The Real MVP

[SoonerBounce13]

How long can the national media keep downplaying Westbrook's historic run this season? Doing things that only the greats have done almost every night.
I don't want to hear about missing 15 games. If they didn't have RW, they wouldn't be sniffing the playoffs. I believe they are winning at a percentage with RW that would put them at a 3 or 4 seed. With out him they are winning 30% of the games.

 

[bocabull]

He's making his case as are Harden and Curry. But the regular season MVP has almost always been to the best player on one of the teams with the best records.

Westbrook needs to be focused on the real MVP ... Finals MVP. Finals MVP is won on the court while regular season MVP is based on a vote.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

When is the national media going to start changing their tune on russ? He continues to put up triple doubles and his march averages are just as good as his historic feb numbers. He is locking up the playoffs for the thunder with new injuries happening every week. He is doing what everybody wanted to see from him: when he has an off shooting night, effect the game in other ways. He plays his butt off on defense, rebounds, and gets others involved. We have lots of new pieces and a constantly changing lineup and he is making it look easy.

 

[bocabull]

He's doing enough to get some votes for sure. When it comes down to it my money is on Curry. The Warriors have only lost 13 games and have a +10 scoring margin. That will be the deciding factor with Harden, Lebron and Westbrook splitting the rest of the votes.

You can't argue with Curry. All the other guys you can make an argument against.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

He's doing enough to get some votes for sure. When it comes down to it my money is on Curry. The Warriors have only lost 13 games and have a +10 scoring margin. That will be the deciding factor with Harden, Lebron and Westbrook splitting the rest of the votes.

You can't argue with Curry. All the other guys you can make an argument against.

My argument against curry is that Russ has more pts assists and rebounds


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[bocabull]

My argument against curry is that Russ has more pts assists and rebounds

Of course the reason for that is KD being out. If KD was playing all of Russ' numbers would be down and his team would have a much better record.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I haven't went back and verified this stat but somebody tweeted that since westbrook came back (the first time in November?) that the thunder have the second best record in the west?

 

[bocabull]

Thunder need to be a lot more worried about making the playoffs than anything else. Their 3 game lead over the Suns could be gone by Sunday.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Thunder need to be a lot more worried about making the playoffs than anything else. Their 3 game lead over the Suns could be gone by Sunday.

thunder are making the playoffs

 

[Smash Williams]

Thunder need to be a lot more worried about making the playoffs than anything else. Their 3 game lead over the Suns could be gone by Sunday.

At worst, OKC will be up a game on Phoenix by the end of Sunday (41-33 vs. 40-34).

Making up 3 games with only 10 to go and only one head-to-head matchup is difficult as it is, but even more so when you look at their remaining schedules.

Phoenix has four home and six road games against opponents with a combined record of 449-263 (.631), plus two back-to-backs. Nine of those ten opponents have a winning record. The lone exception is Utah, a team that's gone 12-6 since trading Kanter and moving Gobert into the starting lineup. That's the easiest game on their schedule, and it's not even close to a gimme.

OKC has five home and five road games against opponents with a combined record of 375-337 (.527). That includes four sub-.500 teams (@Utah, vs. Sacramento, @Indiana, and @Minnesota). At Utah is going to be a tough one, but the other ones are games OKC should win.

Phoenix will get a lottery pick (a slightly more valuable asset for McDonough than the 18th-20th pick), and OKC will get a couple of home playoff games ($$$). Win-win.

 

[bocabull]

I wrote that before the Suns lost at home to the Kings last night after winning 4 in a row. But yeah losing that game takes what little chance the Suns had and flushes it.

 

[Smash Williams]

I wrote that before the Suns lost at home to the Kings last night after winning 4 in a row. But yeah losing that game takes what little chance the Suns had and flushes it.

Okay, that makes sense.

As for the original topic of this post, Westbrook has been getting a ton of love in the national media for well over a month. Every time the MVP conversations comes up, the three names that are almost always mentioned are Harden, Curry, and Westbrook.

As for who deserves it, you can't dismiss number of games missed when two of the guys in the conversation are going to play 80 games while the other one is going to max out at 67 games. In other words, Houston and Golden State will get 20% more games out of Harden and Curry than OKC will get from Westbrook. As great as Westbrook has been, he hasn't been a full 20% more valuable than those guys when he does play.

The fact that Westbrook's team wouldn't be sniffing the playoffs without him is just as applicable to Harden and the Rockets and LeBron and the Cavs. Discrediting Curry's MVP case because his team is possibly good enough to make the playoffs without him ignores the reality that there is a massive difference between winning 45-50 games versus the 67-win pace that Golden State is on. The Bulls won 55 games in 1993-94 without Jordan. They were 6th in the Eastern Conference standings when Jordan came out of retirement during the 1994-95 season. The 1995-96 Bulls would have almost certainly made the playoffs without MJ, but that didn't make MJ any less deserving of MVP. I'm not saying that Curry is MJ; the point is that we shouldn't penalize a star player for having a good supporting cast when that star is the difference between a team being a lower-seeded playoff team versus a historically dominant regular season team.

Likewise, I wouldn't penalize Curry for having capable teammates that depress his counting stats. Even on plays where he doesn't get the shot or the assist, he facilitates those opportunities for his teammates by drawing the defense's attention even when he's standing 28 feet from the basket without the ball in his hands. When you look at the difference in his team's performance when he's on the floor versus when he's off the floor, it's clear that box score stats don't even begin to tell the story of his impact.

