2017 NBA MVP, who you got?

Lebron:

He’s averaging 26 points ... James also is averaging career highs in rebounds (8.2) and assists (8.8).Career highs. It’s the second-best performance of his career shooting 3-pointers (39.8 percent), as well as second in his career in overall field-goal percentage (53.8 percent).

wall, curry, isaiah, brow are clearly not serious contenders. i'd put giannis and butler with those guys. durant belongs in the top tier but he's going to miss the rest of the season

right now i think i like

1) kawhi
2) harden
3) russ
4) lebron

but it's very close

what lebron, russ, and harden are doing stat-wise is pretty absurd but i sort of think triple doubling has jumped the shark, these guys go so hard for the stats and i'm not sure that's necessarily >> playing solid bball on a night to night basis

i'll be interested to see if jokic gets thrown a vote or two if the nuggs hang onto the last playoff spot

this is such a bizarre and tight race that it feels too early for me to make a solid judgement

yeah the trip dub is losing its luster

I am here:

Harden
Kawhi
Bron
Russ

voted for the god russ westb

Tough race but I gotta give it up for the beard

like you do a player game finder or player season finder for russ/harden/lebron and your first thought is that they're basically all having all-time great seasons, but really no one cared as much about filling up the stat sheet as they do, it's kind of apples and oranges

Kawhi is having one of the 15 most efficient high volume scoring seasons ever while also being an elite defender so I think he's in the statistical conversation

russ > harden > kawhi currently imo but its Real Close

like you do a player game finder or player season finder for russ/harden/lebron and your first thought is that they're basically all having all-time great seasons, but really no one cared as much about filling up the stat sheet as they do, it's kind of apples and oranges

― k3vin k., Thursday, March 9, 2017 7:19 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is crazy literally every NBA star cares about filling up the stat sheet

The weirdos are the ones who don't!

There's shades to it

Even if you could argue Russ and harden are occasionally stat hogging all lebron has done is turn the volume on on his normal 27-7-7 up to eleven

Too soon. I'm waiting.

ha never saw this, poor bmac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2uYTSiXJEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocu3V_Vt8E

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I guess I can't put it off any longer. I freely admit I vacillated so much over my top three I can't really say that it ever came down to one clear pick. I finally gave it to Kawhi by reasoning that he's a top three in defense as well as extremely efficient at offense, and he never makes an ill-considered play that hurts his team. I just love his low key game. With the race this close, the fact he's never won an MVP figured in to tip it his way.

Second for me was Lebron, who just missed by an eyelash, because he is old enough he lets himself coast art of the time. He's still easily a top three player and often unstoppable.

Harden was third in my estimation, largely because the competition is so fierce this year.

Westbrook came in fourth for me. He has amazing stats, but I can't see where he makes his teammates better and his emotions can carry him into unproductive places during a game.

Any of these guys you can make a strong case for, though.

russ leading the league in scoring and is over 30 PER now

I am changing my mind every day about this tbf

Thunder were slipping hard then they went ahead and beat the spurs and the jazz

yeah it's a 4 way tossup imo

its russ

I feel pretty good that if it weren't for the absurd numbers of Russ and harden, my preseason prediction of lebron would be coming true

It's gonna be one of those two guys

I was gonna say harden because remember when dantoni signed on and we said sure they'll score 120 and go 41-41 whoops

The Then I remembered we figured before the season that okc might be scraping for the 8th spot

I dunno what to do so I'll probably vote for the magical elf

I voted harden but I might as well have pulled a name from a hat

https://twitter.com/PrimeKristaps/status/841693567835897858

Crunch time stats for the MVP candidates. Stats per 100 possessions of clutch time, 5-point game inside final 5 minutes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C66H7mRU0AA3t54.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

tight race

I went Russ, ride or die

can someone post the pelton piece on the kawhi MVP arguments?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8YV6v0V0AAI7SZ.jpg:large

nice of steven adams to let russ grab all his baords
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYKolm75h8Y

most all stars get that sort of help from their role players. sure some of those examples are p. egregious but imo its only concerning where he leaves his man to camp under the hoop

yeah

we can use this thread to discuss all the awards stuff

zach lowe pts 1 and 2: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19144926/zach-lowe-picks-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-2016-17
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19140550/zach-lowe-picks-nba-mvp-defensive-player-year-rookie-year-more-awards

i like lowe's top 4 for MVP. i think the only certainty for me is that lebron is #4. the top 3 i'm cool with in any order

i've settled on harden here after much deliberation

wall, curry, isaiah, brow are clearly not serious contenders. i'd put giannis and butler with those guys. durant belongs in the top tier but he's going to miss the rest of the season

right now i think i like

1) kawhi
2) harden
3) russ
4) lebron

but it's very close

― k3vin k., Thursday, March 9, 2017 6:59 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me otm

I dont think kawhi has a shot to win it honestly. i think he deserves it but i think over the last month it became a two-man race. Bron def 4th, otm.

