How is it that Anthony Davis is being completely ignored for this award? Everything I've read has it narrowed down to Westbrook, Harden and Curry. How is that possible?
Davis leads the NBA with an historically great PER of 31.34 (if the season ended today, that's the 8th best single-season PER in NBA history) and nobody else is above a PER of 30. He's fourth in PPG, 9th in rebounds/game, 1st in blocks/game and has his otherwise-terrible team in the playoffs in the brutal western conference. On top of all that, he's an absolute ACE defender at the rim. The only criticism is seems to be that he's missed too many games, and yet he's played in three more than Westbrook in the same number of team games.
Curry is on the best team in the league and probably stacks up the most favorably to Davis statistically. He's obviously not carrying his team the same way Davis is, as they're relying pretty heavily on Klay Thompson for scoring as well. We'll see how that plays out over the next week or so while Thompson is out. Regardless, I don't think his candidacy is markedly better than Davis's.
Harden is on a better team but has, by MVP measurements, a pedestrian PER and plays terrible defense. He's second in scoring, but approximately a third of his points come at the free throw line because of that garbage where he extends his arms into people near the basket and flails wildly.
Westbrook's team isn't even in the playoffs if the season ended today, has played less games than Davis, trails Davis in PER and has an MVP campaign almost entirely fueled by a string of 8 amazing games. On top of that, the guy only shoots 43% from the field and is leading the league in turnovers per game.
All that being said, I'm not 100% sure my vote would go to Davis, but he should at least be getting some serious attention for the award. He's playing at a ridiculous level, and it's hard to believe the Pelicans are in the playoff hunt with that roster.
Davis leads the NBA with an historically great PER of 31.34 (if the season ended today, that's the 8th best single-season PER in NBA history) and nobody else is above a PER of 30. He's fourth in PPG, 9th in rebounds/game, 1st in blocks/game and has his otherwise-terrible team in the playoffs in the brutal western conference. On top of all that, he's an absolute ACE defender at the rim. The only criticism is seems to be that he's missed too many games, and yet he's played in three more than Westbrook in the same number of team games.
Curry is on the best team in the league and probably stacks up the most favorably to Davis statistically. He's obviously not carrying his team the same way Davis is, as they're relying pretty heavily on Klay Thompson for scoring as well. We'll see how that plays out over the next week or so while Thompson is out. Regardless, I don't think his candidacy is markedly better than Davis's.
Harden is on a better team but has, by MVP measurements, a pedestrian PER and plays terrible defense. He's second in scoring, but approximately a third of his points come at the free throw line because of that garbage where he extends his arms into people near the basket and flails wildly.
Westbrook's team isn't even in the playoffs if the season ended today, has played less games than Davis, trails Davis in PER and has an MVP campaign almost entirely fueled by a string of 8 amazing games. On top of that, the guy only shoots 43% from the field and is leading the league in turnovers per game.
All that being said, I'm not 100% sure my vote would go to Davis, but he should at least be getting some serious attention for the award. He's playing at a ridiculous level, and it's hard to believe the Pelicans are in the playoff hunt with that roster.
