NBA Awards Watch: The Andrew Wiggins breakout
By Brad Rowland
Most Valuable Player
- Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors – The best player on the best team in the NBA isn’t always deserving of the MVP nod, but Steph Curry certainly fits the bill. Golden State has easily been the league’s best team to this point, and the 26-year-old point guard is the biggest reason for their dominance. Curry is shooting 49% from the field, 39% from three and 92% from the free throw line as he pursues an elusive 50/40/90 season, and when you consider that his three-point shooting is at a career low right now, it almost becomes comical. Defense isn’t a strength for Curry, but he has been more than adequate on that end, and his abilities as a distributor (7.8 assists per game) and secondary rebounder (5.2 rebounds per game) are vastly underrated. Stephen Curry may not be the best player in the NBA, but with the OKC pairing and LeBron James knocked off with injury concerns, the current MVP race is more of a runaway than you may think.
- Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans – Davis boasts the best statistical profile of anyone in the league this season, and with New Orleans in the thick of playoff contention, he is certainly in the running. The 21-year-old power forward continues to lead the NBA in PER with an uber-elite 31.26 rating, and he lands in the top-three of virtually every “advanced” statistical measure for all-encompassing performance. For good measure, his traditional numbers (23.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.8 blocks per game) are out-of-this-world good, and the fact that this particular Pelicans team is on the periphery of the playoffs in the West is a testament to his high-end performance this season.
- DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings – Value is a funny concept, but sometimes, things are simple. The Sacramento Kings are 2-11 with DeMarcus Cousins out of the lineup. The Sacramento Kings are 12-11 with DeMarcus Cousins in the lineup. Obviously, there is more to the MVP race than that, but the Kings are a borderline playoff team as long as Cousins is playing, and his production level is worthy of this type of billing. The 24-year-old big man has assumed the title of “best center in the league” for most people, and Cousins is averaging 23.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game while putting up a career-best 57.8% mark in true shooting. His defense has vastly improved, Cousins isn’t making waves off the floor, and it is a shame that the more casual fan has not been able to watch his development on a nightly basis. There is almost no chance that DeMarcus Cousins would finish in the top five (let alone the top three) of MVP balloting if the season ended today, but he deserves more acknowledgement for his efforts.