MVP Rankings 1.0

[Shot Clock]

Um LA, Minny, and Philly were all number one seeds...

If you read the quote I was referring to he was suggesting that if Cleveland had a close but inferior record to LA Kobe would win it because the award goes to the best player on the best team. No mention of conference seeding so it implies leaguewide.

[INKtastic]

Last year the media crowned LeBron right about now and never looked back. This year they've crowned Kobe.

No, they haven't. There was another article just yesterday (ESPN insider) about LeBron being the best.

[ROballer]

Last year the media crowned LeBron right about now and never looked back. This year they've crowned Kobe.

No, they haven't. There was another article just yesterday (ESPN insider) about LeBron being the best.

I don't agree but even so,"the best"(player cosidererd) rarely is named MVP at the end of the year

[YLSKillaCam]

Last year the media crowned LeBron right about now and never looked back. This year they've crowned Kobe.

No, they haven't. There was another article just yesterday (ESPN insider) about LeBron being the best.

Yeah and it was stupid. Everyone has been clowning that article. Thrope had to make ish up to put Lebron ahead...

Like "Even though Kobe led his team to the championship, Lebron is a better leader." or "Right now Lebron is a better perimeter shooter." LMAO much. Or "Lebron is a better defender."

[YLSKillaCam]

Lebron has clearly been the best player in the league..cant see no argument otherwise.

Cavs are the 4th best team in the league theyre just 2.5 games behind the Lakers. They can finish 1st in the East again with just a decent above average supporting cast. Thats good enough team success for me to give it to the best player thus far.

If Kobe finishes with the best record in the league, it isn't going to matter what Lebron does. Kobe's been that good this year.

[INKtastic]

better perimiter shooter? - check their eFG% on jump shots and their 3 point shooting percentages

better defender? - you commented on his MVP performance last night. I assume you watched the game. did you miss his defense on Tyreke Evans? Through 3 quarters he had 26 points on 10-16 shooting. Then they put LeBron on him. After that he scores 2 points on 1-9 shooting.

[Optms]

He's actually better then he was a season ago and that should tell everyone something. This years Lakers are on pace to shatter last season's win total, and in a league where wins is so crucial to electing its MVP candidate, voters are going to be eyeing Bryant's production this year along with the crazy performances he's been displaying in an almost nightly basis here.

I had originally believed pre-season Lebron had this locked up but I (and I doubt anyone else) did not anticipate Bryant to be this good this year. This really is James to lose.

[INKtastic]

why is it lakers fans keep bringing up Gasol missing 11 games suggesting their record would be better had he played those games while overlooking the missed games in cleveland

Shaq - 6 games
Varejao - 2 games
West - 9 games officially and wasn't all there for several others
Moon - 4 games
Gibson - 2 games

Delonte was out the first two losses
Shaq and Andy were both out the wizards loss
West wasn't mentally there (pulled after 2 minutes) the bobcats loss
Moon was out the Memphis loss
Gibson was hurt after 2 minutes in the rockets loss

I'm sure people will say LeBron didn't lose a teammate as good as Gasol - that's certainly true because LeBron doesn't have a teammate as good as Gasol. Probably the worst issue the cavs have had to deal with is the whole Delonte situation.

[YLSKillaCam]

Lakers - Cavs game is huge because it represents a full game in the standings...meaning if the Lakers win, they go one full game more up over the Cavs and if the Cavs win, they make up one huge win.

Lebron coming in off his best game of the season, Kobe has a broken finger but homecourt.

I anticipate it to be a classic showdown.

Kobe - 45/8/5/2

Lebron 32/10/10/1blk

Lakers 107-106 Cavs

Kobe with the win over LBJ at the buzzer.

[YLSKillaCam]

better perimiter shooter? - check their eFG% on jump shots and their 3 point shooting percentages

better defender? - you commented on his MVP performance last night. I assume you watched the game. did you miss his defense on Tyreke Evans? Through 3 quarters he had 26 points on 10-16 shooting. Then they put LeBron on him. After that he scores 2 points on 1-9 shooting.

