Why Steph Curry Should be the MVP Favorite This Season

Steph Curry just had a season for the ages, taking the NBA scoring title in a late-season storm that only he could manage and finishing 3rd in MVP voting – likely missing out only because of the Warriors’ low-grade start and their inability to lock in a better playoff seed. While Nikola Jokic, the actual MVP in the 20-21 season, absolutely earned the nod, the second half of last season was arguably peak Steph: In the 28 games he played after the All-Star break, Curry averaged an insane 34.9 points per game while being a net +162 to the Warriors offense, also tacking on 5.1 assists and 5.5 rebounds. The only unanimous MVP in NBA history averaged 37.3 points per game in April alone while shooting 50/40/90 to get the Warriors into the play-in. To put it lightly, he was looking probably the most unguardable he’s ever looked in his career at age 33 – including his 2016 warpath.

Next season, Steph figures to be continuing the reign of terror he’s had over the league since the team’s first championship in 2015 – and should even be considered the MVP favorite to kick things off. Early on, he’ll likely still be taking on a significant scoring load while Klay Thompson remains out (his target return date is Christmas Day against the Suns). Curry is the de-facto leader of an improved Warriors squad which, while it didn’t add any spectacular weapons that could create offense like he could, now has a plethora of weapons both defensively and from the three-point line that should help ease up the double and triple-teams Curry sees night in and night out. The Dubs will, make no mistake, be far more competitive this year with these improvements, and are widely considered a top-4 or top-3 team in the West once Thompson is back and running again. The seeding will be important to determining whether he’ll be in the race towards the end, as it historically always has for MVPs.

Curry opted out of the Olympic games this year in Tokyo, giving him plenty of time to rest and recharge after very close, very disappointing play-in losses against the Lakers and Grizzlies. We saw what kind of havoc he wrecked after taking extended time away due to a broken hand while the team missed the playoffs in 2020, so it only figures that the lack of injury recovery needs this time around will only help. Although he suffered a tailbone injury towards the end of last season, it did not seem to affect much of his performance – although if he was doing that with a broken tailbone, there’s no telling what he could do fully healthy.

There are obviously a lot of questions surrounding this season’s Warriors team, mostly their reliance on the young guns improving quickly and Klay Thompson coming back fully healthy. The additions of secondary playmaker and Bay Area legend Andre Iguodala, sharpshooter Nemanja Bjelica, and underrated Otto Porter Jr. shore up a lot of the holes the team needed to address. Even if these moves don’t pan out as well, they’ll be marked improvements over last season, and Steph has proven he can carry the load. Last season, there were two players who (according to Basketball Index) were in the top 1% of three-point shot-making and perimeter shooting, and in the bottom 1% of shot quality: Jayson Tatum and Steph, who ranked number 1 overall in the former. Tatum averaged 26.4 points per game and the Celtics went 36-36 for a .500 record. Steph averaged 32.0 points per game and the Warriors went 39-33. There are very clearly levels to how otherworldly Curry’s shot-creation and scoring capabilities are. This is no knock on Tatum, who still has a lot of room to improve while being a top player in the league as well as someone who could very well win an MVP one day, but Curry is the system in one of basketball’s most well-oiled franchises: The improvements made, however small, should help bolster the team’s record enough to earn him more serious consideration.

Steph Curry going nuclear for another season, all things considered, would be rather impressive at the age of 33. Much like LeBron James, however, it seems there’s no slowing down anytime soon for the 2-time, possibly soon to be 3-time league MVP. Time will tell whether or not the Warriors can meet the strangely-lofty expectations that have been set for them, but that’s just part of the deal when you have the greatest point guard in NBA history on your roster.