Retro Player of the Year 2013-14 — Lebron James

[One_and_Done]

DUNCAN
Beat Dirk and KD n Westbrook and Bron and Wade and Bosh for the chip. Great D. Good O. Smoked a GOAT in the finals.

BRON
Great O and GOATED scoring but team choked in the finals. Kinda like Jerry West. I know wade and bosh hurt but u can't be #1 getting beat up more than anyone else.

DIRK
took champs to 7. Great O. Can't be talking how spurs played best bball ever and not respect Dirk taking them 7.

KAWHI
Won the chip and finals MVP. Good D and Good o.

KD

Won MVP but choked in the pos. Westbrook prob played better.

It's pretty ridiculous to have 37 year old Duncan over Lebron. Duncan was part of a ensemble cast, not the star like Lebron.

[One_and_Done]

1. Lebron


2. KD

3. Duncan
4. Harden
5. CP3

Lebron is an easy #1. Best player in the league by far, and best player of all-time by a comfortable margin. He didn’t win the title, but that’s because titles are a team accomplishment and the opposing team was better. Wade really fell off a cliff this year, and declined steadily each following year. Meanwhile, the Spurs were on fire and had one of the most dominant postseason runs of all-time after they got warmed up vs Dallas.

KD is an easy #2. Nobody else is particularly close. With CP3 missing so many games I had to bump him down from #3 to #5, but honestly it was close. The Clippers played at a 44-18 pace with him, and a 13-7 pace without him. The difference was pretty clear. I know he only played 62 games, but having Blake over him for MVP was a joke. CP3 drove the winning on that team. This is one of the worst MVP votes on record, with Blake at #3, Noah at #4 and Al Freaking Jefferson at #8. A bit of an embarrassing result.

Duncan scrapes into #3 for me. He wasn’t the best Spur in the finals, but he definitely was over both the RS and the season as a whole. A real throwback year from Timmy in many ways, even though he couldn’t move as he used to. I don’t think Curry was quite there yet, though that probably was partly due to how he was being used. That’s a difficult issue to navigate, but I’ve ultimately decided TD, Harden and CP3 added more value this year.

[tone wone]

.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

His regular season wasn't "much" better. If it was at all it was by a smaller margin than Lebrons postseason advantage. Pretty rTS is about all Durant brings to the dance here, so seeing his shooting tank against the 2 strong defenses he faced while LeBron's didn't pretty much ends his argument.

KD
vs. MEM (7th D): .54ts% 24ast to 28to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .56ts% 19ast to 20to's

Lebron
vs. IND (1st D): .63ts% 38ast to 20to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .67ts% 20ast to 19to's

75ast to 72to's for Durant that entire postseason. Like seriously, what are you arguing. When he wasn't being guarded by Matt Barnes he was kinda a mess that playoff.

Mami was a above average defense in the regular season that turned into a below average one in the playoffs. LeBron's a flat out better defender than Durant and has more influence on his teams performance at that end so that's why 2014 isn't lauded like his other years despite it being on the short list of his offensive peak. But don't mistake OKC having stronger defensive personnel with Durant blowing away Lebron on D.

[lessthanjake]

.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

His regular season wasn't "much" better.

I think it just depends on where we draw the line for “much” better.

To look at various RS metrics:

- Durant’s EPM was +7.6, while LeBron’s was +6.1.

- Durant’s LEBRON was 6.13, while LeBron’s was 4.54.

- Durant’s RAPTOR was +7.1, while LeBron’s was +4.6.

- Durant’s BPM was 10.1, while LeBron’s was 8.8.

- Durant’s Thinking Basketball BPM was 7.4, while LeBron’s was 6.8.

- Durant’s AuPM/g was 4.7, while LeBron’s was 4.3.

- Durant’s PIPM was 5.53, while LeBron’s was 4.47.

- Durant’s one-year RAPM with no priors (via TheBasketballDatabase) was 3.81, while LeBron’s was 2.21.

