Your unofficial winners: Curry, Wiggins, Williams
Some tough award choices, but Toronto well represented
LOS ANGELES— The most compelling award in the NBA has always been for most valuable player (MVP), and that’s no less true this season.
It really is a two-man race between Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Houston’s James Harden for the MVP hardware and it really is this close between the two guards.
That’s not to say that Cleveland’s LeBron James, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and the Clippers’ Chris Paul aren’t in the conversation.
It’s just that Curry and Harden separated themselves with their superior play while carrying their teams all season.
Trying to define the ideal most valuable player isn’t easy.
Is he simply the best player in the league? Is he the best player on the best team who has lifted his team to greater heights? Or is he the player having the most dominating season regardless of his team’s success level?
There really is no clear-cut answer. But consider this: Since the 1982-83 season, the MVP award has gone to a player whose team has won at least 50 regular-season games.
Curry, Harden, James and Paul are on firm ground there, as their teams have won 50-plus games. That leaves out Westbrook, whose Thunder team won’t reach that mark largely because Kevin Durant has been out most of the season with foot injuries.
Other awards also will pose challenges for voters trying to choose a winner. We don’t have a vote, but here are our choices:
MVP
Curry. The Warriors have the best record in the NBA largely because of Curry. And he hasn’t played in the fourth quarter of 17 games because he and the Warriors have been so dominant.
Curry averages 23.9 points per game, sixth-best in the league. He’s shot 44.2 per cent from three-point range. His player efficiency rating of 27.6 is third, according to basketballreference.com. His plus-minus is 23.6 (sixth), according to ESPN.
That’s not to say Harden isn’t deserving. He has averaged an NBAbest 27.5 points (tied with Westbrook), and he has attempted and made far more free throws than anyone else in the league.
ROOKIE
Andrew Wiggins, Timberwolves. The 20-year-old Canadian has shown that he may end up being the better bargain in the trade that sent him from Cleveland to Minnesota for Kevin Love. Wiggins is averaging 16.9 points per game, and that figure has improved every month, going from averaging 12.3 per game last November to 25.5 in four games this month.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER
DeAndre Jordan, Clippers. The L.A. centre may not be able to make free throws, but he can rebound like no one else in the league, block shots and intimidate. Jordan leads the NBA in total rebounds (14.9 a game) and defensive rebounds (10.1), is fifth in blocked shots (2.22) and first in defensive win shares (5.1), according to basketball-reference.com.
SIXTH MAN
Lou Williams, Raptors. The Toronto guard, who averages 15.3 points per game, didn’t necessary separate himself from Jamal Crawford. It’s just that the Clippers guard, whose average is 16.2, missed five weeks with a bruised right calf.