We’re one month into the new season and some people are
still talking about whether Stephen Curry or James Harden was last year’s most
valuable player. Add the fact that James Harden won the MVP award from the NBPA
Awards and you’ve got a controversy that just refuses to die.
Now, whenever people talk about MVP candidates, the
conversation inevitably turns into personal production. And why shouldn’t it?
After all, the Most Valuable Player Award of the NBA is defined as the award
that goes to the “best performing player of the regular season”. So,
simplistically, the player with the best stat line should win the Most Valuable
Player Award.
The problem starts when you have to evaluate what seem to be
equally sterling regular season performances against each other. Take, for
example, the top three vote getters for the NBA MVP in 2014-2015.
PLAYER
|
PPG
|
APG
|
RPG
|
STEALS
|
THREES
|
3P%
|
FT%
|
Stephen Curry
|
23.8
|
7.7
|
4.3
|
2.4
|
286 (NBA record)
|
44.3
|
91.4
|
James Harden
|
27.4
|
7
|
5.7
|
1.9
|
208
|
37.5
|
87
|
Lebron James
|
25.3
|
7.4
|
6
|
1.6
|
120
|
35.4
|
71
|
Now, while eventual MVP winner Stephen Curry has a distinct
edge in three pointers made, three-point percentage and free throw percentage
and a slight edge in assists per game and steals per game, are those really
enough to say that he was the clear cut most valuable player among the three?
And if we take into consideration other categories, like individual
defense (in which James is head and shoulders above either Harden or Curry) or free
throws made (Harden’s total is more than twice James and Curry’s free throws
made combined) and whatever edge Curry may have had over the other two becomes
purely mathematical.
However, when it came to the actual MVP voting, Stephen Curry
won by a veritable landslide, getting 100 first place votes while Harden got a
mere 25 (James got the remaining 5 votes). This disparity in votes when
compared to stats seems totally unwarranted…unless some other factors came into
play.
So, if two or more players have equally impressive regular
season stats, what other factors would have been used to break the deadlock and
establish one’s right to be called the NBA’s most valuable player?
THREE POSSIBLE FACTORS
TEAM SUCCESS
In the 2014-2015 season, Curry’s Warriors finished with a 67-15
record, clinching the best record in the league as well as home court advantage
throughout the playoffs. The year before that, the Warriors went 51-31, so the
16 win improvement was extremely significant in measuring the value of Curry’s
improved statline.
The Rockets, on the other hand, finished with a 56-26 record,
11 wins behind the Warriors. This was only as slight improvement over the 2013
record, in which they went 54-28, but it should be noted that it was a bad
injury-year for the Rockets, with Dwight Howard missing a total of 37 games. Still,
for a team with notable players like Trevor Ariza, Corey Brewer, Josh Smith,
Jason Terry, and Terence Jones, more was definitely expected from the Rockets.
The Cavaliers finished with a 53-29 record, which should
have been amazing instead of disappointing, (after all, they were a very dismal
33-49 the year before). Their turnaround was marred by all the issues that
hounded the team right from the start While the Cavs hoped that their version
of the Big Three would be more potent than the Heat version, it lacked one very
distinct ingredient: friendship. Dwayne Wade and Lebron James were best friends
off the court, which meant they had each other’s back both on and off it. Their
personal chemistry made the transition to a Big Three system a bit easier.
That’s not the case between James, Irving, and Love. Which is why their entire season became a soap
opera of sorts, with storylines revolving about Love’s role in the offense,
Irving and James’ compatibility and even David Blatt’s ability to coach the
team.
TEAM/INDIVIDUAL MILESTONES
The Warriors’ 67 wins was not only
a franchise best, it was also their first time since 1976 that the Warriors had
the best record in the NBA. That season also featured several other franchise
records, such as best start (10-2, currently obliterated by their even hotter
start in this season), longest win streak (16, currently under threat by this
year’s aforementioned hot start) and longest home win streak (19 home wins). Add
to that Curry’s record setting 286 threepointers made and what you’ve got is a
season for the ages, when both Curry and the Warriors were basking in
accomplishments left and right.
The Rockets managed to claim their
first ever Southwest Division title and their first division crown since 1994,
as well as logged the franchise’s third best record in history. Harden made some news on his own, becoming
the first Rockets player since Hakeem Olajuwon to score 50 points in a game and
becoming the first Rocket in franchise history to score 50points or more
multiple times in a season.
The only thing of note to happen to the Cavs would be
trading the season’s ROY in Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love and recovering enough
to win the Central Division.
HYPOTHETICAL “WITHOUT HIM” SCENARIOS
This is as simple as imagining these scenarios:
How would the Warriors do without Curry? You’d end up with a
starting lineup of Leandro Barbosa, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond
Green and Andrew Bogut, which is respectable. Their strength might actually be
their bench, with Andre Iguodala, David Lee, Festus Ezeli, Shaun Livingston and
Mareese definitely better than most teams’ benches. But is this team
championship material? Far from it. But they would be capable of making the
playoffs. The question would be how far could they go in the loaded West. My
guess is, without Curry, they fall in the first round, especially if they face
someone like the Clippers or The Spurs.
How would the Rockets do without Harden? A starting lineup
of Patrick Beverley, Corey Brewer, Trevor Ariza, Terence Jones and Dwight
Howard is actually not bad, especially on defense. They’d lock down on most
teams and can actually score from inside and outside. The bench can actually be
dominant on offense against other second units, with Josh Smith, Jason Terry,
Donatas Motiejunas, Kostas Papanikolau, and K.J. McDaniels being more than
serviceable role players. Good enough to make the playoffs, maybe even get to
the second round if they were matched up favorably (like against the Mavs or
the Pelicans) but not good enough to win a championship.
How would the Cavs do without Lebron? A starting lineup of Kyrie
Irving, JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov may be much,
much worse than a team that featured Irving, Smith, James, Love and Mozgov but
then again, you take away a Lebron James from any lineup and the remaining
lineup will always be much, much worse. On its own merit, the Cavs’ lineup
would have been a good mix of offense and defense, with Irving, Smith and Love
providing the firepower and Mozgov and Shumpert providing the tough D. Their
bench is a bit shaky on the offensive side, as Tristan Thompson and Anderson
Varejao aren’t really offensive juggernauts, Matthew Dellavedova is a capable
back up but can not carry the offense, and James Jones, Mike Miller and Shawn
Marion are all bare shadows of the players they used to be. The most glaring
need of this lineup is actually a distributor, a playmaker. Irving is a scorer,
so are Smith and Love. Someone has to pass the ball and in this prospective
lineup, only Dellavedova is inclined to do that. In the weaker West, they’d
maybe make the second round.
HOW IT STACKED UP
Stephen Curry propelled his team to 16 more wins than the previous
year, set a bucketload of records (both teamwise and personally) and his team
wouldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs without him.
James Harden’s team improved by a couple of games, set a
couple of records personally and could still make the second round of the
playoffs without him.
Lebron James’ team improved a lot but, then again, they were
expected to, didn’t perform as well as they could and could still make the
first, maybe the second round without him.
And that is why Stephen Curry won the NBA MVP Award by a
landslide.
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Twitter: @SportadoPH
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