistency. Warren is just killing it.

[vick]

With Syracuse faltering, Warren finally moved into the Pomeroy top 5, behind Parker, Brogdon, McDaniels, and Patterson. His system has a huge (IMO too large) team component--Green wasn't in his top 5 last year either.

By the way, for those who care, Parker is creeping up on McDermott...

[Duvall]

What I meant to say, is that Paige is head and shoulders above the rest of his mediocre teammates, and makes average players look pretty darn good. That says something about a PG, plus he is quite a scoring threat. I thought we contained Paige very well in the first game-- he is a different beast now, and I fear he will torch us. I still have a good feeling about the game. We should win without too much trouble.

Losing Paige would decimate UNC. Losing Parker would hurt us a lot, but we could still compete. (Losing Warren would also decimate NCSU, so I guess those 2 would be my finalists for POY).

Okay, but if you put aside the completely unquantifiable "taking a player away" test, what's the argument for Paige over Malcolm Brogdon, let alone Parker? Unless you cherry pick his games as the media loves to do, the production just isn't superior.

[PackMan97]

Warren is not only leading the league in scoring, he is leading the league in FG%. There are only two other players to ever accomplish that. One was Tim Duncan. Drawing a blank on the other at the moment.

I believe the name you are looking for is Wake Forest's, Josh Howard. First unanimous ACC POY vote since David Thompson.

[CDu]

Okay, but if you put aside the completely unquantifiable "taking a player away" test, what's the argument for Paige over Malcolm Brogdon, let alone Parker? Unless you cherry pick his games as the media loves to do, the production just isn't superior.

Yeah, I can't understand why folks are pushing Paige. Yes, he had a fantastic start to the season. Yes, he's had one or two monster games to help his team win. But in conference, here are his numbers compared to another guy's numbers:

Paige: 15.8 ppg, 4.9 apg, 1.5 spg
Other guy: 13.8 ppg, 7.6 rpg

That other guy is McAdoo. People are saying that Paige is carrying this UNC team. But the stats just don't back that up. Yes, he has been the best player on that UNC team, but McAdoo is not far behind.

And it isn't just McAdoo. Brice Johnson is averaging 9 and 6 in about 20 mpg for them, and Leslie McDonald is averaging 10ppg. JP Tokoto is giving them 9 and 6 as well. Meeks is giving them 8 and 6 around 20 mpg too. They're getting about 31 points and 20 rebounds per game from three members of their five-man frontcourt rotation. And their other two wings are giving them about 20 ppg as well.

State is literally a one-man show with Warren. Paige has LOTS of help - it just hasn't come in the form of another star player. And in spite of that, Warren has been the MUCH more efficient and MUCH more consistent producer. Between those two, it seems like a no-brainer to go with Warren.

[Slackerb]

Also, you can't judge Paige's POY worth based on the UNC/State game. I don't know if you watched many of his games, but he can be quite inconsistent. That was his career best game, an example of his potential, but not his current reality.

The difference is that on a weekly basis, Warren pretty much plays as well as he did in that game. You may not see it since many of his games aren't televised, but he's consistently great right now. Warren also draws the other teams best defense and attention, unlike others on this list. For example, in the UNC game, he scored 36 points on 13-25 shooting against Tokoto, UNC's best defender.

[DBFAN]

I just can't get my head around this idea of Williams being COY and Paige being POY. This is what UNC does, they start off horrible in league play, then they finish up they way they were supposed to be to begin with and suddenly Williams has done some amazing Job, and Paige has led the way. Also extremely disappointed in front page article saying that Paige deserves it the most. Who makes that decision, do we actually think Duke would be the same team without Parker, or if State would have won more than 2 conference games without Warren. What I have seen of Piage is that when there is a decent but quick on ball defender he doesn't exactly blow up the stats, aka ND. I'm pretty sure if he had played the entire game against State and really wanted to Parker could have dropped 30 as well. But since we we beating them by 30, there wasn't really a need to push it, because everyone was scoring I am willing to wait until Sat to make a decision on whether or Not Paige is worthy of that honor. But if we beat UNC, we would be the only team to beat all 3 of the other top 4 teams in the league. That would be something worth considering. My thought is that the most consistent player over the year has to be CJ Fair, regardless of his teams slide, he has still continued to play well, dropping 28 last night. I don't know, not, trying to be rude or disagreeable but not of this talk about Paige happened until the State game. A game in which UNC barely survived against a team they beat handedly in Chapel hill. I just don't like taking a picture of one game and saying this is the player he is. Why not then take a pic of the ND game as well. He was almost non existent in that one, and almost coughed it up by missing his free throws.

