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| I've been a little busy. Can you blame me? 1 |
As many of you are aware, I am based in Louisiana and we had a little PAR-TAY in the last week. However, all good things, like the Mardi Gras holiday, must come to an end. That means you get another heaping pile of…yours truly!
With the NBA entering its final month of the regular season, talk of MVP candidates will continue to ramp up. It’s an annual tradition among basketball fans. While we may not get an answer until the middle of April we will get all of the speculation we can handle. Why not ring in Ash Wednesday with the first of a huge two part helping of meatless MVP pontificating from The Daily Hat Trick?
Today, I would like to focus on the three players I think have a realistic possibility of winning the award at the end of the season. The next installment will focus on players that I believe should be in the discussion, but I do not believe have a chance of having the most votes once the rubber hits the road. All of these men are invaluable assets to their teams and the NBA.
Derrick Rose – PG, Chicago Bulls (25 PPG, 8 APG)
The Chicago Bulls, at full strength, have quietly been climbing to the top of the Eastern Conference during the season. They are currently mounting a serious challenge to the Boston Celtics. While the recent recoveries of both center Joakim Noah and forward Carlos Boozer from injury have helped the Bulls reach their regular season potential, they would not be in second place in the East and within striking distance were it not for the leadership and exceptional play of point guard Derrick Rose.
Rose has taken his game to the next level in 2011. He is more than just the best scorer and passer on his team. He is a leader. He is putting the teams and responsibility for winning and losing on his back and it is reflected in the standings and statistics of the players around him. The only criticisms of Rose, while fair, are manageable. He is shooting 44% on the season, a little low, even for a guard. And when he misses, it is UG-LY! And scoring 25 points per game from the 1 position sends up an Allen Iverson like flag that he may be a shoot first and pass second point guard. However, the Bulls have no viable starting 2 in their backcourt and, until Carlos Boozer’s return from injury, I don’t think the Bulls had a clear second scoring option after Rose.
If the season ended today, Rose would receive my MVP vote.
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| The Daily Hat Trick 2011 MVP, for the moment. 2 |
LeBron James – SF, Miami Heat (26 PPG, 8 RPG, 7 APG, 50% FG)
Sometimes the media can overhype and overhype and overhype some more, so much to the point where we can become desensitized to the message and anything related to it. The bottom line, though, is if one looks only at the numbers, and not the player’s name or the team (if there were performance stats and no names on the MVP ballots), I think The King is a slam dunk for a third straight MVP. The reason I do not think he will win in 2011 is because of the following:
• This WOULD be the third straight year and the Associated Press, which votes on the award, is averse to such dominance by a single person.
- I remember, in 1993, when Charles Barkley won the award. In addition to some shrewd self promotion by Sir Charles, many factions of sports media (particularly NBC and ESPN – the only basketball opinions that truly mattered at that time) appeared, to me, to be pushing hard for Barkley to win the award. In 1997, I observed a similar push for the eventual winner, Karl Malone. In both years, I personally would have voted for Michael Jordan.
- In both years, Jordan would have been a repeat winner of the award (Jordan would have won his third straight in 1993). Jordan led the NBA in scoring, in both seasons, en route to leading his team to a repeat championship (also a third straight in 1993) and an NBA Finals MVP award in both years. In both seasons, there was a push for an all-time great having an MVP-caliber season, who had never won the award prior.
- I am noticing a smaller-scale push for Derrick Rose, ironically, of the Chicago Bulls. Rose is not yet an “all-time great” and LeBron James is still light years from Michael Jordan in career achievement, hence the smaller scale.
• There has been SO MUCH coverage of the Miami Heat that the press may have had enough of the “Heat Index” and is reluctant to extend the hype to the MVP award.
• The Heat are not well liked. Ever since “The Decision”, which united The King, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, the Heat have often been portrayed as the NBA’s Evil Empire. To think that the MVP award vote does not incorporate popularity into the criteria is naïve.
• LeBron James is very unliked by many, post “The Decsion”. Every mainstream measure of James’ Q-rating (a measure of popularity) has plummeted since this past July. It is reflected in countless sports editorials, online forums, and talk radio call-ins.
• James is playing on the court at the same time as Wade and Bosh, making it more difficult for defenses to focus as much attention on him as other key players around the NBA. I consider this is the fairest criticism of James’ MVP candidacy.
Except for the last bullet point, none of that…NONE OF IT…has anything to do with what LeBron has done ON THE COURT in the 2011 season. My second place vote would go to LeBron, without hesitation. Depending on what transpires in between now and award time, that second place vote could become a first place vote. At the moment, however, I think that Derrick Rose is more valuable to his team, is doing more with less than James, and the Rose-led Bulls are having a more impressive season than the Heat.
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| LeBron has a great case that he is still the king of the court. 3 |
Dwight Howard – C, Orlando Magic (23 PPG, 14 RPG, 2 BPG, 60% FG)
Many pundits are using Dwight Howard’s recent suspension for collecting his 16th technical foul this season as a reason to pass Superman over for the MVP award. I think it is a copout. Some have cited an inability of Howard to control his temper though Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy gave an excellent rebuttal to that criticism. However, I would not give Howard my first place vote, either.
Howard is the best center in basketball and the Magic will go as far as he can take them. His numbers are MVP-caliber. I would not vote for Howard not so much because of what he has failed to do. I simply think that what Rose and James are doing, given their circumstances, are more impressive. Howard is a physical specimen the likes of which I have never seen at the center position. Even Shaquille O’Neal, at his peak, lacked Howard’s physique and degree of all-around athleticism. He is going to put up impressive scoring, rebounding, and block numbers.
Yes, he has elevated his play to a higher level this season. But Derrick Rose is leading a team with fundamentally solid athletes, playing disciplined basketball, to one of the top seeds in the Eastern Conference. LeBron James is withstanding the heat (pun intended) of the most intense media scrutiny of a basketball team that I can recall, and playing as well as he ever has in his career, en route to leading his team to a division championship.
The Orlando Magic, on the other hand, are doing nothing that they have not done in the past three seasons. In point of fact, they are not the best team in their own division and they are a long shot to come out of the Eastern Conference playoffs, a feat they achieved two years ago. Howard is not making his team markedly better to the degree of James or Rose and for that reason I could not vote for Howard as MVP, though, at the moment, I expect him to finish third because of his performance this season.
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| Stan Van Gundy thinks that the guys who drew the techs against Howard had a little of this coming to them, sooner or later. Look at this guy. WHY would you tempt fate (or your long term dental health)? 4 |
Coming very soon: the rest of the MVP field!
Don't forget to vote in the fan polls!
To advertise withThe Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.
1) Image from blog.chaepoair.com 2) image from chinadaily.com.cn
3) Image from getrealtickets.blogspot.com
4) Image from smartasssports.com
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