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This is easy... what's more valuable/what's a better achivement for a player? MVP of the regular season or MVP of the finals (normally if you win this is because you won the NBA title too...). Pick one!

Andre Iguodala is a FMVP.

That should be the end of this argument.

Both are narrative driven awards, so I don't put much -if any- stock in either. But MVP is won during an 82 games timespan, it allows much less statistical aberration and flukish performance. It's also not matchup dependant. Give me MVP over FMVP any day.

I'll take the FMVP because it most likely means I'm wearing a new, shiny ring. It also means you came up big in the biggest moment of the season.

1. Championship
2. MVP (101 voters)
3. FMVP (11 voters)

SkyHookFTW wrote:I'll take the FMVP because it most likely means I'm wearing a new, shiny ring. It also means you came up big in the biggest moment of the season.

You have to separate the title from the award. The title was a team effort. The award says you had a good 4-7 games in what may have been the toughest series but in most years likely wasn't.

The nba really needs to move to a playoff's MVP as that would be something. The finals MVP is just a dumb concept and it's voted on by too few people and it's voted on during one of the at most 7 games so the voters haven't even put any thought into it.

FMVP is a joke--too often, the award is won in one game taken out of context. Not even going to bring up the obvious example (2015). Let's look at 2018.

There was only one semi critical game in the 2018 NBA Finals--Game 1. As you'll remember, it went into overtime. Curry and KD put up the following numbers in that crucial game:

Stephen Curry 29/6/9 (.607 TS%, .587 eFG%)
Kevin Durant 29/9/6 (.492 TS%, .386 eFG%)

Again, this was the only game the Cavs really put up a fight. The series was basically over after this first game...and Curry was better.

In Game 2, it was Curry who led the team in the 4th quarter when things got somewhat close, scoring 16 of his 33 points in the final period. Curry and KD put up the following numbers in that game:

Stephen Curry 33/7/8 (.614 TS%, .596 eFG%)
Kevin Durant 26/9/7 (.825 TS%, .786 eFG%)

Pretty good, I'd say.

None of the other games were close. Curry had exactly one (1) "bad" game in the 2018 NBA Finals--Game 3--a game never in question, by the way. KD, however, did very well in this game and the next--great stats--but the Cavs were already beaten.

I think most people agree that KD's gaudy stats in Game 3 "won" him that award. This said, given that it was Curry who shined in the "contested" moments, was KD really the most valuable player in that finals? Very debatable.

Give me the regular season MVP award any day. Yes, this award is also a popularity contest, but given that you need to demonstrate superior achievement over a much broader time period, it seems somewhat more substantial, in my opinion.

dhsilv2 wrote:The nba really needs to move to a playoff's MVP as that would be something. The finals MVP is just a dumb concept and it's voted on by too few people and it's voted on during one of the at most 7 games so the voters haven't even put any thought into it.

See, I'd really be behind the bit in bold--playoffs MVP not FMVP--as this would more likely reward the player who really did the most to get his team to the championship.

taikibansei wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:The nba really needs to move to a playoff's MVP as that would be something. The finals MVP is just a dumb concept and it's voted on by too few people and it's voted on during one of the at most 7 games so the voters haven't even put any thought into it.

See, I'd really be behind the bit in bold--playoffs MVP not FMVP--as this would more likely reward the player who really did the most to get his team to the championship.

Yeah, I'm not sure how the league didn't fix the finals MVP after 1981 where in back to back years Magic won it over Kareem and Maxwell over Bird. At that point it was clearly a broken concept and they just keep moving forward.

MVP, but i don't care much about either one. I'd like to see a playoff MVP instead of FMVP I'd weigh that a good bit.

I voted FMVP. Yes, Iggy and Maxwell have won FMVP. So? Derrick Rose and Westbrook won season MVPs.

Here is how I see it- Barkley and Iverson would trade their season MVP for a FMVP in a heartbeat. I doubt any FMVPs would trade theirs for a season MVP.

TaylorTRoom wrote:

Here is how I see it- Barkley and Iverson would trade their season MVP for a FMVP in a heartbeat. I doubt any FMVPs would trade theirs for a season MVP.

It's about winning the title... not about winning the FMVP.

So if you want to write... "Championship > MVP = Championship > FMVP" you might have a point.

TaylorTRoom wrote:I voted FMVP. Yes, Iggy and Maxwell have won FMVP. So? Derrick Rose and Westbrook won season MVPs.

Here is how I see it- Barkley and Iverson would trade their season MVP for a FMVP in a heartbeat. I doubt any FMVPs would trade theirs for a season MVP.

They would trade because the FMVP also brings in a championship, which is more important than any individual trophy. That's why they would do it, not because the FMVP is worth more.

loveandbeer wrote:Andre Iguodala is a FMVP.

That should be the end of this argument.

Kawhi or Westbrook?

FMVP implies a championship, and that is the only reason it gets votes. If the question was: "MVP plus the championship" vs "FMVP plus the championship," then MVP clearly wins out.

sixers4real wrote:

loveandbeer wrote:Andre Iguodala is a FMVP.

That should be the end of this argument.

Kawhi or Westbrook?

Yeah we can compare the most notable bad exceptions:
Finals MVP: Iggy, Parker (over Duncan), Billups (over Ben), Kawhi (over Duncan I guess), Cedric Maxwell, Worthy, Pierce
MVP: Iverson, Rose, Westbrook

In general we'd like to see the award reflect the best player, and that doesn't always happen. For FMVP, it's a snap shot of a single playoff series. It ignores the 3 playoff series that it took to get there (and obviously the regular season). The kinda opposite problem occurs for MVP, where it rewards a player who participates at the highest level in the marathon slog of the regular season, even if that player isn't even in the handful of elite players that tilt championship odds.

I wish they'd turn FMVP into playoff MVP. I think that would fix any problems we have with that award. MVP is harder.

TaylorTRoom wrote:I voted FMVP. Yes, Iggy and Maxwell have won FMVP. So? Derrick Rose and Westbrook won season MVPs.

Here is how I see it- Barkley and Iverson would trade their season MVP for a FMVP in a heartbeat. I doubt any FMVPs would trade theirs for a season MVP.

There's no way they'd trade their MVP for a jerry west style finals MVP.

Both are outdated.
MVP should be who was the most valuable player. Not who was the best player on one of the better teams. And not heavily narrative driven.

Finals MVP should be a Playoff MVP.

FMVP should be changed to playoffs MVP, if you put your team on your back for 4 rounds and take them to a championship it has more weight than just 1 round. That way we wouldn’t see decisions like Iquodala over Curry and it would give a more accurate picture of the true mvp for the Championship team.