Post#975 » by Styrian » Sat Dec 7, 2013 11:37 pm
To be fair, it's not like LeBron was ever snubbed for MVP so far. In 2010-11 clear winner was Dwight, Rose's MVP was a joke, the only thing he had was team record and the most valuable thing on that team was no. 1 defense and rebounding(Noah, Asik, Gibson, Deng). I mean he missed 27 games next season and Bulls still had the best record. At least Nash run the best offense in the league for half a decade.
I don't believe voter fatigue exists as much some people would like play on that card. If season ended today, Lebron would probably win it. Jordan didn't deserve MVP every year, because he wasn't the best performer/the most valuable player every year. He was pretty much gifted 97-98' MVP award, it wasn't as bad as Roses, but still. MVP award isn't the best player in the league award or the player with the best ability. The biggest problem is inconsistency, sometimes it's the best player on a team with the best record and he gets it despite having worse season than the best player on 2nd or 3rd best team.
LeBron finishing 2nd in DPOY voting last year was a joke too, he didn't even play defense for first three months of the season and there is no data either boxscore, RAPM, ASPM etc. that would suggest LeBron ever played DPOY type defense in his life. And I don't consider guarding Rose in 4th quarters in playoffs enough to jusfity him getting DPOY two season after that, especially when he mostly avoids guarding even his own matchups(Melo, Durant). I think in general big man defense is way more important/impactful than perimeter defense, but there is example of dominant perimeter defender in Kirilenko who had crazy steals and blocks numbers, was even 2nd best in RAPM in the entire NBA one year and he's got less All-defensive teams than LeBron.
edit: main point about Lebron's defense is that he's got ability to be DPOY when he wants to be and that's why he finished 2nd, but I don't think just having that ability and not using it is enough to get DPOY, all-defensive first teams.