Stephen Curry Beats Out James Harden for 2014-15 MVP
Houston, we have a problem: Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors has been named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the 2014-15 NBA season.
Curry, 27, finished his sixth season in the NBA by leading Golden State to a historical 67-win season. He also led the league in All-Star voting and went on to break his own record of total threes made in a single season (286).
Appearing in 80 games for the Warriors this season, Curry posted per game averages of 23.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.0 steals in 32.7 minutes. He also almost became a part of the 50/40/90 club this year, shooting 48.7 percent from the field, 44.3 percent from behind the arc and 91.4 percent from the line.
Curry was considered by many fans and analysts to be the MVP frontrunner for much of the season, while others considered this to be the most competitive MVP race in recent memory. Among the other MVP candidates were James Harden of the Houston Rockets, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Harden definitely had the strongest case out of the lot, single-handedly willing his team to the second seed in the West. With starting center Dwight Howard out of commission for much of the year (among the other injuries Houston had to deal with), Harden posted 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.9 steals in 36.8 minutes per game.
The official results show that Curry received 100 out of the 130 possible first place votes, totaling 1,198 points and making him the rightful MVP of the league. In second place was Harden, who received 25 first place votes and totaled just 936 points.
Curry led the regular season in real plus-minus (9.16), which was almost a whole point higher Harden (8.22). Curry also posted higher player efficiency rating (28.06) than Harden (26.76), a higher offensive rating (114.2) than Harden (107.7) and a higher defensive rating (97.2) than Harden (101.9).
But the MVP is as much an individual award as it is a team award. For years, the MVP award has been given to the best player from one of the top teams in the league, as team success is always a huge indicator of individual prowess.
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While the Warriors’ bench had improved to better cope with Curry being off the court (just a -0.1 net rating this year, last year: -5.0), Curry’s on court net rating of 17.0 sets him far apart from Harden, who had a 5.8 net rating on the court and -2.6 net rating off the court. Calculating the difference each player made when on the court, Curry’s +16.9 net swing is about double Harden’s +8.4.
At the helm of the point-guard-driven system designed by associate head coach Alvin Gentry and rookie head coach Steve Kerr, it’s Curry’s elite abilities and ever-improving instincts that helped lead the Warriors’ point differential of +10.1. Such a feat has either been met or surpassed by just seven other teams in the history of the NBA, six of whom went on to win a title. It’s also because of Curry’s presence on the court that notably resulted in him sitting out a total of 17 fourth quarters.
The most underrated part of Curry’s game this season? How his relationship with defensive guru Ron Adams led to his transformation on the defensive end.
Curry, who was never known for his defense prior to this year, ended up leading the league in steals (163) and placing third in steals per foul (1.006) behind Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls (1.103) and Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs (1.068). His increased ability to defend what is arguably now the toughest position in the NBA was central to a team that ranked third in opponents’ plus-minus this season (-9.4).
And while it could go unmentioned, his team finished the season 11 games over the next best Western Conference team and seven games over the league’s second best team, the Atlanta Hawks. Just your typical case of complete and utter dominance.
Curry becomes just the second player in Warriors franchise history to win the prestigious MVP award. The other Warriors recipient, Wilt Chamberlain, won the award back when the Warriors were in Philadelphia, making Curry the first Warriors player to win MVP since their move to California almost 53 years ago.
Monte Poole of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area was the first to report Curry winning MVP, which was then confirmed by multiple NBA insiders.
The Warriors are currently in the second round of the postseason with a 1-0 lead over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Warriors advanced to the West semi-finals following a 4-0 first round sweep over New Orleans, which was led by Curry’s 33.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists.
All stats were provided by NBA.com/Stats and accurate as of May, 4, 2015.