Just like last year, there are three top candidates for MVP. Last year , it was Kobe Bryant , Chris Paul and Lebron James.This year, Chris Paul has fallen off a little and Dwight Howard is not quite up there ; D-Wade, Kobe and LeBron are the pick of the field. An argument can be made for any of the three since there is so little to separate them. D-Wade has perhaps the weakest supporting cast and a rookie head coach guiding the team. Besides the Miami roster has been in a state of flux with several major changes since the beginning of the season.Through it all, D-Wade has been the sparkplug scoring at will, getting an impressive number of rebounds , playing tight defense and having some monster games as he has led the Heat into the playoffs and a probable #5 seed . Kobe occasionally tries to do too much but he has been getting his team mates more involved in the game, doing whatever is necessary for the Lakers to win. He no longer plays every night with abandon as D-Wade does because he is mature enough to realise that as he gets older he cannot make the same demands on his body as he could a few years earlier. LeBron is LeBron . He does everything – score, rebound and pass – and that is reflected in the number of triple doubles he has. Even his defense has improved .
Shane Battier of the Rockets remarked that the three are so close that the MVP should probably go to the one whose team has the best regular season record. At the time of writing, that would be LBJ since the Cavaliers have a slim one game lead over the Lakers with six games remaining. Fair or unfair,that I think is how most voters will make their choice ,unfortunately for D-Wade.Both the Cavaliers and Lakers have two tough games in the remaining six. Should they be have identical records at the end of the regular season, the Lakers would get the home court advantage since they won the regular season series with the Cavaliers 2-0.
As a Laker fan, I am naturally biased in favor of Kobe. True , he has the better supporting cast but , on the other hand, the Western Conference has by far the better teams top to bottom . If one considers the quality of the opposition, acheiving the same Won-Lost record in the West is more creditable than in the East. Still, people will vote the way they feel and not always according to logic. Kobe will , I’m sure, lose some votes because a) he won lost year and b) because of his off-the court problems of a few years ago. Lebron I think will win the MVP this year and I don’t really care as long as the Lakers win the NBA title…. something I think will happen only if Andrew Bynum returns at something close to full strength.
Golden Ripples 