- Engelmann’s single-season prior-informed RAPM (using prior years’ RAPM as the prior) has LeBron at 6.79, while Durant is at 4.73.

- While this is not a metric, Durant also led his team to a better record and a notably better SRS, despite Westbrook missing almost half the season (though Wade missed almost as much time and was diminished).

- Finally, I don’t personally care much about this, but FWIW, Durant played over 200 more minutes that season (and the above stats are rate stats, so they don’t take this into account).

Obviously, there’s one data point there that goes the other way (not surprising, in a measure with lagged effects, given that LeBron was exiting his very peak years and Durant was on the ascension). But the overall picture is one in which Durant looks superior. Whether he looks “much” better is more of a judgment call in terms of where you draw the line of saying someone was “much” better. Some of the data points are close, so I can see someone validly concluding that that’s not exactly right. But I think solidly better should be pretty uncontroversial. I personally still have LeBron ahead this year due to the playoffs, though.

[TheGOATRises007]

I also think Durant was clearly better in the RS, but LeBron was clearly better in the playoffs and was still the better player in general.

Claiming LeBron was better than Durant in the RS is rewriting what happened imo.

[Djoker]

VOTING POST

POY

1. Kevin Durant

2. Lebron James

Long explanation with supporting data in spoiler. Long story short, it is debatable but I think there is good reason to believe that Lebron had much less impact than his stats show particularly in the Finals. Nice scoring but he really had a horrible defensive series and was surprisingly ineffective as a playmaker posting career lows in potential assists in the 2014 Finals. He was better than Durant against the Spurs but they both disappointed and KD built up quite a lead in the RS as well as the Clippers series which was a very strong team (#2 in SRS) and KD had a magnificent performance against them.

Spoiler:

Long post coming here. I know a lot of smirks and raised eyebrows are coming my way from the usual crowd but I don't care.

In the RS, Durant has a very clear edge over Lebron.

RS
Lebron: 27.1/6.9/6.3 on +10.8 rTS with 3.5 topg
Durant: 32.0/7.4/5.5 on +9.4 rTS with 3.5 topg

Heat: 54 wins +4.15 SRS
Thunder: 59 wins +6.66 SRS

Lebron's All-Defensive 2nd Team selection also looks dubious at best given his subpar performance in just about all defensive metrics. For example, DRaptor -0.9, DDarko +1.0, DLebron -0.2. Negative values aren't good here!

After 2018, it was probably the worst defensive season of his prime.

KD and Lebron were probably on a similar level defensively in the RS. KD's metrics are about the same hovering around zero.

In the PS, the Heat faced very weak opposition beating two negative SRS teams in the Bobcats and Nets before facing a +3.63 SRS Pacers team that was playing .500 ball for the second half of the season. Meanwhile OKC beat a really good Clippers team with a league best +7.37 SRS. The gap in competition was huge.

Given that I just don't see much reason to reward Lebron relative to Durant for making the Finals when his team lost to the exact same opponent with a much worse showing. In fact, the Spurs juggernaut talk only started after the fact. Going into the 2014 Finals, the Heat were only very slight underdogs with +135. And after splitting the first two games in San Antonio and going home for three straight, things were looking good for them until... THEY GOT BLOWN OUT IN THREE CONSECUTIVE HOME GAMES. Not saying the Spurs weren't a great team (IMO likely top 15 team ever) but their reputation was largely built on destroying the Heat as evidenced by those odds.

