What are the top 5 non-MVP peaks of the 00’s?

[dreamshake34]

What are the top 5 player peak seasons from the 2000’s that were non-MVP players?

Criteria:

1. Seasons from 1999-00 through 2009-10
2. No player that has ever won an MVP before. So players like Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, AI, KG, Duncan, Nash, etc. are ineligible.

What does your top 5 look like?

1. Dwyane Wade 06’
2. Chris Paul 08’
3. Dwyane Wade 09’
4. Tracy McGrady 03’
5. Jason Kidd 03’

Honorable Mentions: Alonzo Mourning 00’, Ray Allen 01’, Ben Wallace 04’, Manu Ginobili 05’

[AEnigma]

Keeping it to one player rather than to year, because otherwise I would basically only be listing two players here. There are players I assess as having outlier peak years where they only have the one instance of performing at a certain level — e.g. 1990 Ewing and 2011 Howard — but for the most part I think players tend to have multiple years that are nearly indistinguishable in real value from each other.

1. 2006/09/10 Dwyane Wade
— gap —
2. 2002/03 Tracy McGrady (admittedly a lot of uncertainty here)
3. 2008/09 Chris Paul
4. 2000 Alonzo Mourning
— gap —
5. 2001 Vince Carter

Struggled with that fifth spot. Also considered Dwight, Roy, Kidd, DWill, and Manu. I think choice among them is heavily dependent on team needs. I like Roy’s balance as a scorer and functional distributor, but he really only has the one series to assess his postseason play (good series though) and was not a noteworthy defender. I would take Kidd over DWill if I needed a proper distributor but were less concerned about generating offence for my overall team, and DWill over Kidd if overall team offensive generation were my primary concern. And I do not think it is remotely clear whether Manu in his limited minutes provides more aggregate value than any of those names, and accordingly I see him as the least capable of being a team’s foundation even if he is the best of them per possession.

[Cavsfansince84]

Gonna mention 00 G Hill as a #4/5 possibility behind the semi obvious Wade/TMac/CP3 grouping. He might not be quite on the level of some of the others but worth mentioning imo.

[rk2023]

2009 Wade
2008 CP3
2003 TMac
2000 Mourning
2000 Grant Hill
2001 Vince Carter (not 5th but he’s in this grouping imo)

HMs:
2001 Ray / 2003 Kidd / 2006 Billups / 2008 DWill / 2009 Roy / 2009 Dwight / 2005 Manu

[Doctor MJ]

What are the top 5 player peak seasons from the 2000’s that were non-MVP players?

Criteria:

1. Seasons from 1999-00 through 2009-10
2. No player that has ever won an MVP before. So players like Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, AI, KG, Duncan, Nash, etc. are ineligible.

What does your top 5 look like?

1. Dwyane Wade 06’
2. Chris Paul 08’
3. Dwyane Wade 09’
4. Tracy McGrady 03’
5. Jason Kidd 03’

Honorable Mentions: Alonzo Mourning 00’, Ray Allen 01’, Ben Wallace 04’, Manu Ginobili 05’

So, based on my personal POY rankings - which to be clear includes the post-season - here are the type guys each year who never won MVP:

2000 - Reggie Miller
2001 - Ray Allen
2002 - Jason Kidd
2003 - Jason Kidd
2004 - Ben Wallace
2005 - Manu Ginobili
2006 - Dwyane Wade
2007 - Manu Ginobili
2008 - Chris Paul
2009 - Dwyane Wade

So basically everyone you mention except McGrady who I had below Kidd that year, and Zo who I had below Reggie that year (note that Zo ranks highest among non-MVPs on my list in 1999).

In terms of ranking those players the highest, I'd probably have Wade & Paul on top too, but after that it gets interesting.

I might say:

1. Wade '06
2. Paul '08
3. Wade '09
4. Wallace '04
5. Ginobili '05

With Wallace I just think the stars absolutely aligned that year. His lack of offense holds him back generally, but when a team wins the title based on its all-time great defense and you have a clear cut star, foundation, and leader of the defense, to me that's extremely significant.

With Ginobili, as folks here may recall, I've become super-high on him in general. His limited minutes holds him back in most year, but in '04-05 he really is the clear cut playoff MVP of the champs. Bigger picture with him: I think Pop just got damn luck with Ginobili and still didn't make use of Ginobili as much as he should have because Pop was still under the impression that post-up scoring offense was still the way to go.

[Dr Positivity]

After Wade, Paul and Tmac, I feel like we should give some respect to Dwight for being a best player on Finals team superstar and one of the closest non MVPs to winning one even if not in 2000s. He was as good as ever in 2009, to me.

[Doctor MJ]

After Wade, Paul and Tmac, I feel like we should give some respect to Dwight for being a best player on Finals team superstar and one of the closest non MVPs to winning one even if not in 2000s. He was as good as ever in 2009, to me.

Quite reasonable. He wasn't on my mind because of the way I looked things up, but certainly a contender too.

[Colbinii]

2008 CP3
2009 Wade
2005 Manu
2002 Kidd
2003 McGrady

[wafflzgod]

1. Dwyane Wade ('09)
2. Chris Paul ('08/09)
3. Tracy McGrady ('03)
4. Grant Hill ('00)
5. Alonzo Mourning ('00)

HMs:
Jason Kidd ('03)
Dwight Howard ('09/10)

[migya]

No love for Pierce. He had some good seasons but not top 5.

[rebirthoftheM]

1) '06 Wade: Quality 2 way season reflected in both box score & +/- data. Demolished the Pistons in ECF with midrange fire & then ravaged the Mavs in one of the greatest comebacks of all time.

2) '03 McGrady: Lights out offensive domination during the toughest scoring era of all time. Had zero help & terrible spacing yet got his team to the playoffs. His defense shouldn't hold him back given guards are of low defensive value generally. Nearly upset the elite defense 1st Pistons.

3) '06 Kobe: I watched this season closely and what Kobe did offensively that season was truly special given the paltry help & putrid spacing all in the competitive WC. Only reason folks don't rate it as highly as I do is his defense but once again, guard defensive value is generally low & +/_ do not accurately reflect his defense that year. His skill-set that year was significantly superior to '08 & he had the same defensive abilities, just that he had to preserve himself. So if you rate '08, just remember '06 abilities were reasonably higher, just that conditions limited some areas of his game.

4) '09 Wade: Lights out offensively. Box score & +/_ show huge impact.

5) '08 Paul: Similar to Wade but superior team impact. Could have won it all off his 2-way play.

[Colbinii]

No love for Pierce. He had some good seasons but not top 5.

I think he definitely deserves mention if 2000 Hill is getting some shine.

Would have loved to see his actual prime version (early 2000s) with a great team instead of Antoine Walker and Company.

He also falls short on a peak-for-peak against most of the Top 50 (Top 75? Top 100?) list but definitely is impressive as his skill-sets scales well to post-season basketball.