I agree that it's coming down to russ vs. beardo, with kawhi and bron trailing behind. However, I don't agree with that.

to me its close between harden and kawhi. i dont think kawhi has any shot w/ the actual vote

honestly if it's down to russ and harden it has to be harden. harden's the better player and basically averaged a triple double too minus a couple of uncontested rebounds per game

lowe's piece is pretty good. i still think i'd probably flip harden and kawhi due to harden's shot creation but it's a really close call.

this season felt like the james harden show to me in the same way as last season was the steph curry show. the rockets were just really thrilling to watch

i guess this is a purely aesthetic point but to me harden ran a beautiful offense perfectly and westbrook just kind of made offense happen out of sheer force of will. which isn't nothing, but still

also imo

kawhi : russ :: trout : cabrera

Cabrera (Catalan pronunciation: [cəˈβɾeɾə], Latin: Capraia) is an uninhabited islet in the Balearic Islands, Spain, located in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast of Majorca. It is a National Park.[1] The highest point is Na Picamosques (172 m).

-- Wikipedia --

also imo

kawhi : russ :: trout : cabrera

― k3vin k., Thursday, April 13, 2017 10:53 AM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting. otm i think.

especially that first year when trout was a monster on defense (but still crushed on offense) and cabrera got the triple crown. the parallels are pretty stark!

yeah this is good.

trout and kawhi even have somewhat similar boring personalities

yeah that was my initial thought lol

obv hes not gonna get it and doesnt deserve it but interesting read nonetheless
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-case-for-stephen-curry-mvp/

simmons: https://theringer.com/bill-simmons-2017-nba-mvp-james-harden-russell-westbrook-kawhi-leonard-4f617e8d5df5

And look, there are hundreds of reasons to complain about the internet these days. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Just know that the internet never, in a million bazillion katrillion years, would have allowed Michael Jordan to lose the ’93 and ’97 MVPs.

Oh, Bill, why you gotta write that way? You know what way I mean.

an interesting thing about simmons and lowe's all-NBA teams is that they include draymond green but not klay thompson. just pointing that out

Klay is super underrated at this point

but that is funny

xps! so, what I hear you saying is that klay is grossly underrated, right?

it certainly seems that most NBA minds consider dray the superior player. but that's none of my business!

simmons calling IT's season the greatest advanced stats season by a player 6ft or under would be more of a joke/concerning if it wasn't such an obvious homer move

The internet would have seen the advanced stats in 97 where Karl Malone was better

idk i think star power might dull the impulse toward pedantry

*pauses, thinks* wait who am i kidding

i think i voted harden but kawhi would be cool as well

i didnt vote due to multiple felonies, but i would have voted kawhi/harden/russ in that order

It really is hard for me to get around how bad the talent surrounding Kawhi is, and how it in no way really helps him do what he does

They do have a great coach tho

*pulls out defender cape* lma is not baaaaaaad.

*unfurls banner* SPURS NEED A NEW STARTING POINT GUARD

Lamarcus is declinin'

he is, but hes p good still

https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/round-1-playoffs-with-haralabos-voulgaris-ep-205

haralabob picks kawhi

lol

Drake to help unveil MVP on NBA Awards Show

if westbrook manages to raise his assists by 0.3 per game and his rebounds by 0.8 per game, he has to be MVP again

lol what a fraud

this race is back in the news after russ announced his retirement. for fun I went and looked at the EPM leaderboard (which didn’t exist then, at least publicly), and was surprised/unsurprised at who led in EPM. my goat <3

harden did lead in estimated wins, which accounts for minutes played (probably the better metric for MVP consideration)

right now i think i like

1) kawhi
2) harden
3) russ
4) lebron

but it's very close

― k3vin k., Thursday, March 9, 2017 6:59 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

:(

i'll be interested to see if jokic gets thrown a vote or two if the nuggs hang onto the last playoff spot

― k3vin k., Thursday, March 9, 2017 7:05 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

:|

feel like that’s defensible with 2017 level knowledge, def stand by that vote. was just saying that the newfangled stats are super bullish on cp3’s career

from an objective standpoint i have always been amenable to cp3s case, morally i cannot support him tho, i think if you wanted to make a case against him itd be just that hes not a bucket getter tho maybe his middy does show up in big spots not really sure, obvs he has some notable big game failures but idk if thats indicative of anything or not

the doc rivers factor complicates his playoff history

I compared harden to mike trout (for the purposes of this MVPS race) upthread, but paul really was the young mike trout, the guy who did literally everything at least solidly above average

re his playoff failures, doc is def a factor lol. also just insane runs of bad luck, which of course you can interpret multiple ways. the poorly timed injuries to teammates (and his own injuries), clips missing 22 straight 3s in g6 vs the rockets while corey brewer and josh smith lead a comeback, etc.

the other thing about his legacy is his entire tenure was in the western conference, and his career spanned the time where the balance of power between the conferences was probably as uneven as it ever has been

he was the best player, or at least 1B, on 4 different teams that set (and still hold) the franchise record for wins

my (not) hot take is that cp3 is the 3rd greatest pg after magic and steph