Stating the case for every Most Valuable Player candidate
In any given year, discussions over NBA awards become playgrounds for philosophical thought, toeing the line between generally-accepted truths among reasonable people and absurdist reconstructions of the parameters of any given award to fit a preferred player. Debates become embodiments of Newton’s Third Law: For every candidate for an award, there is an equal and opposite candidate. Much like in current news cycles, people take facts and contour them for their own argument, creating several parallel realities in which players are either the most or least qualified and worthy recipients.
There is room for opinion, if you can get past the facts.
Perhaps no award generates more discussion — to stop just short of saying “controversy” — on a year-to-year basis than the Most Valuable Player Award. Textbook definitions get thrown out the window in favor of frameworks that, more often than not, say more about the individual giving the opinion than about the player in question or the state of basketball itself. In any given year, there are at least two candidates who put together seasons worthy of such a distinction, which makes it all the more incredible that the NBA has somehow followed up the season in which Stephen Curry received the first unanimous MVP ever by gifting us with a year that could reasonably result in the award going to any of four players.
On any given night, any of the following four could singlehandedly change the result of a game by doing something no other player — even their rivals for this award — has done previously. Each of the four is a player with immeasurable talent and basketball acumen, and none of the four would be too great a surprise should he win the award. With all due respect to John Wall and Isaiah Thomas, here are the candidates for the Maurice Podoloff Trophy.
LeBron James
In truth, James is stuck in a career so transcendently powerful and consistently mind-boggling that any of his individual seasons get written off as LeBron being LeBron. Much like Peyton Manning for most of the first decade of this millennium, James’ career is so good that in any season from 2007 through the present, he could have been the MVP, and most people would just shrug and nod. As he proved again in last year’s NBA Finals, he is still the best basketball player on the planet, and it isn’t particularly close.
This season has been particularly challenging for the 32-year-old, who has carried the Cavaliers through injury-riddled stretches without their other two All-Stars, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, while negotiating intense media scrutiny and criticism from all corners of the basketball-viewing public. James is averaging 26.2 points, 8.8 assists and 8.6 rebounds on a 61.6 true shooting percentage. His assist percentage is at a career high, and he is second in the league in minutes per game, the latter of which may play a factor in the playoffs.
James is having arguably the best season ever for a player his age, and it happens to be one of his best seasons, period. Voter fatigue, even four years after his last MVP, is likely to harm his case, but make no mistake: If you’re of the inclination that the MVP should go to the outright best player in the league, then LeBron James is your man.
Kawhi Leonard
The crown prince of stoicism, Leonard has inherited his throne in San Antonio from the likes of Tim Duncan and David Robinson before him. He leads the most successful sports franchise in a major North American sport over the past two decades, and he is on the best team this season by record of any of the four candidates. The most consistently excellent two-way player in the NBA, Leonard has gotten markedly better in each of his six seasons. When people say that he’s the “understated” MVP candidate, it’s less a commentary on him than it is about the bombastic personalities of the others.
It’s not like we couldn’t have foreseen this. By the start of this season, at age 25, Leonard was already a Finals MVP and two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year. His bonafides aren’t at all in question, as he has grown exponentially under the tutelage of Gregg Popovich and an unimpeachable organizational structure. Leonard’s presence even helped the Spurs lure their first superstar free agent, LaMarcus Aldridge, two summers ago. He has upped his scoring by nearly five points per game over last season, good for ninth in the league with 26.0 per game, and is enjoying a career year in assists as well, all while contributing the standard lockdown defense that is so good, opponents simply park their best offensive player and ignore Leonard because it isn’t worth challenging him.
Still, Leonard’s low-key demeanor and, admittedly, his lack of earth-shattering raw stats in the form of triple-doubles or scoring explosions may undermine him. His team may simply be too good to truly showcase his value. It must be said, however, that three of his six highest-scoring games this season have occurred against the likes of the other MVP candidates, with a fourth in the six coming against the Warriors. Discount Leonard at your own risk.
James Harden
Really, however, the MVP discussion comes down to two players, the first of which is perfecting an offense first piloted by a two-time MVP a decade ago. When Mike D’Antoni announced that he would make Harden the Rockets’ point guard this season, inheriting the role Steve Nash pioneered with the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns under D’Antoni, some were skeptical that Harden could shoulder the playmaking or that he could do so while also improving his macabre defense.
