On the other hand Kobe sure held back Caron Butler and flat ruined Rick Fox, Gary Payton, Ron Harper, and Karl Malone--all who had among their worst years with Kobe. In case you can't tell, there is a tad of sarcasim there--this is just as good as argument as Lebron making Z or Marshall play worse--as if age had nothing to do with all these guy's declining production. Just look at the Cavs the years before Lebron got there, and their steady ascent since. And this is despite getting screwed out of their next best young player (Boozer) over this period. Yeah, Lebron makes his teammates worse, right.
Caron Butler had career high in both fgp and points for the one year in Lakers, can you at least get the facts straight?
What are you smoking? He has only been on an upward trajectory since he left the Lakers. His average is now over 6PPG higher and everything else is better too (efficiency, FG%, etc) http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1705 Boy the "MVP" really did it tonight didn't he. MVP! MVP! MVP! Not!
Dude Kobe was out and injured at the time that Caron played his best ball. He was coming off of an injury riddled year and it was also his contract extension time (which LA didnt want to pay him and so they traded him for Kwame), and the same for Chucky Atkins. Kobe was out when they both played their best ball.
So young players don't get better? Especially after being asked to take on more of the offensive load on a constantly injured Wizard team? I agree with that one article posted. If you didn't give Kobe the MVP two years ago when he posted insane stats, you can't give it to Lebron this year. He's playing out of this world, but his team is garbage, Eastern Conference garbage at that. The precedent has already been set when it comes to MVP, you have to be on a top team to get it. If they switch that up now it's clearly an anti-Kobe/pro-Lebron bias. You've got to give it to Kobe if they finish the season in the top 3. The only exception would be to give it to Paul if they finish ahead of the Lakers.
I myself thought the argument was ridiculous. I was just showing what would happen if we applied the "Lebron ruined Z and Donyell Marshall" logic to Kobe. If your going to consider Paul, why not consider KG or Billips or Manu if those teams finish ahead of NO? No I think Kobe and Lebron should be the overwhelming favorites. If Kobe leads his team to the #1 seed in the West I agree it will go to him. But if Kobe’s team is only 1 seed higher than Lebron (2 vs 3; 3 vs 4), than I think it is fair if Lebron get’s it because he does have a significantly more impressive stats (and Kobe’s is significantly more impressive than the #3 guy). The issue with Kobe 2 years ago was the Lebron also had as an impressive of season all stats considered (35-5-5 on 45% shooting vs 31-7-7 on 48%) and got his team to a much higher seed. If anything Lebron most got gypped when you balance production and team success. Instead they both lost out to Nash.
He's probably short a couple assist/game in the stats department but otherwise I'd have to say Baron Davis should be considered for MVP.......he just doesn't let that f@*king team lose!
How disgusting was that? Kobe has a historic scoring season and LeBron gets the absolutely sick statline of 31-7-7 on a 50 win team and Steve Nash wins it over them. I hate it when voters pick guys that are "good stories" instead of the most deserving players.
If the Celtics had kept up their insane win rate, I would've had no choice but to include KG in my MVP race...but they didn't, and they play in the east. Not to mention the fact he's got a pretty good squad behind him. Same setup for Chauncey. He's in the East and it's debatable whether he's even the best player on his team. You have to have some measure of impressive stats...he's fantastic but not MVP worthy. Manu...come on. He's not even the best player on his team. Every GM in the league would take Duncan and maybe even Parker over him, if they're both healthy. He's had an impressive run...but he's a freakin' bench player. I don't care about matchups or providing a spark or whatever...the MVP of the NBA should not be coming off the bench. (I realize he starts on occasion but come on.) My MVP Rankings go like this (though the top could switch any day) 1. Paul 2. Kobe 3. Lebron 4. KG 5. Howard 6. T-Mac (honorable mention) Paul is not only on a top team, he's got great stats, and he's the only one who makes that team go. He's lifted that mediocre team on his back so many times I'm surprised he doesn't have T-mac like-back problems.
Sorry, I do not see a great argument for Paul. His "top team" argument is not strong. His team is tied for 6th in wins (and will likely move down--we will see). If we go with best player from top team, that is KG. Boston has been by far the best team in the league, and has cleaned up the WC--so you can't hold the fact the play in the east against them. Let's compare their lines, 21-4-11 49% for Paul vs 19-10-4 54% for KG. Paul's is better, but nowhere near the disparity between the performance of Boston as a team to the rest fo the league, including NO. Now I agree with Billips and Manu being stretches, but I do think they have been their team's MVPs this year, and their teams are better than NO. Detroit also has a 2-1 W-L record in the West, so like with Boston I don't think you can hold being in the East against them. So then we move to stats. Stats along, Lebron and Kobe are just in another stratospher from Paul, KG and the rest. Kobe's team is also in position for the #1 seed in the West. So overall I think it is a 2 horse race. I do try to balance individual performance, team performance, and the crucial nature of that player for that team performance. Right now.... 1 Kobe 2 Lebron *but if the Lakers don't get the 1st seed and the Cavs finish strong I would switch these two. next tier 3 KG 4 Paul 5 Howard 6 Tmac (maybe higher if he can keep the Rockets where they are at or move them up) I will say of the next tier, Paul is the only one who could break into the top. If Paul explodes and gets NO to the top of the WC then he would have an defensable case for MVP. Since Boston is pretty much set barring collapse and there is no reason for KG to press, he is stuck at the top of tier 2.
