James deserving for keeping Cavs up in standings despite overhaul
Third in points per game. Second in assists. Fifteenth in rebounds. Shooting 54.3% from the field and 36.9% on three-pointers.
Only player this season to average at least 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and shoot 54% or better from the field. Career high in doubledoubles (52) and triple-doubles (18). Accomplishes feats routinely that are unthinkable for most players.
LeBron James has made the amazing mundane.
You can bend stats favorably for anybody in the MVP conversation, but for a player with four MVPs, this season is one of the top three of James’ career. When James is having this kind of campaign, he’s a legit MVP candidate.
Besides, this is not a runaway MVP season for any player. No one is unanimous, and group think shouldn’t dictate for whom voters vote.
But what James has done individually and with Cleveland’s roster — dragging the team to 50 wins when they won 51 last season with a better roster — makes him the 2017-18 MVP.
The Cavs lost Kyrie Irving to Boston in a trade over the summer, and what they got back, especially Isaiah Thomas, didn’t work out. The roster was a mess, and it required a massive tradedeadline overhaul.
Even then, it took time. The Cavs didn’t have a healthy roster post-trade, with Kevin Love, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr. and George Hill missing games.
Through all the roster turmoil, James was phenomenal, and since Feb. 1 he is averaging 29.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 10 assists and shooting 54% from the field and 39.8% on three-pointers. In the games before that period, James still averaged 26.6 points, 8.7 assists and 7.9 rebounds and shot 54.5% from the field and 35% on threes.
Yes, he had a bad January, as did the Cavs as they struggled to incorporate Thomas into the rotation after he returned from the hip injury that sidelined him for seven-plus months.
Without James, the Cavs are likely a lottery team.
With him, they are still the oddsmakers’ favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.
To be clear, a case for one player does not detract from the case of another. James Harden is deserving, and should he win, great.
But there is more than one deserving MVP candidate.