Race to the MVP.

[te887848]

Carmelo isn't even close to MVP. Subpar shooting percentages and less than 2 assists per game don't stand out as MVP-level stats. It's not like he scores more than LeBron either. LeBron is drastically better at literally every category there is. Currently LeBron is the runaway #1 (though that could change later on), followed by Paul/Kobe/Durant in some order.

[SweetTouch]

Yeah Kidd and JR Smith are higher on my list than MELO

[28reloaded]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly is LeBron a runaway at this point?

OKC 7-3
Miami 7-3

Durant 25/10/4/2/2 62 TS% leading league in defensive win shares
LeBron 25/9/7/1/1 59 TS%

[kamelion4291]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly is LeBron a runaway at this point?

OKC 7-3
Miami 7-3

Durant 25/10/4/2/2 62 TS% leading league in defensive win shares
LeBron 25/9/7/1/1 59 TS%

Because defensive win shares are not a good stat to point to a guy and say "Player A has more win shares than Player B therefore he's a better defensive player". LeBron is also making huge clutch plays at the end of close games for wins. As far as comparing stat lines, LeBron has 5 more PER than Durant does. That isn't a small gap.

[Woodsanity]

So far I have Rudy Gay in the West..He put up crazy number against Lebron, Melo and Durant. He's having a great season. I know it does help that he has the best FC in the NBA..

Lol no. No way do I take him over CP3 or Durant.

[28reloaded]

Because defensive win shares are not a good stat to point to a guy and say "Player A has more win shares than Player B therefore he's a better defensive player". LeBron is also making huge clutch plays at the end of close games for wins. As far as comparing stat lines, LeBron has 5 more PER than Durant does. That isn't a small gap.

Opposing SF's have a 56.4 eFG% against LeBron up to this point and a PER of 14.4
Opposing SF's have a 44.4 eFG% against Durant up to this point and a PER of 7.4

Durant is averaging twice the amount of blocks/steals and players are shooting a laughable 17% vs him in ISO sets.

Clearly the defensive gap is ASTRONOMICAL.

As for crunch time, Durant is shooting 56% with a whopping 67 TS%. Clearly he's lacking in the clutch/end of games.

Finally PER...According to PER, Jordan wasn't even close to the league's MVP from 95-98. As a matter of fact, according to PER Davis Robinson should have been a 3X MVP winner and is the 4th greatest player of all time.

[28reloaded]

So far I have Rudy Gay in the West..He put up crazy number against Lebron, Melo and Durant. He's having a great season. I know it does help that he has the best FC in the NBA..

20/6/2 on 49 TS%...those aren't even all star worthy numbers

[bigboi]

http://www.nba.com/mvp-ladder/2012-13/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt6a

1. LeBron James
2. Chris Paul
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Kevin Durant
5. Zach Randolph
6. James Harden
7. Tony Parker
8. Kobe Bryant
9. Rajon Rondo
10. Brandon Jennings

No Duncan? Joke list

TP shouldn't even be on the list IMO. Once Lakers start winning, Kobe finishes top 5

[Krodis]

So far I have Rudy Gay in the West..He put up crazy number against Lebron, Melo and Durant. He's having a great season. I know it does help that he has the best FC in the NBA..

20/6/2 on 49 TS%...those aren't even all star worthy numbers

Not to mention Gasol and Randolph are obviously playing better on the same team.

[fallacy]

Because defensive win shares are not a good stat to point to a guy and say "Player A has more win shares than Player B therefore he's a better defensive player". LeBron is also making huge clutch plays at the end of close games for wins. As far as comparing stat lines, LeBron has 5 more PER than Durant does. That isn't a small gap.

Opposing SF's have a 56.4 eFG% against LeBron up to this point and a PER of 14.4
Opposing SF's have a 44.4 eFG% against Durant up to this point and a PER of 7.4

Durant is averaging twice the amount of blocks/steals and players are shooting a laughable 17% vs him in ISO sets.

Clearly the defensive gap is ASTRONOMICAL.

As for crunch time, Durant is shooting 56% with a whopping 67 TS%. Clearly he's lacking in the clutch/end of games.

Daaaamn. Durant better defensively than offensively?

[C-izMe]

Carmelo isn't even close to MVP. Subpar shooting percentages and less than 2 assists per game don't stand out as MVP-level stats. It's not like he scores more than LeBron either. LeBron is drastically better at literally every category there is. Currently LeBron is the runaway #1 (though that could change later on), followed by Paul/Kobe/Durant in some order.

Did the definition of subpar change recently? He's above average.


Also did you see the team without him yesterday? He's clearly very important to their success (19-1 run when he left in the 3rd quarter. He was guarding Marc Gasol last night and still led the team and have them a chance to win late.

[swag2011]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly is LeBron a runaway at this point?

OKC 7-3
Miami 7-3

Durant 25/10/4/2/2 62 TS% leading league in defensive win shares
LeBron 25/9/7/1/1 59 TS%

Exactly. People are just saying "omg lebron's far and far away the best player" when the stats are suggesting otherwise. Is he the best player in the league? Sure. Is he a top candidate for MVP like every year? Absolutely. But i fail to see how he's separated himself from Durant/Kobe/Paul and even Duncan as the for sure runaway MVP at this point. And honestly Lebron's defense hasn't been as impressive as it was last year so i don't think you can really use that either imo.

I would say it's Lebron/Durant/Paul the top choices and Duncan/Rondo/Kobe/Melo in some order in the second group. Melo's shooting percentages are poor, and the Lakers/Celtics poor records haven't completely put kobe/rondo in the race yet.

[Tien]

seems like the only flaw in lebron's game now is his freethrow shooting , needs to correct that!

