LeBron James is officially the best player in basketball in 2010 and the Most Valuable Player. This season was supposed to be a struggle for the Cavaliers. Mike Brown is still the worst successful coach in basketball, and the LeBrons only added an ancient Shaquille O'Neal to the mix, failing to fix their biggest issue, which was a lack of speed at the power forward position (Antawn Jamison didn't show up until later). The Cavs and LeBron were always going to be measured by postseason success one year after a 65 win season with an MVP win that ended in the conference finals. Not to mention the fact that the potential for LeBron's departure at the end of the year was supposed to put a damper on the whole proceedings. None of it mattered.
The other names you typically see around an MVP race all fell off. Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant were injured for long stretches. Kevin Garnett has aged drastically the last two years. Dwyane Wade was fabulous, but never got his Miami Heat into high gear like the Cavaliers. Dwight Howard was the anchor for the second best team in the country, but he failed to dominate on a nightly basis. LeBron on the other hand, upped his game. He played more minutes shot a better FG%, increased his assists by 1.4 per game, and pushed up his scoring. Now he leads the heavily favored Cavaliers into the playoffs with the overall #1 seed. King James played like a king.In the playoffs, if he fails to win the title this year, questions will rain down upon LeBron. Everyone will doubt his ability to lead a team to the promised land, people will want to know if he is going to flee Cleveland (or as I like to think of it, the mistake by the milake). None of it really matters in the long term view of his career. Wherever LeBron is, there will be media cameras and a 60 win playoff contender, and at some point, an NBA Championship team. I just won't be rooting for him.
29.7 pts, 7.3 rebs, 8.6 ast, 1.6 stls, 1.0 blks.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention Kevin Durant. Scoring title, took a very young and talented Zombie Sonics to the playoffs. Lakers better be careful, really sweet 1st round matchup.
ReplyDeleteYeah he's probably going to end up in 2nd, but he hasn't had the season LeBron has had.
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ReplyDeleteI do not agree with how you justify LeBron winning the MVP by cutting down all the other candidates.
ReplyDeleteYou say Wade 'never got his Miami Heat into high gear', yet they have won 12 of their last 13 games. Wade has carried his team to a 5 seed, which is about the ceiling for the talent on that roster.
Howard hasn't always been dominant on the offensive end, but he has consistently controlled the paint defensively. Every night he is rebounding, blocking shots, and covering up the defensive mistakes of his teammates, such as Rashard and Vince. If more MVP voters took stellar defense into account, then Howard would be more widely considered each year.
Durant has taken the Thunder to the playoffs, even though he is the only consistent scorer on that team. Steve Nash resurrected the Suns midseason and propelled them to a 3 seed in a stacked West through his amazing play.
To say that the other candidates for MVP 'all fell off' implies that they had bad seasons, which is a disgrace to each them. It also diminishes the ridiculous season that LeBron just played; he was so good that all of these other great seasons don't come close to getting an MVP vote.
Wow, ok. First of all, I didn't say any of them had bad seasons. I was saying they were not mentioned for legitimate MVP candidacy for those various reasons. And that list was not meant to act as complete collection of all the MVP candidates this year as obviously CP3 and KG are not and Durant is. That was simply a group of players who are commonly associated with the MVP race as I state in the post.
ReplyDeleteNow as for Wade. I said he had been great, and yes down the stretch (when half the teams are tanking, and the others are resting for the playoffs) the Heat have been - no pun intended - hot. Wade's numbers however are down slightly from his norm, and he has not been as dynamic as LeBron has been.
I believe I already mentioned Durant. With Howard and Nash you say defense should be taken into account and then you include the worst defensive starting point guard in the NBA. Make up your mind. Nash dominated on offense and was awful on D. Howard dominated on defense, and would go for long stretches where he would disappear on the offensive end. Neither one of them have come close this year to MVP worthy seasons.
I was commenting on the tone of the article, which, whether intentional or not, made it sound as if nobody but LeBron had an MVP worthy year. I completely agree that LeBron was far and away the best player this year, but there were other players that had MVP caliber year.
ReplyDeleteWade's statistics are very comparable to Kobe's when he won two years ago (and last year, since you say Kobe should have won then). Nash has very similar statistics to when he won back to back MVPs in '05 and '06, with significantly less talent around him. On the subject of Nash, he is not the worst defensive starting point guard. I would take his defense over any of these: Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd, Stephen Curry, Carlos Arroyo, Johnny Flynn and Chris Duhon.
Speaking of defense, I was not saying that you need to be a great defender to win MVP. I am saying that a great defensive season should deserve MVP consideration, just as a great offensive season does. Thus I think that though Dwight Howard didn't consistently dominate the offensive end, he was incredible enough on the defensive end to be an MVP. I believe that Howard will place second in the MVP voting, because of the year he has had.
You think Howard will place 2nd over Durant? Interesting, but besides the point. An "MVP caliber year" in my estimation is determinate on how the rest of the league played. And for everyone not named LeBron, they did not have an MVP caliber year due to the fact that they didn't come close to LeBron. You are acting like I said they all stunk. When I said they all "fell off" I was referring to the pace LeBron set in the MVP race. Nobody could keep pace with him.
ReplyDeleteSaying Nash was the worst starting point guard may have been a slight exaggeration, but as PGs go, he is pretty non-existent on that end. You seem to be saying we should value both equally. Well then Nash must be removed from the equation thanks to his mostly poor defense. In terms of Dwight, I think the MVP candidate needs to be someone who can be there night in and night out for his team on both ends of the floor. Even if the others have off nights, they still contribute offensively, by getting to the line or making nice assists. When Dwight has a bad offensive night, he just disappears from the game. Not an MVP trait.
I see what you are saying now, that was not clear to me when I read the article.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that an MVP needs to have stellar offensive AND defensive season, I am saying that just as great offensive seasons earn players MVP respect, great defensive seasons should too. Nash had a great offensive year and should be considered and Dwight had a great defensive year and should be considered. Howard is hands down the defensive player of the year, and I think that his defensive season was good enough to overshadow a few deficiencies on the offensive end. It is harder for a big man like Dwight to contribute offensively when he has a bad offensive night, since the ball isn't in his hands his teammates and coach can essentially take him out of the game. He still does contribute in ways that he can, via offensive rebound and such, but he can't be expected to get extra assists when he isn't scoring, because he doesn't touch the ball as much.