Last week my mind was wandering, wondering, pondering, analyzing.
And then hurting from all of that.
Voting season is pretty much here, and I have but one question.
Who is the NBA’s MVP?
It is as compelling, and close, an MVP race as there has been in some time. If we’re all being honest, it’s a two-player race: Houston’s James Harden and Golden State’s Stephen Curry.
It’s a shame one of them will lose. They both deserve it.
I mean really deserve it.
This, however, is about breaking ties.
For many, it’s as simple as giving the nod to the best player on the best team — Curry. Can’t argue with that.
Many of Curry’s raw offensive numbers are slightly better. His advanced metrics are slightly better. His player efficiency rating is slightly better.
Nuggets Mailbag:
And best believe part of all of that has to do with being surrounded by a better cast of characters. He has had a teammate score 37 points — in a quarter. He has two teammates coming off the bench who were all-stars in the not too distant past.
That’s huge.
And yet, are we really going to hold that against the player who makes it all work?
Golden State is a bona fide title contender with him. Without? A good playoff team.
Houston is an upper-echelon playoff team with Harden. Without? Maybe not even a playoff team, especially with the extended absence of Dwight Howard this season.
Defensively, teams gang up on Harden and take their chances with his teammates in a way any coach would be crazy to do against the Warriors’ many shooters. And yet Harden delivers. Double-teams. Triple-teams. Junk defenses. Different defenders. Against the best teams or the worst. In the first quarter or the fourth, especially the fourth, he delivers.
And he will kick LeBron James just so you don’t forget he’s there.
What does Rockets coach Kevin McHale think about it?
“If you’ve got a television set,” McHale said, “I think the case is already made.”
With all due respect to some hardworking — and effective — role Rockets, when the Nuggets visited H-Town more than a week ago, after Harden you could argue the next four best players on the court were all Nuggets.
But none of those Nuggets was Harden. His 50 points that night were more than three of those players scored combined.
But, as no one is Harden, who on earth is Curry? Is he even from this planet? He’s been so good, his team has been so good, that the fourth quarter is largely a period of rest for him. Otherwise, his numbers might be even more ridiculous. There’s not much I hate more than players not winning something because they were too good at winning big to have to play in as many minutes as their competition. That essentially cost Vince Young the Heisman Trophy in 2005. It shouldn’t put a dent in Curry’s season, and there’s no real evidence that it has. Most predictions have him sitting atop the MVP pile.
Curry’s brilliance is rooted in skills so refined — ball handling and long-range shooting — that he’s poetry in motion, a ballet dancer in basketball shorts. Harden is more brute force and savvy at the end.
He draws fouls and makes the free throws.
Hmm.
Eh, maybe I’ll just vote for Anthony Davis.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey @denverpost.com or dempseypost
