We won’t waste a lot of digital ink charting out the Byzantine complexity involved in trying to quantify a given player’s value to his team, or revisiting the old familiar arguments about which major factors should weigh more heavily than others when it comes to awarding the league’s most prestigious individual accolade, i.e. the NBA MVP trophy. It’s well-trodden territory. Suffice it to say that a number of criteria come into play, such as available statistical data (both basic and advanced), team success, recent play, strength of schedule, that rather nebulous quality we like to call “leadership,” clutch play, defense, hustle, overall basketball IQ, championship contender status, toughness, entertainment factor/GIFability, a healthy amount of subjectivity and/or confirmation bias on our part, “what have you done for me lately,” and much, much more.
So, here are our top three MVP candidates through Jan. 3. We’ve whittled the list to three instead of five so that we’re only discussing the very cream of the crop and because this is a bi-monthly column, so that we can focus more narrowly on what’s happened in just the past two weeks. We’ll still briefly discuss a handful of other players who just missed the cut, but deserve a shout-out nonetheless.
1. Steph Curry
A calf injury/shin bruise kept the reigning MVP out of a couple of games this week, but it still wasn’t enough to knock him off the top spot in our MVP rankings. And that’s because the Warriors got absolutely blown out by the Mavericks in their first game without Curry this season, a 114-91 loss on Dec. 30. They managed to win the next two games, but they just barely squeaked by the Rockets on New Year’s Eve with a paper-thin 114-100 victory. Then, after Curry tried to return against the Nuggets but ultimately had to exit the game in the first half after re-aggravating his injury, it took overtime for Golden State to edge out a three-point win over Denver on Saturday.
In short, Curry’s absence is a good litmus test for his overall value, but if this leg injury forces him to miss multiple games in the coming week, he might briefly lose his spot to active candidates deserving of recognition.
2. Russell Westbrook
Westbrook is having a career year all across the board. His 25.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game are all well above his career averages. That in itself would have been remarkable enough, but when you couple that with the fact that he’s accomplishing this while simultaneously integrating both a new head coach and a fully-convalesced Kevin Durant (who himself is enjoying a career year in some respects) back into the mix, then it’s nearly impossible to comprehend. The Thunder have won 13 out of their last 15 games, and those two losses came to legit contenders in the Cleveland Cavaliers on Dec. 17 and Chicago Bulls on Christmas Day. OKC is still working out all the kinks in their offense, but Westbrook’s unrelenting attack has helped keep the Thunder in elite company.
3. Kawhi Leonard
The Spurs have won 15 out of their last 17 games, and Leonard is the quiet engine driving their season-long success. His numbers aren’t going to blow anyone away – 20.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists – but his efficiency is staggering. He’s a league-best 49.6 percent from downtown, thanks in no small part to his increasingly savvy shot selection; he averages under four attempts from three per game and has been perfect from behind the arc in three out of his last four games. In addition to being a legitimate top-three MVP candidate (one of his personal goals going into this season), the Klaw is also on track for his inaugural All-Star berth, a distinction that has somehow eluded him thus far in his young career.
Notables
Let’s not forget that LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers (who’ve won nine of their last eleven) have maintained their stranglehold on the East’s No.1 spot, despite so much jockeying in the standings among a suddenly revitalized field of conference opponents this season.
After falling to the Warriors on Christmas, the Cavs followed that up with a humiliating Boxing Day blowout loss to the Blazers, which once again prompted a lot of public hand-wringing from LeBron regarding his team’s effort. But they would quickly get back on track, going 3-0 last week against a trio of lesser teams, which might have been just what the doctor ordered heading into the New Year.
Don’t look now, but the Clippers – who floundered in the early part of the season – have come on strong of late to win six straight games. Remarkably, five of those victories have come without Blake Griffin in the lineup, who hasn’t played since partially tearing his left quadriceps tendon in the Clippers’ Christmas Day win over the Lakers. Chris Paul has been the catalyst for those wins in Griffin’s absence, averaging 17 points, 11 assists, and 5.4 rebounds during that span.
For all of Westbrook’s antics, Kevin Durant is less than one percentage point off from a 50-40-90 average for the season. In four straight wins last week, he averaged 26 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention Draymond Green, who’s established himself as one of the very best all-around players in the NBA this season and logged his league-leading sixth triple-double in a win over the Nuggets on Saturday – with an eye-popping stat-line of 29 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists. It was his second triple double in a row after posting 10 points, 16 assists, and 11 rebounds in Golden State’s win over Houston the previous night.
Looking at the standings, it’s hard to ignore both the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks, who have identical 21-13 records and sit in second and third place in the Eastern Conference, respectively. With that in mind, DeMar DeRozan and Paul Millsap both deserve the nod here to help round out the field.
