Race to MVP – Week one
And we’re back! The NBA season kicked off last Tuesday with the Miami Heat at the Boston Celtics and it wasn’t the start the Heat were hoping for, losing to the C’s.
It was a crazy summer in the NBA, five $100million contracts were signed and three of those are on the Heat’s roster. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh decided they wanted to play together so Miami president Pat Riely made it happen.
But three superstars playing together does present certain problems, especially in the race for the MVP. The three probably don’t care about the MVP – playing together is all about championships – but we care and we will judge all three accordingly.
James averaged 29.3 points, 8.6 assists and 7.3 assists last season and realistically he’s going to have to better those stats to be the MVP. We’ll give him an allowance for playing with Wade and Bosh and what we’re looking for from LeBron this year is probably around 25-9-9. If he averages a triple-double – which for LeBron is quite possible – he will become only the second player ever to average double figures in three categories.
Those are the heights Lebron will have to scale to win his third MVP.
Wade has never won the MVP award and probably won’t unless he puts up crazy numbers, and Chris Bosh probably won’t even make the top 10 discussion – that’s what happens when you have three superstars on a team; performances/stats have to increase to receive acclaim.
Expect to see a new MVP this season.
Pre-season Kevin Durant was our favourite to win the award, not only because LeBron is Miami, but because we expect him to win the scoring title again and to improve on last season.
Others we were looking out for in the race were: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony
However in the first week of action it was none of those listed, instead the leader in the race for the MVP is:
1 – Rajon Rondo 10.3 PPG, 16.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds, .425 FG%, 2.5 steals.
Rondo has been immense this season averaging a staggering 16.8 assists in four games. Last night against Detroit he had 17 assists and no turnovers as he led the Celtics to an easy win over the Pistons. He’s been so devastating with his passing that the nearest player to him in the assists rankings is Jason Kidd with 11.7 per game. If he’s to stay at the top of this list he’ll have to add some more scoring to his game but at the moment Rajon Rondo has been the best player in the NBA so far.
2- Kevin Durant 29.3 PPG, 6.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists, .388 FG%, 2.3 steals
Durant is already an NBA superstar at the age of 22 and is on his way to become the best player in the league. He does need to improve on his assist numbers, which he did work on in the summer, and he might need to pull down more rebounds given how tall he is. He does lead the league in points per game and with that unlikely to change, Durant will likely take top spot in the race in the weeks to come.
3 – Chris Paul 20 PPG, 9.3 assists, 6 rebounds, .500 FG%, 1 steal.
If Paul averaged somewhere around 11 assists in his first three games he could well have been top of the list. But Paul is a victim of his own success and so takes third place behind Durant. Shooting 50% from the field is impressive and so are the 20 points, but the one steal per game is way below his 2.37 career average and so third place it is. It may be harsh, considering he’s got a league best assist-to-turnover ratio of 7:1, but you have to penalise people somehow.
4 – Luis Scola, 27.3 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, .596 FG%, 1 block
Who? Well Louis Scola has quietly become one of the most effective power forwards in the NBA and the numbers he’s been putting up this season are more than impressive. They might actually be more impressive than Rondo’s but his Houston Astros have yet to win a game which pushes Scola down the list. Another week like this, however, and he will be in the top three.
5 – Lamar Odom 16.3 PPG, 12.3 rebounds, 4 assists, .711 FG%, 1.25 steals
You might be wondering how Odom has made it onto the list but he has been playing just as well as Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. He leads the league in field goal percentage, and that’s not all dunks; he’s 6-8 from three-point range. Add the fact that the Lakers are unbeaten and he seems to be the energy on the team. Odom is worth fifth place.
Next week we will be expanding to 10 players, once we’ve had another week under our belts.
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