Race to the MVP.

[Leor_77]

I have to be honest here about Kobe (I'm a Lakers/Kobe fan). I'm absolutely loving what I'm seeing from him (especially the efficiency), but there's no way in hell he keeps this up. He usually starts the season really well, but then **** the bed towards the end. I'm just hoping that his efficiency doesn't drop too much (Nash and easy, transition buckets will help with that).

At the end of the season, I think Lebron and Durant will definitely have earned the MVP just with their stats, but if Kobe can somehow keep his stats to where they're not that far behind from those two, and if the Lakers start dominating as a team (which they should just given the personnel - remember, Nash isn't playing and was hand-cuffed by MB/Princeton), he might have a shot at it. Not saying it's right, but MVP voting is largely predicated on team success.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Which would be great if his team wasn't 8th in the west, not won a road game, and not even a game over .500. I'm speaking currently and Kobe is not in the top 2 of the MVP race currently due to his team.

Now if you want to talk about the future of the MVP race and Kobe, that's a completely different discussion. Kobe will have to maintain his career high percentages throughout this season because frankly his raw numbers are nowhere near Durant and Lebron's right now.

26/6/5/2/0
25/11/5/2/1
25/9/7/1/1

[/quote]

His numbers are nowhere near Durant or Lebron's? Lebron maybe, but Kobe is averaging nearly 5.4 assists compared to Durant's 4.6, while averaing 3.4 TO's compared to Durant's 3.8. Not a big difference, but not exactly the same as you showed by merely rounding up assists for Durrant, rounding down assists for Kobe, and ignoring TO's all together. Durant's rebounding advantage is impressive, but that has alot to do with him playing some minutes at the 4, and playing with mediocre rebounders rather than Pau and Dwight. Durant's raw numbers are a bit better, but to say they are nowhere near is completely false. Throw in efficiency numbers and advanced stats and the fact that the Lakers had an incompetent moron coaching for the first 5 games (1-4) record, and I would say Kobe is right there with Durant. Sure he's below him a bit but to leave him out all together and act like it's a two man race doesn't make sense to me. And the Thunder are only 2.5 games above the Lakers...it's not like they have only one loss like the Knicks and Grizzlies.

[Heat_Fan_87]

It's a 3 man race between Lebron, CP3 and Durant imo.

[TheHartBreakKid]

I have to be honest here about Kobe (I'm a Lakers/Kobe fan). I'm absolutely loving what I'm seeing from him (especially the efficiency), but there's no way in hell he keeps this up. He usually starts the season really well, but then **** the bed towards the end. I'm just hoping that his efficiency doesn't drop too much (Nash and easy, transition buckets will help with that).

At the end of the season, I think Lebron and Durant will definitely have earned the MVP just with their stats, but if Kobe can somehow keep his stats to where they're not that far behind from those two, and if the Lakers start dominating as a team (which they should just given the personnel - remember, Nash isn't playing and was hand-cuffed by MB/Princeton), he might have a shot at it. Not saying it's right, but MVP voting is largely predicated on team success.

don't get me wrong, I fully don't expect him to keep this up and all my knowledge as a basketball fan tells me that Durant and Lebron will be ahead of him by the end of the year, I just have a problem with acting like Durant and Lebron are leagues ahead of everyone, when Kobe's (arguably) doing better than them statistically, and with the Lakers indicating that the 1-4 start was a result of Brown's poor coaching, only down 2.5 games from both the Heat and Thunder.

[Tien]

Comparing the two leaders stats on 11/19/12

Durant - 25 pts, 11 rebs, 5 asts, 2 stls, 1 blks, 4 tos, 51 fg%/47 3pt%/89 ft%
Lebron - 25 pts, 9 rebs, 7 asts, 1 stls, 1 blks, 2 tos, 52 fg%/44 3pt%/66 ft%


effeciency

Durant - 26.3 PER, .624 ts%, .552 eFg%, 113 OffRtg, 97 DefRtg, 1.3 OWS, .8 DWS, 2.1 WS
Lebron - 28.9 PER, .580 ts%, .558 eFg%, 119 OffRtg, 105 DefRtg, 1.7 OWS, .4 DWS, 2.1 WS

Durant is playing a full 2.6 more minutes than LeBron is though.

[TwentyOne920]

Top 5 in PER from basketball-reference.com*

LeBron James = 28.9
Tim Duncan = 27.8
Kobe Bryant = 27.4
Chris Paul = 26.6
Kevin Durant = 26.3

[Tien]

Kobe's stats are as good, if not better, than Lebron's and Durant's.

Stats don't mean crap if you're currently .500

[TwentyOne920]

Kobe's stats are as good, if not better, than Lebron's and Durant's.

Stats don't mean crap if you're currently .500

See: Kevin Love without Ricky Rubio and with walking punchlines like Wesley Johnson.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Kobe's stats are as good, if not better, than Lebron's and Durant's.

Stats don't mean crap if you're currently .500

Is that a rule somewhere? Ok I'll make one up as well.

Stats don't mean crap if you're currently .500***



*Unless You win 4 of the last 5 under a new coach, then stats do, in fact, mean a crap. They mean extra more than usual if that's the case.

Jokes aside, I've said it a bunch of times that I'm not saying Kobe is MVP, or better than Durant or Lebron this year. I'm just saying a 2.5 lead in the standings doesn't put Bron/Durant a whole level above everyone else.

[TwentyOne920]

Hell, the Heat and Thunder are behind the Spurs, Grizzlies, and Knicks in the standings. Does that mean Tim Duncan/Zach Randolph/Carmelo Anthony are more suited to be MVP?

[EvilSperm]

Kobe's stats are as good, if not better, than Lebron's and Durant's.

Stats don't mean crap if you're currently .500

did a lebron james fan say stats don't mean crap and as well a realgm member!! how time has changed ( green font?)

[28reloaded]

Durant is playing a full 2.6 more minutes than LeBron is though.

And that matters why? I bet you didn't say anything when LeBron used to play 40+ mpg

[nbhadja]

Lebron's stats are better than Kobe's....still.

[Father Time]

Lebron's stats are better than Kobe's....still.

Not really.

Kobe has better ts%, eFG%, ws, ws/48, ortg, and drtg.

[arifgokcen]

Lebron's stats are better than Kobe's....still.

Not really.

Kobe has better ts%, eFG%, ws, ws/48, ortg, and drtg.

Kobe's stats are amazing he is scoring better however everything else belongs to lebron including advanced stats.

[TheGarden]

getting to caught up in numbers ruins the value of the award

[Darain]

Holy crap is Kobe actually beating Lebron in Winshares? This is a strange world I woke up to

[doozyj]

Lebron's stats are better than Kobe's....still.

Not really.

Kobe has better ts%, eFG%, ws, ws/48, ortg, and drtg.

+ We are comparing a senior citizen Kobe to a prime Lebron. Just goes to show Kobe's longevity in the NBA, it is truly amazing.

[bledredwine]

PER is somewhat garbage.

[JordansBulls]

This will be CP3 or Durant or Melo's year to get MVP. Whichever one of them finish with the top spot will get MVP.