Hilarious man. Ever heard of regression to the mean?? Kobe's a better perimeter shooter than Lebron despite what the stats say.

Kobe's 3 point shooting has been god-awful though so far, but it is clearly unrepresentative of his prowess as a shooter.

And Kobe's been flat out a better defender than Lebron this season. Please tell me you agree, because this is one area that isn't up for debate.

[INKtastic]

Hilarious man. Ever heard of regression to the mean?? Kobe's a better perimeter shooter than Lebron despite what the stats say.

Kobe's 3 point shooting has been god-awful though so far, but it is clearly unrepresentative of his prowess as a shooter.

LeBron has been the better perimeter shooter since Feb of last year when he got his rebuilt jump shot going - since then from 3 he's shot

Feb: .400
Mar: .386
Apr: .410
Oct: .389
Nov: .333
Dec: .390

5 of the 6 months LeBron has shot .386 or better from 3 (Kobe's caree best season is .383). There's little reason to think LeBron will drop below his current .366 from 3 this year. There is plenty of reason to think the higher percentages he's shooting are a result of his work to improve his shot, which makes the issue regression to the mean irrelevant. And in Kobe's case, he'd have to shoot well above his career best season the rest of the way to bring his average up to .366 or better for the season. With him at .278 thus far, does that seem remotely likely?

[ROballer]

Hilarious man. Ever heard of regression to the mean?? Kobe's a better perimeter shooter than Lebron despite what the stats say.

Kobe's 3 point shooting has been god-awful though so far, but it is clearly unrepresentative of his prowess as a shooter.

And in Kobe's case, he'd have to shoot well above his career best season the rest of the way to bring his average up to .366 or better for the season. With him at .278 thus far, does that seem remotely likely?

So for 1 year(actually 1/3 of a year) in which lebron has shot better from the 3 point line you say he's a better 3 point shooter than kobe??You do realize that in every single year(except 04-05,injury plagued season for kobe)Kobe has had the better 3P FG %....This year he obviously is botherd by the pinkie(he had about 32% before the injury and rising after a poor start of the season in which he shot under 20% at some point).

[INKtastic]

do you realize that over his last 82 games (including playoffs) since rebuilding his shot, LeBron has shot .389 from 3 (154/396) - that's the equivalent of a full season and is better than any single season in Kobe's career.

It doesn't matter one bit if kobe was better before LeBron rebuilt his jump shot, what matters is who's better now. And nobody is going to argue LeBron was the better 3 point shooter before he rebuilt his jump shot as the statistics clearly show he wasn't. I think 82 games is a large enough sample size to show the tremendous improvements LeBron made in his shooting.

[Bgil]

Then how do you explain why his midrange stats are so crappy?

On the flip side, Kobe's had two major finger injures to his shooting hand in those 82 games.

And yes, Lebron played very nice defense last night but as we all know that was more of the exception than the rule (and it still wasn't all that good technically but it was rather aggressive).

[semi-sentient]

Congratulations are in order for LeBron becoming a better 3-point shooter than a guy playing with 3 fingers on his shooting hand. That's MVP-type stuff right there.

[yCH]

LOL at the people saying Lebron is a better shooter then Kobe playing with 3 fingers.

I'm sure your boy Lebron would be shooting 28% on his 3-pter if he injures his index-finger
Oh wait.

[INKtastic]

better than Kobe's career highs....

[semi-sentient]

better than Kobe's career highs....

Nope.

Kobe shot .405 from downtown (141-348) the last 79 games of 2002-03 (including playoffs) and first 3 games of 2003-04 -- which of course is a full 82 games. LeBron is catching up though... that much is clear.

[INKtastic]

ok, better than Kobe shot at anytime in his career other than a 82 game stretch that spans the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons. For Kobe that presumably is finding the best 82 game stretch (or something close to it) and couldn't sustain over time (there are likely other 82 game windows that include most of that stretch), for LeBron it's just the last 82 games he played since rebuilding his jump shot, thus seems a bit more sustainable.

[semi-sentient]

I don't think it's that big of deal, personally. Neither guy is a particularly impressive 3-point shooter and I think both fan bases would rather their player take less than they have.