NBA Awards Watch: Here Comes Kawhi Leonard

Most Valuable Player

1. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors – Golden State’s recent run won’t help Curry’s overall “numbers”, but the Warriors are now 60-13 with their best player averaging only 32.8 minutes per game. Some have counted Curry’s lack of playing time as a knock against him, but the sharpshooting guard has missed several fourth quarters because the Warriors have performed too well in the first three periods. For the season, Stephen Curry is averaging 26.0 points per 36 minutes (a career best) with 48/43/92 shooting and nearly 8 assists per game, and his on/off numbers are comical to the point where the Dubs are 17.4 points per 100 possessions better when he is on the floor. With apologies to the other candidates, the gap is widening.
2. James Harden, Houston Rockets – Houston is the number three seed in the Western Conference despite the fact that Dwight Howard has missed more than half of the season. Just think about that for a second. James Harden has been the definition of a one-man wrecking crew throughout the campaign, scoring 27.2 points per game while adding 7.0 assists and 5.7 rebounds, and no one carries a bigger workload offensively for his team. There is an argument to be made that the drop-off when Harden leaves the floor for Houston is as large (or larger) as it would be for Curry in Golden State, and it helps that the left-handed shooting guard is operating as an average defensive player this season. It remains to be seen if Harden can lead Houston to playoff success using this method, but at this point, it feels as if his contributions have been underrated to this point. He’s a legitimate MVP candidate by any measure.
3. Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder – The fact that the Thunder are likely to hold on to a playoff spot in the West is a testament to just how good Russell Westbrook has been this season. Beyond his season-long averages of 27.6 points, 8.6 assists and 7.2 rebounds per contest, Westbrook has turned things up down the stretch, averaging more than 30 points and 10 assists per game (!) for two consecutive months. It has to be mentioned that his usage rate is through the roof during the course of that time, but in the same breath, it is pretty difficult to knock Westbrook’s willingness to put the team on his shoulders, and if the MVP race began in February, he would be the winner.