Lebron individually had a pretty subpar Finals too, masked by hyper-efficient scoring. He was horrible defensively with a 67.1 dFG%, particularly so in the final three games where the Heat struggled immensely. Lebron not only had low defensive usage (contesting just 7 FGA/game) but blew coverages and just played lazy defense in general when he was involved in the action. And even in terms of offense, he was not effective as a playmaker only averaging 4 assists a game. Pop and the Spurs in 2013 and 2014 had a scheme to keep Lebron on the perimeter and defend him 1-on-1, often with Diaw. Credit to Lebron that he made a lot of outside shots (52% from 3pt land) but all he got was those jump shots. He didn't pressure the rim much to get the defense to collapse and provide open looks for others. It was an unimpactful performance. According to Thinking Basketball, he averaged 9 potential assists per game which is the lowest of any Finals series in his career demonstrating a lack of playmaking. In the last three games, the Heat had a -0.1 rORtg and an unfathomable +13.8 rDRtg. Ineffective offense and devastatingly bad defense.

Breaking it down game-by-game...

Game 1: 25/6/3 on +12.7 rTS with 4 turnovers. Got leg cramps late in the game and couldn't finish, sitting out much of the 4th quarter as the Heat lost a close and very winnable game. Subpar showing.

Game 2: 35/10/3 on +20.4 rTS with 4 turnovers. Very strong game by Lebron as the Heat won on the road to knot the series 1-1. They were headed home for three straight games. Fantastic game.

Game 3: 22/5/7 on +19.9 rTS with 7 turnovers. Horrible on defense. Scored 18 points and got all 7 assists down double digits. Bad game.

Game 4: 28/8/2 on +19.4 rTS with 3 turnovers. Again horrible on defense. Scored 23 points and got 2 assists down double digits once again. Subpar.

Game 5: 31/10/5 on +10.2 rTS with 1 turnover. Better game than in Game 3 and 4. Still bad defensively but in this one he had more impact on the game and managed to score while the game was still in the balance.

All in all, Lebron had one fantastic game, one solid game and three subpar games in the series.

The Spurs beat the Thunder by a +10.5 MOV but that series went 6 games with Game 6 won in OT. Much more competitive... The Spurs also got taken to 7 games by 8th seed Dallas in the 1st round and only won that series by a +2.0 MOV so they weren't unbeatable.

PS
Lebron: 27.4/7.1/4.8 on +14.5 rTS with 3.1 topg
Durant: 29.6/8.9/3.9 on +4.3 rTS with 3.8 topg

Again, Lebron did put up superior numbers but it's heavily boosted by the first two rounds against minnows. And his statistical averages in the Finals mask a poor series in terms of defense and playmaking. Both had largely ineffective series against the Spurs to be fair with KD also not playmaking well but he wasn't a liability defensively that Lebron was. So Lebron was only a bit better against the Spurs.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

3. Chris Paul - 1st Team All-NBA. 1st Team All-Defense. Orchestrated the best offense in the league. The defense being mediocre can't be held too much against him. The Clippers lost to the Thunder and CP3 generally played very well but he had some rough plays in crunch time that cost his team a potential series win. I could see someone arguing him as high as #1 based on what he did offensively but I'm lower on him. Averaged 19.1/4.3/10.7 on +3.9 rTS in the RS then 19.8/4.2/10.3 on +5.8 rTS in the PS.

4. Stephen Curry - 2nd Team All-NBA. First prime season building on the previous PS experience and finally being continuously healthy after ankle issues early in his career. Really stretched defenses with his shooting, but compared to 2015 onwards, focused more on being a playmaker. The Warriors were almost ready to break out, but not quite, losing to CP3's Clippers in the 1st round. Averaged 24.0/4.3/8.5 on +6.9 rTS in the RS then 23.0/3.6/8.4 on +7.2 rTS in the PS.

5. Paul George - 3rd Team All-NBA. 1st Team All-Defense. PG13 was an all-star caliber player on offense plus a fantastic defensive forward. Incredibly versatile due to his size and athleticism and really could guard 1-4 pretty well. Led a mediocre Indiana team (GOAT on defense, WOAT on offense) to the ECF and had a really good series there. Averaged 21.7/6.8/3.5 on +1.4 rTS in the RS then 22.6/7.6/3.8 on +3.2 rTS in the PS.

HM: Tim Duncan - still the best player on the Spurs to me but it was an ensemble.

