Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Who's the 2010-11 NBA MVP? ..& Who SHOULD IT Be?

I think Kevin Love has earned the honor thus far this year. I assume that his exclusion from the discussion is based on the fact that his team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, are near the bottom of the rankings; but like All-Star honors, this is about individual contributions. Players do not win or lose games (nor rings, for that matter). so why penalize the man with the highest player efficiency rating for his lack of help.
However, we all know that Kevin Love is not going to be voted MVP; so who should win - out of players who stand a legitimate chance? The player who, reasonably, in the off-season thought his candidacy flew "out the window" once he teamed up with two other superstar players. This player also happens to be the one with the next highest PER: LeBron James. Of course, its impossible to ignore the contrast between the success of LBJ's current team and his former. To be fair, his absence is not the only difference in the Cavs' roster this season, they lost two other big weapons to free agency: Shaq and Big Z, and they have been riddled with injuries and forced to bump second-string talent into starting positions. Nevertheless, the "self-proclaimed king('s)" value is undeniable as the Cavs are situated securely at the bottom of the barrel - buried 4 games behind K Love's Wolves. While James' current teammate Chris Bosh's name will not be brought up in any MVP discussions, its important to note that his value has also been made more apparent by the fact that his former fellow Raptors are ssecond only to the Cavs for the last place rank in the Eastern Conference.

Player Efficiency Ratings:
Krvin Love.........29.02
LeBron James.......27.56
Dwight Howard......27.28
Kevin Durant.......26.04
Dwight Howard......23.96
Derrick Rose.......23.24
Kobe Bryant........21.98

*PER should not be looked at as an end-all, be-all statistic, but its a good strting point.*