MVP Watch 2008... Part 3.

[NO-KG-AI]

Absolutely ridiculous if you think T-Mac is actually ahead of Paul.

Wow.

[nyk_buc]

Absolutely ridiculous if you think T-Mac is actually ahead of Paul.

Wow.

i never said that. i said paul is the frontrunner right now. i'm saying since the ALL-STAR BREAK, the way he has led his team, esp. without yao, he's been better SINCE THE ALL-STAR BREAK (which has been only 15-20 games).

paul has been the MVP in my opinion for the whole year.

[fadinaway]

you think the lakers can win without pau?

LA was 30-16 before Pau played a game for them. Stop being silly..

[King Roosk]

Yao had 28 points and 14 and the rockets won my 20 the first win over the Hornets, I'd hardly say that was singlehandedly. The second win over the Hornets was probably McGrady's most impressive single game of the season. It's not enough for MVP consideration, though, as other players have had multiple games that are better.

I think Mac's 47 point effort on the road against Utah was more impressive, but that's just me.

I don't think Mac is the MVP (although his name is probably rising in the discussion because of the streak), but has any player who wasn't an all-star (that year) ever been in serious contention for the award in the same year?

[nyk_buc]

you think the lakers can win without pau?

LA was 30-16 before Pau played a game for them. Stop being silly..

they had bynum dude. when bynjum went down and before pau came, the lakers struggled for 2-3 games (before the big trade went down).

lakers might lose all 3 road games left and fall to the 5th spot pretty soon. hell, even the 7th spot.

[Big Bird]

No, they lost against Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Cleveland and Detroit and were on the verge of winning two of those and gave a pretty good fight against Dallas. The Phoenix game was Kwame's best outing with those unforgettable 7 turnovers. So yeah, they did struggle, but those were games that would've been hard with Bynum too. Then they demolished Toronto and Washington before Gasol even stepped on the court.

People are forgetting that the next 2 games for the Lakers are against two teams that have lost a combined 7 games this year on their homecourts. It would've been a tough stretch with Gasol as it was... let alone without him. People are seriously kidding theirselves if they think Bryant can win those alone. And that's coming from a fan of his that has the utmost trust in him. If they manage to pull out a win, it would be simply amazing (8 healthy players, the only "thing" that resembles a center is an undersized underweighed Turiaf and a guy with a black belt in some martial art; Odom played the 5 and Walton the 4 for Christ's sake).

Anyway, enough of my negativity, I just wanted to share what I think isn't completely irrelevant to the discussion.

good night

[CB4MiamiHeat]

yep injuries can affect team record and theres nothing 1 man can do...thats why its dumb to look at the standings and judge MVPs based on that instead of judging how VALUABLE the player is.

[fadinaway]

they had bynum dude. when bynjum went down and before pau came, the lakers struggled for 2-3 games (before the big trade went down).

lakers might lose all 3 road games left and fall to the 5th spot pretty soon. hell, even the 7th spot.

It's not like the lost to garbage teams during that stretch

Phoenix (beat Suns w/o Bynum later)
@ Dallas (beat Dallas w/o Bynum later)
@ SA (lost to Spurs with Bynum and won another game where he was ejected)
Cleveland by 3 (lost to Cavs with Bynum as well)
@ Detroit by 1 (they really should have won if not for idiotic plays at the end)

And this current roadtrip is:

@ NO
@ Houston
@ Dallas
@ Utah

They'll probably lose them all with zero inside scoring but even with Pau, would they be favored in ANY of these games?

It's easy to talk about struggles w/o Pau/Bynum but how about looking at these games in context? Unless you expect Kobe to beat very good teams by himself everytime?

[Big Bird]

No, I'm not trying to make an excuse of any kind.

Some pages ago, I counted the numbers of games missed by Lakers players and told a Cavs fan that we've had it pretty bad ourselves, so that playing the injury card isn't the best way to go. And I meant it. If the Lakers don't finish up ranked very high in the West (16 games left, I think we can go 12-4 which would put them at 57 wins; a 15 win improvement over last year, but that's just my guess), Kobe does not get the MVP, imo. Injuries or not.

peace

EDIT: directed at CB4MiamiHeat.

[etopn23]

Lets try to get the right stats - post all star game

tmac 24.4/4.9/6.1/.455

Kobe 27.7/6.8/4.3/.457
Paul 24.1/3.8/12.4/.536

If there were a post all star game first team all nba, you'd be hard pressed to put McGrady ahead of those two.

Not really. There's more to the game than stats - if McGrady leads his team to the best record in the league without Yao it'd be a stretch to not put him on that team.

[G35]

Man I don't think T-Mac is really going to win but the hate has me pulling for him. Kobe has lost 2 straight games without Gasol. Yes I know they were on the road against NO and HOU. Both tough games. Paul's Hornets just got blown out by Detroit.

22 games is not just a few games. Not a couple of games. Not a nice lil streak. Give it some credit. It's the 2nd longest in league history. Has there been some extenuating circumstances with some players being out? Yes but you still have to play the games.

Tell me who else could lead their team to 10 straight wins without another All Star on his team. You can't just take it for granted.

Lets see what Paul and Kobe are made of in these next couple of weeks. I want to see who really is the better player.........

[tkb]

Absolutely ridiculous if you think T-Mac is actually ahead of Paul.

Wow.

Agreed. And Kobe too, and yes, even if you just look at post ASB.

[prekazi]

Cavs 50 win hopes are almost over. From now on it's between Kobe and Paul IMO. Garnett and Howard are just behind them.

[NO-KG-AI]

-= original quote snipped =-



Agreed. And Kobe too, and yes, even if you just look at post ASB.

Yup.

[Alex_De_Large]

Chris Paul > Nash 2 times mvp.
Crowd from NO singing "MPV, MVP".

[NO-KG-AI]

"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life, if this guy isn't MVP, it's a damn shame"

-Tyson Chandler on Chris Paul following the BUlls game.

[CB4MiamiHeat]

wow that was an MVP performance..

thinking about it, when was the last time Paul had a bad overral game? im not talking just shooting, i mean overral. Probably like a month and a half ago in Utah...

[NO-KG-AI]

Yeah, he's been on a tear since that game actually.

[MT1983]

We (the Bulls) played the Hornets tonight. So this is only like the second or third time I've had a chance to see Chris Paul live this season. I am now convinced that he is the MVP. You probably say "anybody could beat the Bulls." That's not the point. The Bulls had total control of the game in the second half. That was until Chris Paul decided to make the game his own personal playground. He SINGLEHANDEDLY took over the game and won it for the Hornets. Ask any Bulls fan on the board if you don't believe me. Our announcers were in total awe of what this dude was doing. Everything they do goes through Paul. His playmaking is critical to most of the other Hornets having any kinda success. They scored damn near 60 points in the paint tonight, and that was with their best low-post threat, David West, not playing.

Again, Chris Paul is the MVP.

[shobe_81]

And you can credit the Bulls for scoring only 13 points in the 4th quarter!

Pathetic Bulls it is!