The NBA MVP Race

            There are ten candidates for this years NBA MVP award. Only one can win this honorable and amazing award. We got Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors who is just stupid good. Second is James Harden from the Houston Rockets, third my man Chris Paul from the L.A. Clippers, fourth is Russel Westbrook from Oklahoma City Thunder, fifth is Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans, 6th Lebron James from the Cavs, 7th Blake Griffin from the L.A. Clippers, 8th Jimmy Butler from the Bulls, 9th Damian Lillard from the Trail Blazers, and lastly we have LaMarcus Aldridge. This is your top 10 NBA Candidates for the 2015 MVP award. By looking at the stats its between the top 6. The MVP award almost always goes to the best player on the best team. I think it is between Westbrook, Harden, and Curry. Many people have their own opinions, I believe Stephen Curry will win this year. Steph Curry can lead his team to an NBA title, Russel Westbrook can only go so far without Kevin Durant. Once Westbrook starts playing tougher teams he can only do so much! Steph Curry closes games in the THIRD quarter, not fourth. He should get credit for this by winning that MVP award. Curry should win the MVP because he doesn't play meaningful fourth-quarter minutes; if you look at why he doesn't it is because he destroys teams in the third quarter. Curry is No. 1 in Real Plus-Minus and has been almost all season and that is just a great, great stat. (Harden is second, LeBron James is third.)Curry is +1.81 in Defensive RPM, which, among the top candidates, is second-best behind only Davis’ +3.88. LeBron is at +1.68 and Harden is +0.90.Curry has made an NBA-best 241 three-pointers (in 564 attempts), while Harden has made 180 (in 485 attempts). In 79 more attempts, Curry has made 61 more three-pointers than Harden. I know Curry doesn’t have dominant individual stats, and some of that is because he doesn’t play as many minutes as the other top candidates, some of it is because he has very good teammates who also carry consistent offensive loads.Still, although Harden and Westbrook have had great seasons, often with lesser talent around them, Curry can match or come close to them in other areas. Plus, he’s doing it at a more efficient rate, and again, I won’t go point-by-point on this, though I know many will.He also is winning more games. A lot more.

Main theme: I don’t see where Curry gets overwhelmed by anybody in individual statistics, and I just don’t buy that Harden or Westbrook have to get the nod because he has had a lesser group around him for most of this season due to Houston and OKC injuries.That would be a better argument if the Warriors didn’t have 10 more victories than the Rockets, but they do.Or if the Warriors didn’t go 4-0 vs. the Rockets in the season series, but they did.Or if Curry didn’t play defense, but he does.Or if Curry wasn’t clearly the best player on the Warriors, but he is.

(One little stat-dive: Curry currently is an incredible +12.1 in raw plus-minus per game. Every game, in the minutes he plays, the Warriors out-score opponents by an average of 12.1 points. And the Warriors are +10.9 as a team this season. So they’re -1.2 in the minutes he doesn’t play. (Harden is +4.6 per game, while Houston is +3.2. So the Rockets are -1.4 in the minutes he doesn’t play. Great stats for harden. But Curry’s are historic on the plus side.)

To some team arguments for Curry’s MVP candidacy. The Warriors currently have a +10.9 point-differential this season. The next-highest are the Clippers at +6.2.
Teams with this kind of historic point-differential tend to produce MVPs, for good reason: They deserve it. The Warriors are on pace to register the sixth-best differential in NBA history and would be only the eighth team ever to finish above +10.0 in this category.Of the seven other teams that had > +10.0 season point-differentials, five had players who won the MVP that season (and one that didn’t win the MVP happened to lose the award to a player on another team that had a > +10.0 differential. Steph Curry will win this year. End of story.

Top Candidates

Rk	Player	Tm	W	L	W/L%	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	2P	2PA	2P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS		Prob%
1	Stephen Curry	GSW	60	13	.822	71	71	32.8	8.1	16.8	.482	3.5	8.1	.431	4.6	8.7	.529	4.0	4.4	.916	0.7	3.6	4.3	7.9	2.1	0.2	3.1	2.0	23.7		42.8%
2	James Harden	HOU	50	23	.685	72	72	36.8	8.0	18.1	.439	2.5	6.8	.369	5.4	11.3	.481	8.8	10.1	.867	0.9	4.8	5.7	7.0	1.9	0.8	4.0	2.6	27.2		24.7%
3	Chris Paul	LAC	49	25	.662	74	74	34.9	6.9	14.4	.483	1.6	4.2	.388	5.3	10.2	.522	3.3	3.7	.888	0.6	4.0	4.6	10.1	1.9	0.2	2.4	2.5	18.8		9.8%
4	Russell Westbrook	OKC	42	32	.568	59	59	34.0	9.1	21.4	.425	1.2	3.9	.297	7.9	17.5	.453	8.2	9.7	.846	1.9	5.3	7.2	8.6	2.2	0.2	4.4	2.6	27.6		6.7%
5	Anthony Davis	NOP	39	34	.534	59	59	36.3	9.6	17.8	.541	0.0	0.2	.100	9.6	17.6	.545	5.4	6.7	.812	2.6	7.8	10.4	2.0	1.5	2.9	1.4	2.1	24.7		5.5%
6	LeBron James	CLE	48	27	.640	64	64	36.3	9.2	18.8	.489	1.8	5.0	.353	7.4	13.8	.539	5.6	7.8	.717	0.7	5.2	5.9	7.3	1.6	0.7	4.1	2.0	25.7		4.3%
7	Blake Griffin	LAC	49	25	.662	59	59	35.2	8.5	17.0	.501	0.1	0.4	.364	8.4	16.6	.504	4.7	6.5	.721	1.9	5.7	7.6	5.1	0.9	0.5	2.2	2.9	21.8		1.9%
8	Jimmy Butler	CHI	45	29	.608	58	58	38.7	6.5	14.1	.463	1.1	3.0	.353	5.5	11.1	.492	6.1	7.2	.840	1.8	4.1	5.9	3.2	1.7	0.6	1.4	1.6	20.2		1.5%
9	Damian Lillard	POR	47	25	.653	72	72	36.1	7.1	16.6	.430	2.4	7.0	.340	4.8	9.6	.496	4.4	5.1	.866	0.6	4.1	4.8	6.3	1.3	0.3	2.7	2.0	21.1		1.4%
10	LaMarcus Aldridge	POR	47	25	.653	64	64	35.7	9.4	20.0	.468	0.5	1.4	.360	8.9	18.6	.476	4.3	5.1	.845	2.5	7.9	10.4	1.8	0.7	1.0	1.8	1.8	23.6		1.3%