8. Better MVP candidate: Giannis Antetokounmpo or Kawhi Leonard?
LeBron James might be the answer here.
As with the scoring title, I suspect the superstar duos in the West will take away from each other, leaving a solo star to carry his team with a MVP performance. Kawhi Leonard proved himself capable of doing so last season and Giannis Antetokounmpo has all the tools to do it this year.
The elephant in the room is LeBron, who is even more of an MVP candidate with Kyrie Irving gone and Isaiah Thomas out until January. But LeBron is always the elephant and we’re going to choose to pretend that he’s now a tiny pig elephant even though their DNA doesn’t splice.
Giannis is the correct answer here. Not because Kawhi isn’t great, but because we’ve seen it before with Kawhi. MVP voters want something new and fresh. That’s why Karl Malone has an extra MVP and Derrick Rose has one at all. Kawhi doesn’t have an MVP trophy like Michael Jordan or LeBron, but he does have a Finals MVP and he’s been in the upper echelon of players for a while now.
Giannis is 23-years-old, entering his fifth season in the league, and the lone superstar on a mid-level playoff team. He’s Greek Freakish enough to average 20-10-5-2-2, which has never been done in league history. We know how much the media loves arbitrary numbers. An arbitrary stat line like 20-10-5-2-2 would make Giannis a unanimous MVP and Daryl Morey self-combust.
But the true answer is LeBron James.