Over the past few years, the winner of the NBA MVP Award has been obvious as the time to vote drew near, perhaps just one or two outstanding candidates making their case to the panel of journalists tasked with picking the one they felt most deserved the honour. Steph Curry took home the trophy in each of the past two seasons, the Golden State guard recognised for the way his deadly shooting and on-ball skills pushed the Warriors to new heights.
However, this season has seen four players deliver compelling arguments to have the trophy handed to them with each seemingly swaying the momentum back in their favour each time they take to the floor. It is hard to imagine anyone tasked with picking this year’s triumphant star will not have James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard and Lebron James on their ballot in some order, but selecting one of them ahead of the others is a remarkably difficult challenged.
The Sportsman is laying out the reasons why each of those players deserves to be recognised as the league’s Most Valuable Player, outlining their contribution to their team’s success and the narrative arc their season has followed.
Read Part I: Russell Westbrook ; Read Part II: James Harden
Kawhi Leonard
Next up on our list is Kawhi Leonard, the San Antonio forward helping the team flourish despite Tim Duncan retiring last summer. Even without their franchise centre, the Spurs are hard on the heels of Golden State in pursuit of the NBA’s best record, with the play of their do-it-all All Star a major factor in their continued excellence.
Of course, Gregg Popovich – who has coached the team since 1996 (not a typo) – remains in charge, but it has been his decision to hand control of the team to Leonard that has truly seen him shine brighter than ever before. That is incredible given that Kawhi, a player only in his sixth season as a pro, has already been named the Finals MVP in 2014 and is a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
For years the Spurs have thrived on balance and ball movement, but this year have done something that Popovich teams rarely have before, simply tossing the ball to their best player and let him deliver. Leonard has not disappointed, delivering time after time, with the kind of robotic precision that has always been a San Antonio trademark and that has so often seen their players overlooked for this type of award.
But Leonard is now unquestionably the most effective two-way player in the league, ranking sixth in steals per game, sixth in defensive win shares and seventh in overall defensive rating. His rebounding (5.9 per game) and assist (3.5 per game) numbers are nowhere near as strong as the other three candidates, but he ranks eighth in the league in scoring (ahead of LeBron), first in win shares per 48 minutes, second in PER, second in total win shares, fifth in VORP and sixth in BPM.
That is an elite return for anyone, but doing so for a team who could yet finish with the NBA’s best record overall despite lacking the star power of Golden State marks Kawhi out as a perfectly sound choice should he eventually be named MVP this season.
Narrative
Given that the award should recognise the performances over a full 82 game schedule, one or two head-to-head matchups between the candidates are perhaps given too much weight, but Leonard has dominated such clashes.
His numbers and record against the three other and one or two regular season meetings shouldn’t have a massive bearing on an award meant to recognise the full 82-game slate. But Kawhi has pretty much owned his competition, sporting impressive numbers and a stellar record against the other MVP candidates, bristling when he has lined up across the court from any of them.
Averaging 29.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game against the Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets, Celtics and Thunder, he can point to the Spurs’ 8-2 record in those games as proof of his value. If your MVP is a player who gets the job done at both ends of the floor, then Kawhi Leonard is your man.
