Not only is he the best player in the league this year, but he's finally on the best team (Sans Shaq). Granted, the Lakers would definitely not be in this position without the Pau acquisition, but Kobe kept them close enough to reach the top once Pau got there. Last year Lebron got the edge from the critics because everyone said he made his teammates better and Kobe didn't. That's not the case this year as Sasha, Farmar, Turiaf and even Odom look a lot better than they did last year. Give the Lakers front office a lot of credit as well because the Derek Fisher signing seems to have gone unnoticed but was a huge piece to the seemingly complete Lakers puzzle.
Last year, in Chris Paul's rookie season, the Hornets were 39-43, this year they're 42-20. Who's running the team? Paul. He's averaging 21 points, is second in the leage with 11 assists, first with 2.7 steals and is shooting nearly 50% from the field. He's got a young supporting cast that is looking better every game. If the Lakers weren't out in front in the standings, I'd give the nod to Paul.
Oh, what 19 games can do. From 10th place to third place. A month ago, the Rockets looked like they were ready for the lottery draft. Now they look like they won't lose a game until they're playing at the Boston Garden in the Finals. When Yao went down, someone woke not just McGrady but the whole team up. Dikembe's looking good and the young supporting cast in Houston is following McGrady's lead. His numbers aren't nearly as good as they've been in the past but he's definitely taken two steps forward in career growth this year.
30.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7.4 apg. His team has quietly slid into the four seed in the east...and his name is Lebron James. Ladies and gentlemen, your future eight-time MVP.
His points are way down, his rebounds are way down and his assists are down. But his team is in first place and making travel plans for the NBA finals. He obviously has no shot to win the MVP award with his numbers, but what he has brought to the Celtics can't really be measured on paper. I don't think there's anyone in the league that would trade $3 mil/year to play with Garnett. Just ask Sam Cassell.
Orlando is twice as good as last year when they finished 40-42 and the main reason is the growth of Dwight Howard. He had his cape on long before the dunk contest and is averaging a measley 21.8 ppg, 14.5 rpg and 2.4 bpg. It's pretty sick to think of the MVP battles that Lebron and Howard are going to have in the next 15 years. Honorable Mention: Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Memphis Grizzlies GM.
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I was actually working on a blog about the MVP race, but I was gonna go with Lebron as the frontrunner and CP3 and KB24 tied for second.
Kobe's having a great season, but he was tanking right at the beginning of the season before realising that he had the deepest team in the league and it only got deeper with the Pau-Kwame trade. I don't care how good you are, but in my mind you aren't the MVP if you're willing to undermine your team and throw your teammates under the bus at every opportunity.
Lebron on the other hand has been doing that Superman thing and carrying his team leading them in points, assists, steals and mpg and is second in rebounds and blocks and keeping them above .500 by sheer force of will.
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