Aaron Gordon makes tired argument for LeBron James as MVP over Giannis Antetokounmpo

Aaron Gordon made his case for LeBron James as MVP.

Although we’ve still got eight “seeding games” to go within the Orlando bubble, the sample for this year’s NBA awards has already closed. With MVP, Rookie of the Year and every other award based solely on the regular season before the league suspended play back in March, all the numbers, win totals and advanced stats are already set in stone.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the power of narrative from continually trying to push LeBron James into the MVP conversation in order to make it a “race.” Despite Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s historically dominant season for the best team in the association this is “suddenly a conversation” for some due to LeBron’s age, the revitalization of the Los Angeles Lakers and the fact that the Lakers beat both the Milwaukee Bucks and LA Clippers right before the season was suspended.

Aaron Gordon is one such player, telling The Dan Patrick Show last week that, “If you take those two guys out, I think the Bucks probably win more games. It’s LeBron.”

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LeBron had a tremendous season. He averaged 25.7 points, a league-leading 10.6 assists and 7.9 rebounds per game, shooting 49.8 percent from the floor and leading the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference by a considerable margin. What he’s doing in his age-35 season is on par with Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and there’s no doubt he’s a top-two MVP candidate.

However, this is tired logic to try and make this MVP debate anything but a landslide for the Greek Freak. As much as people try to use that argument, “Most Valuable Player” is not determined by the hypothetical question, “Which team would be better if you took away their best player?” If that’s the road you want to take, why don’t we talk about how LeBron’s second-best player (Anthony Davis) is significantly better than Antetokounmpo’s (Khris Middleton)?

Even if you’re not buying into that counterargument, why should Giannis’ MVP case be hindered by the fact that he’s on a more successful team, in a system that works perfectly for him, under a head coach that put said system in place? Is he supposed to be penalized for optimizing his gargantuan talents?

Of course, none of this factors in how the Bucks were up 3.0 games on the Lakers for the best record in the league even after losing their last head-to-head matchup; that Giannis beat LeBron in points, rebounds, blocks, true shooting percentage, Player Efficiency Rating, wins shares, Box Plus-Minus and VORP by considerable margins; that Giannis is also a leading a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year and basketball is, in fact, still a two-way sport; or that age or hypotheticals shouldn’t be factors in MVP voting.

But sure. Because we always need to debate something during NBA awards season, let’s just follow Aaron Gordon’s reasoning and ignore Giannis’ historic season — 29.7 PPG, 13.7 RPG, 5.8 APG, 1.0 BPG, 1.0 SPG, 54.7 FG%, 31.6 PER — to determine MVP based on a nonsense hypothetical about which team would be worse without their superstar. That makes so much more sense than just giving it to the guy who had a better season on a better team, right?