[Steven43]

I think Jabari is the front runner here. He is tops in the league in rebounding and second in scoring to Warren, and Jabari has tons of options around him. His defense is not great, and he turns the ball over too much, but he is easily the best player in the conference. Does that make him POY?

You say Jabari doesn't play great defense, but can't rebounding be considered a form of defense? He leads the league. Just a thought.

[Matches]

Paige has been really good but he's not the POY and I doubt he would be in the conversation if he played for a different team. KJ McDaniels has IMO been better than Paige. Switch their jerseys and the conversation about the two of them would change significantly.

IMO it's gotta be Warren (best stats) or Jabari (really good stats on a contender). Apologies to Brogdon who I think is really excellent as well.

[flyingdutchdevil]

You say Jabari doesn't play great defense, but can't rebounding be considered a form of defense? He leads the league. Just a thought.

In the whole scheme of things, yes, rebounding is an integral part of team defense. But, when most people talk of a player being a bad defender, I believe they mean man-on-man defending (or defending in a zone; whatever the coach uses).

Jabari is a great rebounder. He has Melo like rebounding skills. But his man-on-man D? It's not good. IMO, I think it's a combination of desire, energy protection (for offense), and not fully understanding defensive concepts.

[Cameron]

In the whole scheme of things, yes, rebounding is an integral part of team defense. But, when most people talk of a player being a bad defender, I believe they mean man-on-man defending (or defending in a zone; whatever the coach uses).

Jabari is a great rebounder. He has Melo like rebounding skills. But his man-on-man D? It's not good. IMO, I think it's a combination of desire, energy protection (for offense), and not fully understanding defensive concepts.

While not yet great one on one, Jabari is actually quite good as a defender off the ball. For a natural small forward, he is an excellent help-side shot blocker (1.4 blocks per game, 9th best in the ACC) and plays the passing lanes uncommonly well for his size (1.1 steals per game, 8th best among ACC centers/forwards). The latter skill lends perfectly to Jabari's ability to command the court with the ball in his hands while in transition, as we have seen from him many times this season on fast-break opportunities.

Jabari's obviously a uniquely gifted and intelligent player who understands the game better than most kids his age. I think you nailed the reasons for why those traits don't always seem to translate defensively -- inconsistent desire, conservation of energy for offense (especially earlier in the season when Jabari was playing significant periods out of position and doing it all for us at the power forward/center spot) and untapped potential.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Midpoint of the ACC season I had Parker as POY. Now Paige has made a big push to get into the conversation along with Warren's steady play.

Less likely would be Ennis, Fair, Hood, McDaniels and Brogdon who are all having great seasons.

Before this last UNC/Duke game, I'd have to say my vote for POY would go to Warren. If we have an epic battle between Parker and Paige at Cameron like we saw between Paige and Warren, the winner of that battle could sneak in and take it away from Warren.

At this point in the season, I'll go with Warren. He's played great and been basically unguardable.

[Wander]

People are saying that Paige is carrying this UNC team. But the stats just don't back that up. Yes, he has been the best player on that UNC team, but McAdoo is not far behind.

I think it's about value and fit. McAdoo has become a nice player, but UNC has other guys who can rebound and such. Can you imagine what UNC would look like if Paige went down to an injury? UNC is the 345th best free throw shooting team in the country... WITH Paige shooting 90%. There is one - one! - team out of 351 that shoots less threes than UNC, and that's with Paige being a really good three point shooter. UNC's third best shooter is either 8 of 31 or 3 of 11 on three point shots on the entire season. These numbers are laughable for anyone, but downright pathetic for a basketball powerhouse. I really do think how well UNC has been playing lately is largely a testament to Paige's value (though I'd probably still vote for Warren).