Stephen Curry: Doing More With…More?
The Past, Present and Future of the MVP
Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Historically, the Maurice Podoloff trophy has been given to the best player among the best teams. Over the past decade, the MVP has been the best player on the best team seven times, with the other three times going to the best player on the second best team.
Per Basketball-Reference.com, Curry is the MVP frontrunner with a 34.6 percent probability of winning MVP based on a model built using previous voting results, and the advanced stats certainly put him ahead of every other MVP candidate on the ladder.
With five games left in the season, it’s quite possible that the Rockets’ MVP campaigning may be in vain. It’s quite possible that with a record of 63-14 — which may very well end up being the only 60-win season for any team this year — the voters have already decided that leading your team to a 10-game lead over the second best in the West is something worthy of being MVP.
The MVP race may already be over, per the ESPN Forecast results in which 80.5 percent of the voters on the panel said Curry will win MVP. 52.4 percent of those voters also held that Curry deserves MVP the most, as opposed to Harden’s 32.9 percent.
(Read More: “Breaking Down the Spectacular 2014-15 MVP Race“)
Nearly everyone was writing off the Warriors as a championship contender before the season began, and now they’re treating the Warriors as if they’re an All-Star team; but like the Rockets, the Warriors are anything but. It just so happens that they have an MVP-caliber player on their team that makes everything work, the conductor to their philharmonic orchestra.
Curry has done more for his team this season than any other MVP candidate can claim credit for, and he doesn’t expect credit for leading his team in one of the most historically dominating performances of the most competitive conference. He’s a leader, and like all leaders, they don’t expect credit for what they’ve accomplished, only looking to help the team get to where they all want to be. For that, Curry deserves the MVP award.
But if he’s snubbed in the MVP race, if he and his team are left without recognition, then best know that this leader is going to continue on to lead his team until they get the recognition they all deserve.
And the only way to do that? Win a title.
All stats are accurate as of April 6, 2015 per NBAStats.com.