OPOY

1. Kevin Durant

2. Lebron James

3. Chris Paul

Same as POY order because all the guys got there largely based on their offense.

DPOY

1. Joakim Noah - Anchored a -6.1 rDRtg Bulls team. Bundle of energy. Played many more minutes than Hibbert.

2. Roy Hibbert - Anchored an amazing -7.4 rDRtg Pacers team. Great rim protector.

3. Tim Duncan - Another strong defensive season despite old age. Anchored a -4.3 rDRtg Spurs while playing similar minutes to Hibbert. Less of a vertical threat and lost some athleticism but terrific positioning and instincts.

HM: Marc Gasol - missed 23 games.

[Djoker]

.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

His regular season wasn't "much" better. If it was at all it was by a smaller margin than Lebrons postseason advantage. Pretty rTS is about all Durant brings to the dance here, so seeing his shooting tank against the 2 strong defenses he faced while LeBron's didn't pretty much ends his argument.

KD
vs. MEM (7th D): .54ts% 24ast to 28to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .56ts% 19ast to 20to's

Lebron
vs. IND (1st D): .63ts% 38ast to 20to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .67ts% 20ast to 19to's

75ast to 72to's for Durant that entire postseason. Like seriously, what are you arguing. When he wasn't being guarded by Matt Barnes he was kinda a mess that playoff.

Mami was a above average defense in the regular season that turned into a below average one in the playoffs. LeBron's a flat out better defender than Durant and has more influence on his teams performance at that end so that's why 2014 isn't lauded like his other years despite it being on the short list of his offensive peak. But don't mistake OKC having stronger defensive personnel with Durant blowing away Lebron on D.

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.

You also excluded the series against the Clippers where KD was fantastic putting up 33/9/5 on 61 %TS. Clippers had the #1 SRS in the league and were much better than any team Lebron faced before the Finals.

I don't really disagree if you think Lebron had a better PS individually. I do too but I don't think it's by a lot and it's not quite enough to surpass KD's large RS advantage. Especially when Durant's PS run was also better in terms of results. OKC beat better teams and played the eventual champ Spurs much better.

[homecourtloss]

.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

His regular season wasn't "much" better. If it was at all it was by a smaller margin than Lebrons postseason advantage. Pretty rTS is about all Durant brings to the dance here, so seeing his shooting tank against the 2 strong defenses he faced while LeBron's didn't pretty much ends his argument.

KD
vs. MEM (7th D): .54ts% 24ast to 28to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .56ts% 19ast to 20to's

Lebron
vs. IND (1st D): .63ts% 38ast to 20to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .67ts% 20ast to 19to's

75ast to 72to's for Durant that entire postseason. Like seriously, what are you arguing. When he wasn't being guarded by Matt Barnes he was kinda a mess that playoff.

Mami was a above average defense in the regular season that turned into a below average one in the playoffs. LeBron's a flat out better defender than Durant and has more influence on his teams performance at that end so that's why 2014 isn't lauded like his other years despite it being on the short list of his offensive peak. But don't mistake OKC having stronger defensive personnel with Durant blowing away Lebron on D.

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.
.

You mean in a super slow paced series in which he was only taking 15 shots per game (with one game where he only took 10 shots because of foul trouble ) while being the primary reason for the +18.7 rORtg against one of the best defenses in nba history?

[tone wone]

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.

You also excluded the series against the Clippers where KD was fantastic putting up 33/9/5 on 61 %TS. Clippers had the #1 SRS in the league and were much better than any team Lebron faced before the Finals.

I didn't exclude it. What do you think the Matt Barnes reference was? He torched LAC....a team that was laughably weak on the wings (see Matt Barnes being KD's primary defender). Then went right back to being the middling-effcient high turnover postseason player he'd always was outside of 2012.

[Djoker]

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.