Harden has responded in kind, putting up extraordinary numbers and even improving upon the already incredible stats he has posted since he arrived in Houston. After years of catching flack for simply not being fun to watch despite his ruthless, Daryl Morey-inspired efficiency, Harden is running one of the most exciting offenses in basketball, one which his team and coach have catered to his strengths. His endless array of offensive moves seems to grow by the day, and his sense of timing is Swatch-esque. He can go from 0-60 and, perhaps most remarkably, back to zero before his defender can even count to one, spinning and dancing his way into openings for himself and his teammates.
Harden leads the league in assists in a season during which he’s playing a brand new position. The Rockets are the zeitgeist of an NBA which has adopted the 3-pointer as its ultimate signifier, already having broken the league record for 3-pointers attempted and are currently averaging 40 per game. If the Rockets are Motown, Harden is their Smokey Robinson.
Like Leonard, Harden has wins over each of the other three MVP candidates. Harden’s defense, while not nearly as eye-bleedingly, Vine-worthily bad as it has been in previous years, is the probably the least consistent of any candidate’s, despite a career-best defensive box plus-minus. He’s trying! Harden also leads the league in turnovers, which is endemic to his kind of usage. His Rockets are going to finish with the third-best record in the Western Conference, which is not insignificant in terms of historical MVP credentials. In most other seasons, Harden would be the MVP by a long shot, and he may very well be this year anyway. And yet…
Russell Westbrook
Ah, Brodie. How does one truly capture the essence of Westbrook, fashionista, PB&J aficionado and occasional basketball player, a fireball of a human being averaging a triple-double in 2017? Russ has normalized the 10-by-3 such that it is literally surprising when he doesn’t reach that benchmark — after all, he has posted a triple-double in over half of his team’s games this season. He is leading the league in scoring and dragging an Thunder squad to the playoffs in their first season following the defection of Kevin Durant.
To compare Westbrook to a nuclear weapon is to give undue credit to uranium. He is volatile, charismatic and unrelenting, routinely carrying nearly all of the offensive burden for the Thunder. His “why not?” mantra has become the rallying cry of his voracious supporters and defenders. As of this writing, the Monolith has tied Oscar Robertson for most triple-doubles in a single season, with 41. He fell one rebound short of breaking the record during a 45-point effort in a narrow win Wednesday night against the Grizzlies. That game is one of many microcosms of Westbrook’s season: astonishing stats, all for the sake of keeping his team in the game. Like Leonard and Harden, Westbrook’s team owns wins over those of every other MVP candidate.
His detractors call him selfish — he is about to destroy the single-season record for usage rate, which previously belonged to the 2005-06, 81-point version of Kobe Bryant (!) – and stubborn, often taking unnecessary chances in pursuit of victory. His defense is lackadaisical at times, as he can occasionally get caught ball-watching. His efficiency lags severely behind his MVP-calibre peers, and he can sometimes play his team out of games as easily as he keeps the Thunder in them. That he is second in the league in turnovers certainly doesn’t help his case either, and the fact that he leads the league in uncontested rebounds is illustrative of his team moving mountains on his behalf, sometimes to the detriment of his individual teammates. His Thunder sport the worst record of any team featuring an MVP candidate.
Westbrook’s control of the ball, however, isn’t garden-variety defiance; it comes from the belief that everything he does for his team, magic and mistakes, is required for the Thunder to win. In addition to leading the league in points per game, he is also tops in assist percentage, value over replacement player, box plus/minus and player efficiency rating. At 6-foot-3, he’s also ninth in the league in rebounding. It is unconscionable that a leading MVP candidate wasn’t even selected to start for his conference in the All-Star Game. His masterpieces this season would fill the Met.
Prior to the season, for this very website, I picked Westbrook to be the MVP, figuring his infinite rage and unparalleled energy would fuel a more well-rounded Thunder team even without Durant. Standing at the edge of the playoffs, I stand by that. People love to filter their MVP arguments through various channels, and Westbrook arguably fulfills two of the most popular: He is having the best season, and he is the basketball denotation of “value.”
Next: Stating the case for every Most Improved Player candidate
It could very well be that Harden wins the MVP, even without doing something crazy in the final week of the season, and it would be well-deserved. But Heaven help the voters who decide against Westbrook, who would surely focus his energy on a first round playoff opponent. Who are the Thunder due to face? None other than Harden and the Rockets.