MVP Candidates

[Carmo]

Do you even remember what happened last year?? Nash's numbers weren't as good as other players numbers (eg. LeBron) but he won the award. The MVP goes to the player who helps and effects their team's performance the most, it's about leadership as well as stats. Show me one MVP that hasn't been in a leading team.

[dan_suth]

I'm not sure why everyone is going with Billups either. Billups is 4th in assists per 48 minutes, behind Nash, Baron Davis, and Brevin Knight. He's not even leading his own position in the most crucial category for PG's. And he's 34th in ppg. That's good, but 34th in scoring isn't even all-star caliber.

Axel, I believe the Assist to Turnover ratio is the "most crucial" category as a Point Guard.. and Chauncey Billups IS leading that, as he's posting an astonishing 4.27 assists per 1 turnover. The only other starting PG even in the same ballpark is Brevin Knight at 4.25 (he has the same amount of turnovers on the season, just one assist less) - the majority of the league's starting point guards are WAY behind. Billups is leading his team to (most likely) a 60+ win season, and playing damn near flawless ball in the process. Billups is one of the best players in the clutch, hence his nickname "Mr. Big Shot" - he's always been underrated, but perhaps this is the year he finally gets credit where credit is due.

I think I'm gonna agree with nbalive744 and say that the MVP is probably gonna go to Brand, Iverson, or Billups (unless something drastic happens as the season goes along).

[Matt]

Not to mention that Billups plays more D than Nash ever did. I like his chances, but it will take 60 wins to get MVP. No less.

[fgrep15]

Team winning has nothing to do with it. Michael Jordan would be just as valuable of a player if he had played for this years Toronto Raptors. His value is just as high, it just happens that the rest of the team is shit.

Except that Michael Jordan would make the team at least a playoff team. Actually if you just inserted Jordan into Toronto, they'd be a contender in the East. He has Bosh, he has some shooters, some other decent players, they'd be winning 50+ games easily.

And I think you're digging a bit too deep. We could make similar arguments for Darko Milicic too. I could argue that Darko would be the most valuable player if he got the kind of minutes A.I. or Kobe gets. You could just multiple his scoring average by the increase minutes.... and suddenly even he looks good.

Not at all, Darko is playing insignificant minutes during insignificant points in he game, Chauncey is playing 35 minutes, vastly different situations. With a guy like Darko who is shooting 42% and averaging 7.7 fouls PER 40 minutes, I'm not sure what kinda of argument could be made. His PER 40 minute numbers are: 9 PPG | 7.7 RPG | 1.3 APG | 5.4 BPG | 4.6 TPG.

Obviously when he played real minutes it was different. The blocks shouldn't be surprising though he led the league in blocks during pre-season, and he wouldn't turn the ball over of foul that much because he would play smarter. The numbers are used for people playing over at least 18 MPG [normally in the high 20 minute range though], and you have to look at fouls and turnovers too.

When Redd was coming off the bench, PER 40 minute numbers showed that he could easily be a 20 PPG scorer in the league. Obviously his efficiency would decrease as a first option, and that's exactly what happened. The stat is actually quite accurate but you have to be realistic with it. Donyell Marshall played about 28-30 MPG with a high of 35.8 in GS/Utah/Chi till he came to Toronto and had an averaged of about 12-7 those years. In Toronto he played about 39 MPG and averaged 16-11.

Ricky Davis last season averaged 16-3-3 in 33 MPG, this year he's averaging 20-5-5 in 42 MPG.

It's not just anyone, Pape Sow played 1 minute in 1 game, and from that game was averaging 48 points and 48 turnovers PER 48 mins, obviously that's not useful since first of all it's one game, and secondly one minute which means nothing. He could've played 47 more minutes and had 0 turnovers and 6 points. Also a guy like Tractor Traylor would not have the stamina to play and maintain his production for 40 minutes a game, but for the normal player, more minutes = more production.

But the fact is Billups' numbers simply aren't as good as the others I listed. You can just make excuses for why they aren't as good, but that doesn't correlate into better performance.

