Curry is the current MVPFour days after the All Star break is as good of time as any to run through where we currently stand in the MVP discussion. With every team having just under 30 games left on the docket, the main MVP candidates will be gearing up for their closing run to hopefully take home the trophy, though most people can guess who the clear front runner is at this point of the season.Even still, we have multiple players having fabulous seasons that could rightfully put them in the MVP discussion any season, and one guy who is biding his time to reach his full powers in the playoffs (you know who that guy is).Before we dive into the top five candidates, let’s take a second to look at the guys who just failed to make the cut. Maybe not the first guy off but definitely someone who deserves a mention is Draymond Green, who serves as the Warriors heart and soul while being their top defender and playmaker.John Wall suffered through a tough opening stretch but has played amazingly for two and a half months now, terrorising point guards all over the league. Paul George, while falling off after his hot first month is still playing very well, while I am throwing in a mention for Damian Lillard who could get the Blazers into the playoffs and eviscerate the league for not voting him into the All Star game for the next two months.
#5 Russell Westbrook
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Coming it at number five, is the NBA Tasmanian Devil Russell Westbrook who continues to demoralize opponents with his running mate Kevin Durant. It still amazes me every time I watch the Thunder that they have two MVP candidates in the prime of their careers. Like how can these two guys actually play together, sometimes it seems unfair.
The case for Westbrook on this list is simple to me, he does basically everything you can do on the court when he’s locked in. Sadly that is very little on the defensive end, where he falls behind someone like KD or Steph for me because he loses concentration coming around screens or gets caught zoning out.
But offensively, he can do everything despite being a subpar shooter from deep. The two biggest improvements in Russ’s game, even over last year is how he has learned to pick his spots and how he is able to find shooters everywhere running the pick and roll. With KD back, Russ knew he was going to curtail some of his scoring, but he might be even better this year despite lower numbers because he is more efficient and selective on when to go shot hunting.
#4 LeBron James
What? The King is fourth? Calm down it is not the end of the world to have LeBron here at four, seeing as he seemingly has decided to drift through games at a time where he considers defense optional. But when, you have won two titles, four MVPs, and been to five Finals in a row, you have the right to conserve your energy for the money rounds.
And yet he is still averaging 25/7/7 and has got his shooting percentage back over 50% after experiencing a slight dip below 50% last season. I bet you wouldn’t have expected him to be the league leader in two-point field goals made.
And yet, all we care about the what happens in May and June and so does LeBron. So we are left to be bored with his greatness, looking at him being fourth in my rankings as some sort of indictment on a bad season that he is having. Reality is, it would be impossible for us to expect LeBron to play as well as he did in Miami in perpetuity, so now we just have to settle for him being in the MVP discussion as opposed to being the clear front runner year after year.
#3 Kawhi Leonard
I wanted LeBron here because I just think he is the better player when they are both fully locked in and playing to the height of their powers, but as I mentioned in the LeBron section, he doesn’t bring it every night, especially defensively, so I can’t put him over Kawhi.
What Kawhi has done, especially offensively, to put him as a no doubt MVP candidate is pretty impressive. He is no a bona fide go-to scorer, not quite in the upper echelon of the best scorers in the league, but he is definitely good enough to carry an offense as the go-to guy.
But, as we all know, his defense is the place where he makes his money and he stays a maestro on that end of the floor. He just engulfs small forwards on that end in a combination of arms, hands, quickness and a supernatural ability to just know what is going to happen three moves down the road. He is always lurking to poke a steal out or come from the weak side for a swipe or sneak block. Let’s just hope his knee heals up quickly so we can see what he finishes up numbers wise.
#2 Kevin Durant
I am dumb and left Kevin Durant off my list earlier in the year when I did my first MVP write up. It was a mistake and he might have spent the last two months making sure I knew I was wrong. He won the Western Conference Player of the Month in January where he put up a 28/9/4 stat line and had the Thunder rolling.
Somehow, with the rise of Kawhi Leonard, the pyrotechnics of Russell Westbrook, and everyone watching every move of the Warriors, KD has somehow fallen under the radar in his comeback season. But every night he has been bringing about as close to the MVP season he had in 2014.
And if you think that January was his best month, he is currently working on 31/7/4 this month on 50/40/90 shooting. Like we have gotten so bored with his silky smooth greatness that we don’t even bat an eye at his dominance. It is very reminiscent of the 2010 season after LeBron moved to Miami and everyone decided it was time for another player to win the MVP, so we just didn’t appreciate his season. Well, let this serve as a warning to watch KD as he puts up another dominant season.
#1 Stephen Curry
Yes, yes, yes, you already knew this is who we were going to end with. The reigning MVP is the odds-on favorite to once again bring home the trophy and rightfully so. He checks off the simplest criteria in the book as the best player on the best team, but his candidacy is so much more than that.
He is currently listed at better than even odds by bovada.com, where you would have to bet $400 just to win $100. To me, his most impressive stat might be the fact that he shoots more threes than twos (10.8 per game to 8.8) and is still managing to be on pace for a 50/40/90 season.
He is on pace for 392 threes which would best his own record from last year by over 100, and draws everyone on the courts attention the minute he crosses the half court line. Just by virtue of being on the court, he has opened up so many holes for the rest of his team to exploit, even without ever touching the ball. Draymond Green doesn’t become the playmaker he is without having Steph on the court to draw double teams and let him work his 4 on 3 magic. This trophy is Curry’s to lose and I don’t think he will.