You also excluded the series against the Clippers where KD was fantastic putting up 33/9/5 on 61 %TS. Clippers had the #1 SRS in the league and were much better than any team Lebron faced before the Finals.

I didn't exclude it. What do you think the Matt Barnes reference was? He torched LAC....a team that was laughably weak on the wings (see Matt Barnes being KD's primary defender). Then went right back to being the middling-effcient high turnover postseason player he'd always was outside of 2012.

Matt Barnes was a good defender...

You mean in a super slow paced series in which he was only taking 15 shots per game (with one game where he only took 10 shots because of foul trouble ) while being the primary reason for the +18.7 rORtg against one of the best defenses in nba history?

Was Lebron also the primary reason for the Heat having a -0.1 rORtg in Game 3/4/5 in the Finals?

Taking 15 shots a game isn't exactly a good thing when you're the best offensive player on your team.

[lessthanjake]

His regular season wasn't "much" better. If it was at all it was by a smaller margin than Lebrons postseason advantage. Pretty rTS is about all Durant brings to the dance here, so seeing his shooting tank against the 2 strong defenses he faced while LeBron's didn't pretty much ends his argument.

KD
vs. MEM (7th D): .54ts% 24ast to 28to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .56ts% 19ast to 20to's

Lebron
vs. IND (1st D): .63ts% 38ast to 20to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .67ts% 20ast to 19to's

75ast to 72to's for Durant that entire postseason. Like seriously, what are you arguing. When he wasn't being guarded by Matt Barnes he was kinda a mess that playoff.

Mami was a above average defense in the regular season that turned into a below average one in the playoffs. LeBron's a flat out better defender than Durant and has more influence on his teams performance at that end so that's why 2014 isn't lauded like his other years despite it being on the short list of his offensive peak. But don't mistake OKC having stronger defensive personnel with Durant blowing away Lebron on D.

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.
.

You mean in a super slow paced series in which he was only taking 15 shots per game (with one game where he only took 10 shots because of foul trouble ) while being the primary reason for the +18.7 rORtg against one of the best defenses in nba history?

LeBron was the “primary reason” in the sense that no specific person was a bigger reason, but that series really was a team effort with quite a lot of credit to go around. Wade was not generally at his best by 2014, but he was really good that series. Bosh had a relatively static role offensively, but he played it well that series, especially considering his lack of almost any turnovers. Virtually every game of that series, at least one of Wade or Bosh had a great game. And the rest of the supporting cast shot upwards of 45% from three, which was definitely a bit of an anomaly. The team kind of just popped off, which meant LeBron didn’t have to force things, so was able to have a relatively low-volume (though, yes, not quite as low-volume as it looks, once when we account for pace), high-efficiency series without tons of assists, while his team did great offensively. It’s not the type of series that superstars usually have the luxury of being able to have (LeBron included), but it does happen.

I think Game 5 is very illustrative of this. While the Heat lost, they still had a +8.7 rORTG despite the fact that LeBron had 7 points on 2 of 10 shooting, with 4 assists and 3 turnovers, in just 24 minutes (due to foul trouble). LeBron had a genuinely awful game and the Heat offense was still quite good in rORTG terms! Moreover, over the course of the entire series, the Heat actually had a better ORTG with LeBron off the court than with LeBron on the court. Granted, the sample sizes are tiny (LeBron was off for 73 minutes), so I wouldn’t draw any broad conclusion from that fact, but it does further indicate that the Heat players as a whole were just really humming offensively that series.

[lessthanjake]

You mean in a super slow paced series in which he was only taking 15 shots per game (with one game where he only took 10 shots because of foul trouble ) while being the primary reason for the +18.7 rORtg against one of the best defenses in nba history?

Was Lebron also the primary reason for the Heat having a -0.1 rORtg in Game 3/4/5 in the Finals?

If LeBron’s team does well, it’s entirely because of LeBron, and if they do not do well, then he had no help. You know this.

[jjgp111292]

.

