I’ve spent the last two weeks reading all kinds of wacky arguments about this season’s intriguing race for the MVP. Once as wide-open as the West playoff race, two incomparable superstars have solidified themselves above the rest of a league that’s been filled with outstanding performances. Seems like everybody with an outlet and an opinion’s been weighing in on this issue, so cliché as it might be, my first guest spot on Christian’s Basketball Rants is tackling the ever-popular MVP debate. After the “experts” bestowed the honour upon Dirk last year and fans everywhere were treated to the hilarity of the worst MVP ever (anyone going to prove me wrong?) receiving basketball’s greatest personal achievement mere days after the most humiliating playoff exit in history, I’m as excited as anyone about the prospect of a more deserving winner.
As much debate as there is over the MVP every year, there’s even more confusion about what the award actually means. “Valuable” is a pretty broad word and the league office doesn’t offer voting guidelines to the press as they do with other awards. While this encourages discussion it also promotes ambiguity. Does the most talented player take it? Or does the best player on the best team? The Podoloff trophy’s gotta be given to a player on a winning team, but I’m not a huge fan of the “his team’s better” argument. Dirk’s team may have won 67 games last season, but aside from his exploits they also had a talented, deep and well-coached squad; Zach Randolph put up similar numbers and wasn’t an All-Star. Team success has to play a role but give the MVP to the best player, let the best team hoist their hardware in June.
That being said, here are the players who in my pretty highly educated and completely uncertified point of view have put themselves in the MVP picture this year:
Dwight Howard, 
This feels wrong for so many reasons. It might be
because his team plays in the Least, where no opposing center is anywhere near his level of play this season. It could be because he’s still a shell of the player he’ll become; he’s 22 and still learning more every year. It’s likely because he’s still got many serious flaws: His array of post moves needs to expand. Saying he passes poorly out of the double teams he regularly attracts is generous. His free-throw shooting’s reminiscent of the last
Odds: 15-1
Kevin Garnett
, 
This, again, feels a little wrong. Garnett’s below his career averages in minutes, points, rebounds, assists and blocks while his Celtics have recently stumbled slightly atop the East and performed well in his absence. What KG’s done in
Odds: 10-1
Chris Paul, 
The Hornets have done things no one expected of them this year, largely because the league’s best floor general (arguably at both ends of the floor) has his whole team firing on all cylinders. Paul’s still been forcing more penetration than Ruben Patterson, giving his team-mates more than enough room to operate on collapsed defences. He’s added a reliable jumper to his arsenal and shoots 88% at the charity stripe, but more importantly has been the undisputed leader of a team that’s been hovering around the top of what could be the toughest conference ever for a few months. He’s a third-year upstart playing with the poise of a ten-year veteran while potentially becoming the first player ever(!) to average 20, 10 assists and 3 steals on the year. Unreal.
Odds: 5-1
Lebron James,
You know the rap sheet by now: 31, 8 and 7.5, 2 steals and a block every game. All-Star Game MVP. League’s leading fourth-quarter scorer and saviour of a questionably assembled franchise that went 0-6 without him this season and had a harder time scoring 80 points than Larry Hughes does hitting routine jumpers. Simply put, Lebron’s the difference between the finals and the lottery for the Cavs. His game’s remarkably complete for a player so young; some question his defensive intensity (who can blame the guy if he takes a play off here and there) but no player has single-handedly taken over as many games as the King this season. He’s been relying more on his league-best finishing ability and less on the Damon Jones jumpers he creates in the clutch and reminding us how many more Game 5-like 
emas
culations are yet to come. So as ridiculous a season as he’s having, I won’t feel terrible if he doesn’t get his MVP this year…At least not as terrible as I did last season.
Odds: 2-1
Considering that the Lakers, seven months removed from actively shopping their franchise player, are the trendy new pick as title favourites is a slight miracle and a testament to the maturity of Bryant’s game. Formerly perceived as the pretentious crybaby who forced Shaq out of L.A,
Odds: 3-2
No comments:
Post a Comment