Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James should, but won’t, win MVP
Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James should win his fifth MVP, but many consider it a one-man race led by Rockets star James Harden.
According to Basketball-Reference, LeBron James, the renown leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has the 5th highest chance to win MVP. Fifth highest chance to win MVP and LeBron James are two things that should never be mentioned together.
Chris Paul, James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry all have a higher probability than James. Four players on two teams have a better shot at MVP. Something about that just doesn’t sound right.
This season, LeBron James has led the Cavaliers to a 36-26 record through the team’s first 62 games, leaving just 20 games to impress. However, like last season, that might not be good enough to win MVP, even though his numbers are arguably the best in the league.
Through those 62 games, James has averaged 26.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 9.1 assists, and 4.3 turnovers per game. James Harden, who according to Basketball-Reference has a 68% chance to win MVP, has averaged 31.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 8.9 assists, and 4.3 turnovers per game.
At a quick glance, it’s obvious the numbers are similar, although James averages significantly more rebounds.
When you take look at efficiency though, the story changes. James has shot 54.2% from the field this season, and Harden has shot just 44.9%. However, the two are within just a few percentage points in both true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage, a more detailed way to describe players shooting efficiency.
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Taking a look at the bigger picture though, James Harden, who runs a team strictly around isolation basketball, has been the spearhead of quite possibly the only team that has a chance to knock off Golden State this postseason. Houston is currently tied for first place in the Western Conference with Golden State and has played excellently with little slumps throughout the season.
As for Cleveland, they’ve seen their fair share struggles, and those struggles have absolutely lowered James’ chances at MVP.
We saw this last season though. It’s either James’ prolonged excellence makes us discredit his phenomenal stats or the committee simple think other players are more important to their team.
The last two seasons, James has lost the MVP to both Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry.
James hasn’t won an MVP since his return in Cleveland, although his numbers have arguably been better than his numbers during his days in Miami.
Last season, James’ team was better than Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder, but his triple-double average overwhelmed the judges and inevitably won him the MVP.
The season before, Steph Curry did what Harden has done this season. He excelled at scoring but was significantly worse than James at one or more stats, yet his Warriors had a fantastic regular season, propelling him to easily win the MVP award.
We’ve seen the disrespect given to James before, and we’ll see it again. James is better defensively and a far better rebounder while standing his ground in both scoring and assisting. Statistically, he should be MVP or at least in the discussion.
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Does Houston’s success combined with Harden’s leadership automatically make him the heavy favorite for MVP? I don’t think so, but then again, it’s not up to me.