No More Excuses—It's Time to Consider Steph Curry a Top-MVP Contender
While the NBA’s MVP award is one of the highest honors a player can receive, it’s an award that tends to come with inconsistent criteria. One year, the “best player on the best team” is the automatic shoo-in, while the next year the player with the most eye-popping stats gets the MVP nod. Truthfully, whoever the media wants to win MVP before the season starts is usually who ends up with the trophy at season’s end. So, what will it take for a media outsider to take this prestigious award?
Enter Stephen Curry. Yes, Steph Curry has won two MVPs prior to this season (one being the first unanimous MVP winner in NBA history), but this season is different. In Steph’s previous MVP-winning years, the Warriors were the top team in basketball, winning the NBA championship in 2014-2015 and breaking the Bulls’ record for most regular season wins by going 73-9 in 2015-2016. This year, and no offense to the rest of the team, Golden State is a little depleted. Klay Thompson is missing his second straight year with a torn achilles, the Warriors have played with no healthy centers for the past week and a half and the supporting cast is, let’s be honest, nowhere near as good this season as in years past.
Because of this, Curry has been getting double, if not triple teamed in most games this season. How has he responded, you ask? By putting up almost identical stats as his unanimous-MVP season and, alongside Draymond Green, carrying the Dubs into playoff contention in a historically talented Western Conference. After last night’s gutsy win against the Miami Heat, Golden State is in sole possession of the 7th seed in the West with a 16-13 record. And, for reference, the Milwaukee Bucks are 16-12 and claim the 3rd seed in the East, so that should tell you how much better the Western Conference is than the Eastern Conference.
To put his dominance and value into numbers, Steph is averaging 30.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season, which basically mirrors the 31, 5 and 6 splits of his 15-16 MVP year. This year, he’s leading the league in total points scored, 3-pointers made and is second to only Lebron James in Real Plus-Minus. Additionally, when you include all assists and points scored by Steph, he’s accounted for a whopping 39.7% of the Warriors’ points this season. This, again, is similar to his 2015-16 year, but, like we said earlier, his supporting cast was much better then compared to now. To top all this off, Steph is currently only being given a 2% chance to win MVP, according to Basketball Reference’s MVP-model, which is based on previous voting results and, frankly, is insulting.
Steph Curry is absolute, certified box office, people. His first quarter of the season has come with many MVP-statement games and moments, including a career-high 62 points, 20-plus-point comeback wins against the Lakers and Clippers, multiple 40-point games and heroic, MVP-esque leadership and clutch shooting during last night’s nationally televised game against the Heat. So far, Steph Curry has done everything it takes and more to prove his MVP case, and it’s safe to say that only an injury (knock on wood) can slow down the most skilled player the game has ever seen this season.
In short, NBA MVP voters need to rethink their dinosaur voting system and give this man some serious consideration because he deserves it. Truthfully, the league owes it to Steph, because he’s been revitalizing and revolutionizing the game ever since he entered it.