For weeks, if not months, the NBA’s MVP race has been a two-man show.
The principle characters, Houston's James Harden and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, are having historically great seasons, and both of their teams will make the postseason in the Western Conference.
The bonafides of both players are well-documented, but the debate over which is the better player has evolved, and from that two schools of thought have emerged:
James Harden is the MVP of postmodern basketball. The Beard’s move to point guard lifted the Rockets into a new offensive stratosphere, and subsequently, they’ve joined the NBA’s top tier. Harden is producing nearly 57 points per game -- which, if it holds, would be the most in NBA history -- and he’s doing it with an insane efficiency, as he has a true shooting percentage of better than 61 percent at the moment.
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Westbrook is the MVP of the counting stats. You’ve heard the argument for his MVP candidacy and it’s simple: He’s going to average a triple-double this season -- how could you not think he’s the MVP? No one has done that since 1962.
But Harden is injured as the Rockets enter their final five games this season -- he missed Sunday’s game against the Suns -- and Westbrook’s candidacy is unsavory to those who believe in basketball efficiency (Westbrook is going to shatter the NBA’s usage record, helping him add up those counting stats) and that the 10th rebound or assist of a game isn’t exponentially better than the 9th.
Both players are more than deserving of the MVP award -- this isn’t to say they aren’t -- but don’t eliminate LeBron James’ candidacy just yet.
It’s going to take something incredible -- something that perhaps only LeBron can do -- but should James go into ludicrous mode in the final five games of the Cavs’ season (all against playoff teams in the East), his MVP resume would be hard to deny, even against Harden and Westbrook.
James is playing for a successful team -- that’s something Harden supporters love to cite about their candidate -- and he’s putting up historic numbers, too -- which should appease those beancounters that side with Westbrook.
Forget 1962 -- LeBron is in the midst of an unprecedented season. He could well become the first player in NBA history to average 26 points, 8.5 assists, and 8.5 rebounds a game and have an effective field goal percentage of 60 percent in a season (he’s currently at 59 percent, also unprecedented), and he’s doing it with a usage rate 10 points lower than Westbrook and 5 points lower than Harden.
With a season like that, James really shouldn’t be far behind Harden and Westbrook in straw ballots.
And while Harden likely takes the rest of the season off, effectively or literally -- it’d be foolhardy for him to play on his wrist injury ahead of the postseason -- and Westbrook continues to treat his own teammates like enemies of his shine, James has a chance to make an incredible last impression for voters.
(And don’t use James’ poor defense this year as an excuse to exclude him... unless you’re ready to give Kawhi Leonard the MVP award.)
It’s going to take something special, no doubt, to see James leapfrog not one, but two players having all-time great seasons, but the Cavs’ situation could facilitate it.
Cleveland is still in a fight for the No. 1 overall seed in the Eastern Conference, and while it’s unclear how much they care about it (if at all), the Cavs’ recent struggles defensively have put them in a scenario where at the least they should take the final five games of the year seriously, lest they enter the playoffs still in a funk.
A stretch of hyper-efficient monster games from the King down the stretch could pull his season averages closer to Harden and Westbrook, making what was a two-man race a three-man ballot. Add some recency bias and you have a formula for an all-time back-door win.
It probably won’t happen, and that’s OK -- so long as it's understood that James is doing something spectacular this season as well and is also more than worthy of being the league’s most valuable player.