His field goal percentage is within 13 percentage points of his free throw percentage. I don't know if any perimeter player that I can remember was that good from the field and that bad from the line. Rondo maybe?

Most of his field goals come from layups and dunks. He was abysmal in the playoffs last year from mid-long range aside from 1 game against Boston.

Once his athleticism declines, he will be noticably worse as you can see in Wade already.

It's funny because once he gets older and athleticism declines, he can easily morph himself into a 10 assist per game point forward.

Averaging 20ppg / 10 assists / 5 rebounds. That's still elite in this league. He's playing at high level until he's 37/38 barring injuries.

[MrHidden]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how exactly is LeBron a runaway at this point?

OKC 7-3
Miami 7-3

Durant 25/10/4/2/2 62 TS% leading league in defensive win shares
LeBron 25/9/7/1/1 59 TS%

yeah really 2 steals and 2 blocks and why don´t you show TOV?

true is :
Durant 24,5/10,2/4,1/1,6/1,5 4,0 TOV 62,1 % TS and 25,7 PER playing 38,7 mpg
LeBron 24,8/9,2/6,8/0,8/1,1 and only 2,2 TOV 59,4 % TS and 30,4 PER playing 35,9 mpg
see the diference ??

LeBron is better

[TheGarden]

Carmelo isn't even close to MVP. Subpar shooting percentages and less than 2 assists per game don't stand out as MVP-level stats. It's not like he scores more than LeBron either. LeBron is drastically better at literally every category there is. Currently LeBron is the runaway #1 (though that could change later on), followed by Paul/Kobe/Durant in some order.

Did the definition of subpar change recently? He's above average.


Also did you see the team without him yesterday? He's clearly very important to their success (19-1 run when he left in the 3rd quarter. He was guarding Marc Gasol last night and still led the team and have them a chance to win late.

exactly, when he went out with that 4th foul the team fell apart.

Last night

Carmelo was a +2, not a big number but look at the rest of the rotation

Brewer -9
Chandler -9
Felton -21
Kidd -8
Smith -8
Wallace -15
Novak +6

He shot 7/14, 1/2 3's, 5/5 FT's for 20 points and never got the benefit of the whistle last night

People say its more of the team playing well more than him leading and last night proved otherwise, they feed off of the attention Melo receives and the fact that he makes the right passes out of double teams

as far as his assists numbers, he's playing power forward. When has a PF ever averaged a ton of assists, they get doubled make a pass that leads to a pass for a score

the game is more than numbers how many times do we have to say this

[TheGarden]

I try to watch as much non-Knick games as I can because I'm not a stat junkie so I'll say right now

1. LeBron James
2. Chris Paul
3. Zach Randolph
4/5/6/7- Kobe/Melo/Duncan/Durant in some order

[donnieme]

Carmelo isn't even close to MVP. Subpar shooting percentages and less than 2 assists per game don't stand out as MVP-level stats. It's not like he scores more than LeBron either. LeBron is drastically better at literally every category there is. Currently LeBron is the runaway #1 (though that could change later on), followed by Paul/Kobe/Durant in some order.

Did the definition of subpar change recently? He's above average.


Also did you see the team without him yesterday? He's clearly very important to their success (19-1 run when he left in the 3rd quarter. He was guarding Marc Gasol last night and still led the team and have them a chance to win late.

exactly, when he went out with that 4th foul the team fell apart.

Last night

Carmelo was a +2, not a big number but look at the rest of the rotation

Brewer -9
Chandler -9
Felton -21
Kidd -8
Smith -8
Wallace -15
Novak +6

He shot 7/14, 1/2 3's, 5/5 FT's for 20 points and never got the benefit of the whistle last night

People say its more of the team playing well more than him leading and last night proved otherwise, they feed off of the attention Melo receives and the fact that he makes the right passes out of double teams

as far as his assists numbers, he's playing power forward. When has a PF ever averaged a ton of assists, they get doubled make a pass that leads to a pass for a score

the game is more than numbers how many times do we have to say this

True this, but don't overstate it. Chandler also went out with foul trouble around that period after the refs decided to get whistle-happy on the knicks. Rasheed also got tagged with a 5th foul in the 3rd quarter as well i think, allowing memphis frontline to have their way on the inside. But I get what you're saying though, they ran out of ideas and could have done with some melo-magic. His impact or potential-impact shouldn't be overlooked.

[TheGarden]

I feel you but even still Chandler was getting killed by Randolph and Sheed couldn't do much with Gasol anyway. I just felt like if Carmelo never got those cheap fouls we win that game and his numbers are better.

I just dont like how people attribute our wins to the team play yet Miami and OKC are only winning because LeBron and Durant are carrying them

[WinisKing]

I feel you but even still Chandler was getting killed by Randolph and Sheed couldn't do much with Gasol anyway. I just felt like if Carmelo never got those cheap fouls we win that game and his numbers are better.

I just dont like how people attribute our wins to the team play yet Miami and OKC are only winning because LeBron and Durant are carrying them

That is fairly accurate, Lebron is carrying Miami indeed

[donnieme]

I feel you but even still Chandler was getting killed by Randolph and Sheed couldn't do much with Gasol anyway. I just felt like if Carmelo never got those cheap fouls we win that game and his numbers are better.

I just dont like how people attribute our wins to the team play yet Miami and OKC are only winning because LeBron and Durant are carrying them

Yea, after a few games, I felt people were awarding James Mvp nominations too easily when he hadn't done much special. But of recent, he's really uped it, and I'm talking about his clutch, game winning roles in some of the recent games he's played. What Carmelo needs is a strong game winning performance to restake his claim for MVP at this stage of the season. He already has the W's. I already said earlier that I felt wade is just gonna keep coasting and it would cost miami a better record for lebron's MVP case but I can't see into the future so let's just see.