LeBron James has more critical comments about the NBA’s postseason awards

LeBron James continued his critique of the NBA’s postseason awards on Thursday, this time saying he thought someone other than Golden State’s Steve Kerr should have received coach of the year honors.

“I think [Portland’s] Terry Stotts should have been or could have been coach of the year,” the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar said. “I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a team lose four starters and still be in the same position as far as the postseason success they had.

“I mean they lost [Nicolas] Batum, they lost [Wesley] Matthews, they lost Robin [Lopez] and they lost LaMarcus [Aldridge] in the off-season, and the only returning starter was Dame [Damian Lillard].”

Last summer Portland lost three of those players to free agency — Lopez went to the New York Knicks, Matthews to the Dallas Mavericks and Aldridge to the San Antonio Spurs — and Batum was traded to the Charlotte Hornets.

Still, the Trail Blazers earned the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and defeated the injury-depleted Clippers in the first round of the playoffs before falling to the defending champion Golden State Warriors in five games.

But votes for the postseason awards are cast by a panel of sports writers at the end of the regular season — not by one player speaking from the middle of a playoff run. And the 73-win Warriors had a historically great regular season, although Kerr missed the first 43 games while recovering from back surgery.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry was named the league’s most valuable player Wednesday for the second straight year and was the first player ever to win the award by unanimous vote. James, a four-time winner of the honor, had an interesting response that night.

“I think sometimes the word ‘valuable’ or best player of the year, you can have different results,” he said. “You know, that’s not taking anything from anyone that’s ever won the award.”

He added: “Look at Steph’s numbers. He averaged 30, he led the league in steals, he was 90-50-40 [shooting percentages for free throws, field goals and three-pointers], and they won 73. So, I don’t — do you have any debate over that, really, when it comes to that award? But when you talk about ‘most valuable,’ then you can have a different conversation, so, take nothing away from him, he’s definitely deserving of that award, for sure.”