In summary, Durant had a much better RS both individually and team-wise. Lebron had a better PS individually (though not by a lot as rTS suggests) and KD had a better PS team-wise.

Thus I will probably have #1 Durant #2 Lebron.

His regular season wasn't "much" better. If it was at all it was by a smaller margin than Lebrons postseason advantage. Pretty rTS is about all Durant brings to the dance here, so seeing his shooting tank against the 2 strong defenses he faced while LeBron's didn't pretty much ends his argument.

KD
vs. MEM (7th D): .54ts% 24ast to 28to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .56ts% 19ast to 20to's

Lebron
vs. IND (1st D): .63ts% 38ast to 20to's
vs. SAS (3rd D): .67ts% 20ast to 19to's

75ast to 72to's for Durant that entire postseason. Like seriously, what are you arguing. When he wasn't being guarded by Matt Barnes he was kinda a mess that playoff.

Mami was a above average defense in the regular season that turned into a below average one in the playoffs. LeBron's a flat out better defender than Durant and has more influence on his teams performance at that end so that's why 2014 isn't lauded like his other years despite it being on the short list of his offensive peak. But don't mistake OKC having stronger defensive personnel with Durant blowing away Lebron on D.

Lebron averaged just 22.6 ppg on the Pacers. Scoring volume matters too.

You also excluded the series against the Clippers where KD was fantastic putting up 33/9/5 on 61 %TS. Clippers had the #1 SRS in the league and were much better than any team Lebron faced before the Finals.

I don't really disagree if you think Lebron had a better PS individually. I do too but I don't think it's by a lot and it's not quite enough to surpass KD's large RS advantage. Especially when Durant's PS run was also better in terms of results. OKC beat better teams and played the eventual champ Spurs much better.

Eh LeBrons averages in the Pacers series got tanked by that game where he got in BS foul trouble and barely played until the 4th quarter. Outside of that game that's one of his stro ger series, even better than the previous yeat.

[tone wone]

Matt Barnes was a good defender...

Matt Barnes was a 8th man who had no business starting and playing 33mpg for a team serious about winning. But when your other wing options are Jarred Dudley and the ghosts of Hedo Turkoglu & Danny Granger you end up saying things like "Matt Barnes was good defender" as if it's supposed to mean anything.

Great series for Durant though.

[Djoker]

Matt Barnes was a good defender...

Matt Barnes was a 8th man who had no business starting and playing 33mpg for a team serious about winning. But when your other wing options are Jarred Dudley and the ghosts of Hedo Turkoglu & Danny Granger you end up saying things like "Matt Barnes was good defender" as if it's supposed to mean anything.

Great series for Durant though.

Me saying it means Barnes was a good defender.

The Clippers were very serious about winning. They had the +7.27 SRS which was #2 in the league and playing at 61-win pace. In other years they often caught the injury bug in the PS but this year they were perfectly healthy too. This was a really good team.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

1. LeBron James

Closer than ever between LeBron and Durant this season, but I'm going with LeBron for the Finals run.

2. Kevin Durant

Led the league in scoring on elite efficiency while grabbing ~10rpg, posting good impact metrics, and leading his team to the WCF and two games away from the Finals.

3. Kawhi Leonard
I'm was annoyed at all the Duncan votes last season and I'm even more annoyed this season. He's a Top 10 all time player, but Kawhi's numbers were better almost across the board this season. Kawhi vs Duncan in 2013-14:

Regular Season
Kawhi: 22.2pp100, 60.2% TS, +3.8 on/off, 2.45 RAPM(0.26 ORAPM + 2.19 DRAPM)
Duncan: 26.2pp100, 53.5% TS, -3.2 on/off, 0.51 RAPM(-0.02 OPRAM + 0.53 DRAPM)

Playoffs
Kawhi: 23.1pp100, 60.6% TS, +7.0 on/off, 3.88 RAPM(1.51 ORAPM + 2.37 DRAPM)
Duncan: 25.8pp100, 56.8% TS, -0.8 on/off, 1.66 RAPM(0.36 ORAPM + 1.30 DRAPM)

W/L WOWY
With Kawhi(62 games): 54-12
Without Kawhi: 8-8

With Duncan(74 games): 56-18
Without Duncan: 6-2

(Just for clarification - there were only two games without Kawhi that Duncan also missed, and the Spurs were 1-1 in those games.)