Compared to Nash, better PPG, higher efficiency scoring, and about double the A/T ratio. You can't really compare to the other difference position players numbers wise because how can we compare a PG and a PF?

How can you be valuable to a team if you're not leading them to wins? What is your value then, ability to put up numbers while losing? I'm not sure how that is valuable in any way, but if you can explain to me the value of losing games, be my guest.

[Mighty Mos]

Paul Pierce

[3th]

Carmelo Anthony !!!! :D:D:D:D

[Its_asdf]

Carmelo Anthony !!!!

We know that Denver's MVP is Camby.

[baseline bum]

The Clippers season high losing streak is 3 games, what are you talking about?

My bad, I mis-read what NBA.com said. I still don't think he should get it though, but if the Clippers make the playoffs with homecourt advantage and he keeps up his contributions, they might have to consider him.
I know the 'homecourt advantage' sounds weird, they're the Clippers after all, but this team they have right now is stacked. Not only with talented players like in the past, but also with experienced and smart players.

On paper they're stacked, but they've had a ton of injuries this season. Magette's only played 13 games, and Livingston has played 8. Rebraca has been out most of the season, and Quinton Ross has missed the last few games too. They've played without a SF for the past few games, and while their starting lineup is alright, they've had no depth all season due to the injury bug. Brand looks like a whole new player this season, and his numbers are up significantly accross the board.

[H Rock]

Elton Brand, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson. In that order.

[kevC]

Tim Legler made his first quarter award picks and it wouldn’t be a shock to say I disagree.

For MVP I multiply PER by PT% by teamWin%. As the MVP should probably be the best player who plays the most minutes on one of the best teams?

The top fifteen in this ranking is:
15.53 duncan,tim
15.31 brand,elton
15.09 james,lebron
15.00 garnett,kevin
14.23 nowitzki,dirk
13.48 billups,chaun
13.11 iverson,allen
13.05 wade,dwyane
12.78 marion,shawn
12.46 o’neal,jermaine
11.95 parker,tony
11.69 nash,steve
11.68 gasol,pau
11.03 hamilton,richard
10.76 wallace,rasheed

Of course if a team has plenty of great players, each one will be less valuable. So let’s look at the top five guys and the next highest ranked teammate.

Tim Duncan.
Rank: #1
Next Highest Teammates: #11 (Tony Parker), #24 (Manu Ginobili)

Elton Brand.
Rank: #2
Next Highest Teammates: #26 (Sam Cassell), #62 (Corey Maggette)

LeBron James.
Rank: #3
Next Highest Teammates: #29 (Zydrunas Ilgauskas), #32 (Drew Gooden)

Kevin Garnett.
Rank: #4
Next Highest Teammates: #19 (Wally Szczerbiak), #52 (Marko Jaric)

Dirk Nowitzki.
Rank: #5
Next Highest Teammates: #30 (Jason Terry), #36 (Marquis Daniels) (Harris is 53rd…Howard would be top 30 without his injury)

So for next two teammates average:
Brand: 44
Garnett: 35.5
Dirk: 33
James: 30.5
Duncan: 17.5

So I’m satisified calling Brand the MVP of the first quarter. He’s got the top PER, his team is a 50 win team, and he’s played 81.4% of minutes. And his teammates aren’t as close at the other guys. (Besides when Maggette is out (20.76 PER) the team for some reason thinks it prudent to play Quinton Ross (7.16) and that has to count for something.)

I reckon that's a good analysis.

[Matthew]

No shit, all you do is dick ride ben and his dr jeckal analysis.

Of course if a team has plenty of great players, each one will be less valuable. So let’s look at the top five guys and the next highest ranked teammate.

What about players that make their teamates better? As much as you love them, stats and formulaes dont tell the whole story in sports (especially basketball). They are essentially just like surverys. The dont lie either, but they can be maniuplated.

However, with all that being said, i agree that Brand has been the MVP so far.