If Westbrook hadn't missed so many games, it would be an unbelievably close MVP race, but 80 games of Curry versus 67 games of Westbrook makes it an easy choice.

That's not taking anything away from Westbrook. He's been a monster this year. The silver lining in the Thunder's injury-riddled season is that not only are a lot of Westbrook's critics are getting an opportunity to see how absurd some of their criticisms have been, but it should give KD a better idea of just how good his supporting cast really is.

 

[bocabull]

In reality what J.R. Smith said is true. Lebron is the real MVP. But Curry will win going away. Up to 91% odds now. As Smash said you just can't ignore his teams record and his amazing handling and shooting skills.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

In reality what J.R. Smith said is true. Lebron is the real MVP. But Curry will win going away. Up to 91% odds now. As Smash said you just can't ignore his teams record and his amazing handling and shooting skills.

I think that GS would see a bigger drop off if curry was out than the cavs would if lebron was out. It would be close though.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I'm just glad that Harden is out of it. The case against Westbrook had been that his team is at best an 8 seed. (and actually at the height of the MVP talk, the thunder had an outside chance of catching portland and a real chance of the 7 seed. And also at that time, the thunder had the second best record in the west when RW played). Well Harden's team might finish a 6 seed when it is all said and done

 

[bocabull]

Could be a little MVP PR but here's this ...

Stephen Curry makes 77 straight 3s in practice and 94 of 100 total.

 

[Smash Williams]

In reality what J.R. Smith said is true. Lebron is the real MVP. But Curry will win going away. Up to 91% odds now. As Smash said you just can't ignore his teams record and his amazing handling and shooting skills.

LeBron may still be the best player, but he wasn't the most valuable in this regular season. The wheels nearly fell off early in the season because LeBron continually undermined Blatt rather than helping his teammates get on board--to the point where Blatt's job was in question--then LeBron took a dubious two-week vacation.

LeBron deserves a ton of credit for the Cavs' turnaround after his return, but you have to factor in how much of a mess they were before that, for which LeBron deserves plenty of blame.

80 games of smooth sailing with Curry or a partly rocky 69 games with LeBron?

 

[Krugerfan52]

Its funny to read back through these posts. Somebody says the thunder might not make the playoffs and somebody responds that they will like its a done deal and the poster is clueless. Message boards are great when people just act like other people are wrong when who knows what will happen in sports.

But I think it was obvious that Westbrook had no business winning MVP. He shot the lowest % out of Curry, Harden, Lebron and Davis, had more turnovers and was the only one not to make the playoffs. If he werent on the THunder none of you would even consider him in the race. He is a young version of Kobe and Melo. Shoot a ton, poor % and lose games without Durant like Kobe loses without Shaq or Gasol and Melo loses his entire career.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Its funny to read back through these posts. Somebody says the thunder might not make the playoffs and somebody responds that they will like its a done deal and the poster is clueless. Message boards are great when people just act like other people are wrong when who knows what will happen in sports.

At the time, it was ridiculous to say the thunder weren't goign to make the playoffs. At the time nobody knew that durant was going to have a second surgery and only play 27 game the entire season. As it stands, they were a hail mary three pointer by AD from making the playoffs.

But I think it was obvious that Westbrook had no business winning MVP. He shot the lowest % out of Curry, Harden, Lebron and Davis, had more turnovers and was the only one not to make the playoffs. If he werent on the THunder none of you would even consider him in the race. He is a young version of Kobe and Melo. Shoot a ton, poor % and lose games without Durant like Kobe loses without Shaq or Gasol and Melo loses his entire career.

[/QUOTE]

this is just nonsense. RW simply wore out. At the height of his MVP campaign, the thunder had the second best record in the west with RW on the court (regardless of if KD was playing or not). He had a historic season and his stretch of triple doubles was oscar robertsonish. All you have is a poor %. but guess what. He led the league in scoring, close to per, led guards in rebounding, was like 4th in assists, and tops in steals. To say that isn't MVP worthy is ridiculous. His numbers blow away derrick rose (maybe not blow away) numbers in his mvp season.

It isn't thunder bias saying he was an mvp candidate. If he was on a team that didn't have a player better than him on it, he would have had a lot better chance. Russ has a stigma b/c people feel he takes shots away from KD...which he does at times, but without russ the thunder would have been fighting for last place in the west.

He was the best player in the league until the last month of the season. He simply wore down from carrying the team. Also with the injuries the thunder experienced, they literally were able to practice ONCE after the all start break. they didn't even have enough bodies for a real practice. The new guys after the trade never got to practice together. We lost serge and our defense was terrible.

So you can focus on his only negatives, shots and turnovers...ill focus on points, rebounds, assists, steals, defense, energy.

oh ****, curry just dribbled behidn his back again he is mvp

 

[bocabull]

There was nothing ridiculous about my accurate prediction the Thunder should be worried about making the playoffs on March 25. I looked at their schedule and it was easy to see they were in danger. Sure enough they lost 7 of their next 9.

Not sure you could find any GM who would take Westbrook over Curry. Curry could easily lead the league in scoring if he wanted but is more interested in winning.