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| Dwyane Wade's injury has cleared the way for LeBron to win his third MVP award. |
There is just too much teamwork going on in the NBA right now to have a clear-cut MVP. LeBron has been playing at an elite level without Dwyane Wade, but Chris Bosh has stepped his game up to an elite level as well. Kevin Durant has the Thunder on a tear, winning ten of their last eleven games, but he is backed by the highly productive Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Kobe Bryant, clearly the alpha dog of the Lakers, was doing everything he could to win games (and was winning them,) dropping 40-plus in four straight, then he decided to play more team oriented ball and the Lakers have lost four of six. Derrick Rose missed four straight games and the Bulls won three of them handily. In the two games since he has returned the Bulls beat the Nets and then lost to the Pacers at home for the Bulls’ first home loss. And as we’ve stated in previous MVP rankings, outside of these four players, nobody really has a shot at the award.
Because of this increase in teamwork over the last week I woke this morning with the difficult task of deciding how to rank these players. Then it dawned on me that conventional basketball wisdom and statistics would not be enough to decipher who should be number one in this weeks rankings. So, with all Manu Ginobili’s[1] aside, I turned to John Hollinger’s[2] PER (player efficiency rating) rankings. To not much surprise, LeBron is leading the league PER, with a rating of 33.56.
For those of you unfamiliar with PER, it weighs player usage; true shooting percentage, turnover/assists/rebound rates, as well as estimated wins added. The best PER in league history is held by Wilt Chamberlin, who in the ’62-’63 season had a rating of 31.84. In the modern era, it is held by Jordan, who in the ’87-’88 season had a PER of 31.71, a mark LeBron nearly matched in the ’08-’09 season when he had a rating of 31.67. To put it lightly, LeBron is not only having the best season of his career, he is having the most efficient and quite possibly the best season we’ve seen in NBA history.
For some NBA fans out there it make take a dose of amnesia[3] for them to fully appreciate what LeBron is doing this season. But if you can look at LeBron objectively, it isn’t hard to see that as of today, he is the MVP.
MVP Rankings
1. LeBron James- The Heat have played better without (8-1) Dwyane Wade than with him (5-4.) LW: 1
2. Kevin Durant- Yeah, his numbers have taken a big dip this year due to the play of Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but the Thunder have the best record in the league, thanks to the leadership of Durant. LW: 4
3. Kobe Bryant- Since his 40-point outburst, Kobe has cooled off a bit and not surprisingly so have the Lakers, who have lost four of six. LW: 2
4. Derrick Rose- He was out for four games and the Bulls didn’t miss a beat. Then he returns and they have their first hiccup at home against the Pacers. LW: 3
5. Chris Bosh- Bosh hasn’t been in these rankings at all this season, so you may be surprised to find him year. If you take a look at yesterday’s column on his play during Wade’s absence, you’ll understand why I have him ranked so high. LW: UR
6. Kevin Love- The Wolves have won four of six, in large part to the dominant play of Love, including a clutch, game winning three-pointer last Friday against the Clippers. LW: 6
7. Chris Paul- The Clippers are fighting (literally) with the Lakers for the Pacific Division. Chris Paul is their leader… LW: 9
8. Dwight Howard- After winning five straight, the Magic have being playing a game of hot potato. Win one, lose one, win one, lose one. And then they squandered a 27-point lead last night against the Celtics. LW: 5
9. LaMarcus Aldridge- Portland has been inconsistent as of late, but they are beginning to get it back together. All in thanks to the leadership and play of Mr. Aldridge. LW: 8
10. Russell Westbrook: The Thunder are playing great team ball right now and it has led them to the best record in the league. Durant is their leader, but it has been a sacrifice for Westbrook to be his number two. He is rewarded this week by entering this week’s MVP rankings. LW: UR
[1] Due to injury, Manu Ginobili has only played 5 games this season, turns out he played those games exceptionally well and technically has the best PER in league, a fact we are going to ignore here.
[2] John Hollinger is a writer for ESPN, he does great work analyzing player and team statistics.
[3] The Decision being the forgotten memory
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