So Kawhi scores on similar volume on significantly higher efficiency while posting higher RAPMS(including higher DRAPMs) and on/offs in both RS and PO, has a better W/L WOWY, and wins Finals MVP, but Duncan gets the nod?

I don't know if Kawhi truly deserves #3, but he absolutely deserves to be in the Top 5, and he's barely gotten one vote so far, so I'm giving him #3 just to keep him in the game for at least the #5 slot.

4. Chris Paul
Great box numbers, great impact numbers, great team numbers. Got a couple of games away from the WCF.

5. Paul George
Led his team to the ECF and within two games of beating the Heat and getting to the Finals for the second year in a row. Better playoff impact metrics than Steph(or Harden)

HMs:

6. Stephen Curry

Great regular season numbers, but team lost in the first round of the playoffs. Had a more impressive playoff run the previous season and wins the title next season.

7. Tim Duncan
Played an important role on the champs. No arguing that. I just think a lot of you are overstating it.

8. James Harden
Great numbers in the regular season, but efficiency tanks in the playoffs and the Rockets fall in the first round.

OPOY
1. LeBron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Chris Paul

DPOY
1. Joakim Noah - Been reticent to give my boy Noah DPOY votes in the previous seasons, but I'm all in this season when he (deservedly) won it.
2. Roy Hibbert - Gonna give it to Hibbert for anchoring the #1 defense in the league.
3. Kawhi Leonard - Pretty undecided here, but decided to go with the champs who had the #3 defense in the league, and in this particular season Kawhi had higher DRAPMs in both RS and PO than Duncan and got more actual DPOY votes IRL.

[Narigo]

1. LeBron James- Close in the regular season between LeBron and Durant. I do think LeBron peaked on offense at this point in his career. His defense this year was definitely not as strong as it was in 09-13 as he coasted on that end. Also Durant led his team to 59 wins with Westbrook missing half the season. I have LeBron over Durant mostly because his playoff run was definitely better.

2. Kevin Durant- see above

3. Stephen Curry- Outplayed Paul in the first round but ended up loosing

4. James Harden- not too far behind Curry in the regular season and led his team to 54 wins. Didn't play well playoff wise

5. Chris Paul- Probably was top 3 this year but missed 20 games. Was outplayed by Steph in the first round and choked in key moments in the second round.

[AEnigma]

I don't know if Kawhi truly deserves #3, but he absolutely deserves to be in the Top 5, and he's barely gotten one vote so far, so I'm giving him #3 just to keep him in the game for at least the #5 slot.

For the record, this is not the approach you should be taking. There are reasons one could validly select Kawhi third this year, and you made no express comment that you would take Chris Paul George over him if not for the fact that “he’s barely gotten one vote so far,” but I hope you can see how easy it is to go from your actual comment to a hypothetical where concern over aggregate finish is the explicit and sole motivation behind a ranking. That type of approach can quickly derail the project, as ballots can become a means by which people try to artificially skew aggregate results via selective abuse of the point system.

Fortunately, nothing of the project is left to derail, so just keep that in mind for the future. Yet again, the purpose here is supposed to be the process, not the results.

[Lost92Bricks]

5. Chris Paul- Probably was top 3 this year but missed 20 games. Was outplayed by Steph in the first round and choked in key moments in the second round.

Definitely not. He had a great defensive series. Stephen was still a liability in 2014. That alone made him have a better series. That series was one of the worst of Curry's career.

[Djoker]

Not gonna lie. I'm pretty sad that this project is ending. This was a lot of fun and quite informative.