With the NBA play-offs just about here, The National’s resident American sports bros Kevin Jeffers and Jonathan Raymond talk about who they think should win the NBA’s biggest awards.
Today, they talk MVP race, which is too close to call (just kidding!) ...
Earlier discussions:
KJ
Stephen Curry will win unanimously, right?
JR
Yeah.
KJ
Right. So, even though history will never remember who finishes second, it’s an interesting enough discussion as to whom that should be.
To me, it’s between four guys: LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Any of these guys would be an MVP candidate in a normal season, but Curry’s season is far beyond normal.
If I were to rank them, it’d be:
1. Curry
2. Lebron
3. Kawhi
4. Durant
5. Westbrook
Chris Paul deserves some love, too, as do Kyle Lowry and Damian Lillard. It’s been a strong year for superstars.
JR
It’s funny. Last year, I argued for James Harden because I am an unthinking slave to advanced analytics. He had slight edges on Curry in a couple of the catch-all metrics (ESPN RPM Wins, BkRef win shares) and I reasoned that outweighed all else.
That was, obviously, very silly. I’d be scaling back my devotion a bit this year and falling in line anyway, what with a 72- (maybe 73-) win team smacking me in the face, but as it happens Curry sweeps those kinds of metrics. No pedantically embarrassing myself this year!
The fun thing about this season’s advanced leaderboards, though, is that they’re all over the place on the next five or so guys.
And one particularly interesting quirk in that is, at least by ESPN’s RPM Wins, No 2 is none other than Curry’s teammate, Draymond Green.
I think I kinda like that. Should Draymond Green be in this discussion? Is it crazy to suggest he’s No 2?
KJ
Not crazy at all. I’m more interested to see if he makes the All-NBA First Team.
Speaking of which, a couple of extremely deserving players are going to be left off of the first team. Curry is a lock, but who gets first team between Paul and Westbrook? Durant and LeBron should be locks, but can you really leave off Leonard? And I’d give Draymond the fifth spot and call him a centre in a heartbeat, but I’m afraid the voters are going to put Andre Drummond over him because he’s been the league’s best “traditional” centre.
If I had a vote, I’d go with Curry, Westbrook, LeBron, Leonard and Green. And then a second team of Paul, Lowry, Durant, Paul George and Drummond, and a third team of Al Horford, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul Millsap, Lillard and DeMar DeRozan.
Man, all three of those teams are loaded. Am I forgetting anyone?
JR
From the strictly-a-centre category, there’s DeAndre Jordan, who rates very, very well this year across the board and was massive to the Clippers while Blake Griffin was out. But, again, he’s someone I’d only put in the discussion because we have to put centres in the discussion.
The positional limitations of All-NBA really put us in a bind. I can’t find a way to fairly concoct an All-NBA First Team without Green, LeBron, Durant, Leonard or Westbrook.
What if we just make Stephen Curry by himself the All-NBA First Team and make those five the All-NBA 1A team? Can we not do that? We probably can’t do that.
Going the traditional route, and including a centre because that’s just the way it is, I suppose I go Curry-Westbrook-LeBron-Green-Jordan (and Leonard has to go to the second team I guess and I don’t wanna do this anymore).
But really what I want to do is cheat and make a six-man Curry-Green-LeBron-Durant-Leonard-Westbrook first team.
Which still leaves impossible-to-ignore guys like Chris Paul, Paul George, Paul Millsap (Pauls, man), Kyle Lowry, James Harden and LaMarcus Aldridge, uh, completely ignored. So I feel like a jerk.
KJ
Ties could happen and get six guys on each team, so maybe they’ll all get in. I should’ve put Aldridge over Horford, and Hassan Whiteside will get some love, too (not from us, I take it). Harden won’t miss out, but I like all the guards I mentioned more than him just because someone in the universe should punish Harden for his defensive limitations. I don’t see the Jordan thing, but I guess he is technically a centre.
The league is stupid with talent right now. No Anthony Davis or Jimmy Butler on these teams. Karl-Anthony Towns has been good enough to be here, too. We are lucky to watch these guys.
JR
We are. And it illustrates how remarkable and probably once-in-a-lifetime it all is, what we’re seeing with the Warriors and Spurs.
Second team I’m gonna go Lowry-Paul-Durant-Leonard-Aldridge (I’m saying he’s a centre I don’t care). Third team I’ll take Kemba Walker (there’s a name we haven’t talked about!)-Harden-Millsap-George-Drummond/Horford/Cousins/Whiteside/Towns/Andrew Bogut/Tim Duncan/Pau Gasol/I don’t know man.
KJ
If nothing else we’ve effectively listed every good player worth a shout-out. The play-offs can’t come soon enough.
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