He wasn’t the sign of changing trends he was the last option left for many after they ruled everyone else out. That narrows the field drastically, probably to five to seven potential teams.Īnd before you argue that Jokic showed winning doesn’t matter anymore, remember the mental gymnastics the media performed last season trying to select literally any other candidate ( LeBron! Embiid! Harden! Curry!) before settling on Jokic. MVPs this century average a 61-win pace their MVP season and almost always play on a top-two seed, usually the 1-seed. The last guy before those two to win MVP without a top-two conference record was Michael Jordan in 1988. 3 seed) and the one big outlier, Russell Westbrook in 2017, a 47-win No. The only outliers were Nikola Jokic last season (No. We really just do just pick MVPs that are top scorers on the best teams.ĭon’t believe me? We’ve had 22 MVPs since 2000. I’m not sure Nikola Jokic would’ve won last season either were it not for a drastic increase in scoring. We saw 43 players score at least 20 PPG, but 25 is a different level. Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, Anthony Davis, and Jimmy Butler all fell below that threshold. While 25 PPG may not seem like a high bar, only 17 players fit that criteria last season. The only exception was 2015 Stephen Curry, who came up just one PPG short. Voters are still suckers for raw numbers, and points remain king.Īll but one of the past 14 MVP winners have scored at least 25 points per game. They are not the most shocking traits, but you’d be amazed how much just four broad traits narrow the picture down. I’ve written a lot about MVP in the past and found four key big-picture characteristics true of almost every MVP. TRY FOR FREE What Sort of Player Wins MVP? So what have voters told us an MVP looks like? We can answer some of the questions above by looking back at past winners and seeing exactly how the voters gave us their answers by telling us with their votes. There are no MVP rules - but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to predict who will win it. MVP is a narrative award, and we love stories.

That’s why this is such a fun and endless conversation every year. The 100 MVP voters would probably all define MVP slightly differently. What’s both insanely frustrating and endlessly entertaining is that there are no answers to any of those questions. Is an MVP valuable because he wins the most? Does that mean the best player on the best team, or a great player on a team that would be terrible without them? Does defense matter? How much do you need to play? Does it matter if you’ve won before, or if you outperformed our expectations? There are no voting rules, and there is no clear definition of what makes someone “valuable.” I love the Most Valuable Player award because it’s so deliciously opaque. It’s never too early to start thinking about NBA MVP.

Michael jordan cheat code for nba 2k9