5 surprising early MVP candidates for the 2017-18 NBA season
By Tre LyDay
We all know the usual candidates in the MVP race, but a few other players have quietly put together MVP seasons.
LeBron James, Giannis Antentokounmpo, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kevin Durant are the usual suspects when it comes to the NBA MVP award, and with good reason. James doesn’t even really have to try to put up those numbers. Case in point the Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Washington Wizards this past Friday where he went for a cool 57 points.
Giannis leads the league in scoring this season, and has definitely taken the next step in his development. Those guys are firmly in the MVP race, but there are a few other guys who are playing at an MVP level that may be going unnoticed.
5. DeMarcus Cousins
New Orleans Pelicans center DeMarcus Cousins has been one of, if not the best big men in the league, and this season he’s taken it to another level. He’s currently fifth in the league in scoring and third in the league in rebounding. His six assists a game are actually more than Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Mike Conley and Giannis Antentokounmpo are averaging.
He can also hit the 3-ball, because why wouldn’t he?
The kind of production he’s putting up might not be sustainable of the course of a season, but right now he’s averaging career-highs in steals, blocks, assists and rebounds. He’s raised his points per game average every year since 2013-14, and it’s rare for a center to be averaging close to 30 points per game in the modern NBA.
A big man hasn’t won the MVP award since Dirk Nowitzki won it back in the 2006-07 season, and he was the first big that could actually consistently shoot the 3-pointer. Even in Nowitzki’s MVP season he didn’t average near the numbers that Cousins is putting up right now.
At some point Anthony Davis is probably going to get hurt again, and have to miss a handful of games. That would actually help Cousins’ MVP case if he were to put up those numbers even without the help of Davis.