What puts the ‘valuable’ in Most Valuable Player? It’s a debate that rages every year: should the regular season MVP award go to the league’s most talented player, the best player on the best team, or the player who means the most to his team’s fortunes?
LeBron James remains the planet’s best player after returning to Cleveland last summer. Since February, he has been as good as ever. But he won’t add a fifth MVP to his trophy cabinet, at least not this season.
No, the NBA’s highest individual honour will go to either Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden or Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry – and rightly so. Both players have submitted spectacular seasons.
It’s one of the tightest MVP races in years. The winner, chosen by the sport’s US media, will receive his award during the NBA Playoffs, which begin on Saturday. So which of the two super-skilled guards is most deserving; the man they call The Beard or the shorter of The Splash Brothers?
Curry led his team to an NBA-best record of 67-15 with 23.9 points and 7.7 assists per game. He broke his own NBA record by hitting 284 three-pointers this season, and he did it on 44.2 per cent accuracy, third in the league and a ridiculous number for that amount of shots.
Harden scored 27.5 points per game – second in the league – while also handing out 6.9 assists. He also led the league in minutes played, total points, field goal attempts and free throw attempts and makes.
Many argue that Harden should be MVP because, of all players, his absence would be most keenly felt in the win-loss column. The bearded star has dragged a Rockets team decimated by injury to 56 wins and the number two seed in the Western Conference. Swap Harden with a league average shooting guard and his mediocre supporting cast may not have even made the playoffs, some say.
Curry, on the other hand, is one half of the league’s best backcourt. His running mate Klay Thompson joined him in the All-Star game, while Warriors big men Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut are Defensive Player of the Year candidates. This Warriors team brings former All-Stars David Lee and Andre Iguodala off the bench. Replace Curry with a middle-of-the-pack point guard and this stacked outfit might still have won 50 games.
So what?
This is an individual award. Players can’t choose with whom they are forced to go into battle (unless they happen to be named LeBron as he gets whatever he wants).
Why should Harden get extra credit just because his All-Star teammate Dwight Howard struggled to stay on the court, or because last season’s third-best player Chandler Parsons was allowed to sign with Dallas before the season began, or because Josh Smith is … Josh Smith?
Harden is probably the league’s most important player to how his team wants to play basketball. He controls the team’s offence from the shooting guard position and scores at will on tricky drives to the rim that usually result in a basket or free throws.
Curry also has the ball in his hands a lot. Perhaps the best dribbler in the NBA, he can shoot off the bounce better than all but a few can shoot off the catch. Nothing ignites a crowd like the chance that the Warriors’ 6ft 3in assassin is heating up.
But it’s perhaps when he doesn’t have the ball that he has his biggest impact on defences – his shooting is so deadly that coaches are forced to disregarding defensive schemes they have worked on all season just to cope with him. We simply haven’t seen a player like him before.
In truth, either player would be extremely deserving of the award. But handing it to Harden because of what might have been makes no sense when the facts show Curry was the driving force behind one of just 10 teams in NBA history to win 67 games.
What Harden did in the regular season was amazing. What Curry did was historic.
Holding Court’s NBA regular season awards
MVP: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
Sixth Man of the Year: Nikola Mirotic, Chicago Bulls
Most Improved Player: Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
Coach of the Year: Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors
Jamie Goodwin is Web News Editor on gulfnews.com and has been an avid follower of the NBA for more than 20 years.
