Numbers on the one hand, numbers and records on the other, a season never seen before in the last case. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Nikola Jokic are the 3 MVP nominees.
Like every Christmas, according to self-respecting tradition, the classic will be broadcast on TV “An armchair for two“, a fixed appointment these days. Even the NBA 2021/22 has its very own version of the film, with the addition of a candidate, however. The armchair, or rather the throne, is that of the MVP, the Most Valuable Player of the league. And to contend it are not two players like the protagonists of the film, but three, at least for now. AND for each of them the arguments are absolutely valid. Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic today are the 3 undisputed candidates to take home the most coveted prize of the regular season. The pros and – if any – the cons of seeing them triumph at the end of the year.
Stephen Curry – Golden State Warriors
27.1 points, 6.0 assists and 5.4 rebounds are a good calling card, but alone probably wouldn’t be enough given the phenomena around the league. It is much more scary to put these numbers in the team context, the Golden State Warriors, first in the Western Conference and with a record of 25 wins and 5 losses that sees them as the best NBA team in this first part of the season. To further strengthen the candidacy of the Akron native there are the records: Ray Allen has been outdone not once, but twice, first for total triples scored in his career and then for triples in the regular season alone, in the magical night at Madison Square Garden. Curry also travels quickly at averages that could allow him to update an already his record, those of the total triples in a season (402) and to “catch up and surpass” even in the streak of consecutive games with at least a 3-to-target shot. Overtaking is just 4 games away.
Because yes: The individual numbers, combined with those of the Warriors and this season’s cover record are the best possible endorsement for a player who never ceases to amaze.
Monstrous Steph Curry: All the records he can still break in the NBA
Why not: Digging deeper, we are at the worst percentage of 3 since the year of the last MVP and the tendency to seek more and more the heavy shot and much more rarely the conclusion inside the area is excessively distorting Steph’s game, which recurs less and less to the penetrations facilitating, in a certain sense, the defense. It is not an evaluation that will enter into the logic of awarding the prize, for which the record – indeed, the records – will be the main business card.
Kevin Durant – Brooklyn Nets
29.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists. Here you start to rise in share on individual statistics, indeed we are at levels of total excellence since we’re talking about the best NBA scorer. Durant is asking for an extra effort from his body in the absence of Kyrie Irving, reinstated in these hours but immediately positive for covid, and of James Harden, only nominally by his side so far but struggling with an evident delay in condition after the injury suffered. last year. The 37 minutes on average that KD is playing is the maximum since the 2013-14 season, when he was still at OKC, but the quality with which the number 7 of the Nets is holding a team currently first in the Eastern Conference with a record of 21-9 speaks volumes about the physical and mental state of a player who for a matter of millimeters last year he did not gain access to the Conference finals and to what could have been his third career ring. Precisely that shot against the Bucks seems to be the fuel that is constantly and perpetually fueling the engine of what can be defined without too many hesitations the best striker in the world.
Because yes: Today there is no player more unstoppable than him, and the Brooklyn record is still the third overall in the league …
Why not: The NBA may have a preference for the all-time team record and firsts that Steph is burning and will burn again this season.
Nikola Jokic – Denver Nuggets
To ruin the plans of the two frontmen just mentioned, strong of the primates in their respective Conferences, there could be the MVP in charge. Of course, the fifth place of his Nuggets is anything but an important investiture but if we consider the defections of the team’s owners, above all Jamal Murray who has been out for a year now and Michael Porter Jr who has been added to the list of unavailable at the opening in season, as well as several role players struggling with serious injuries, what the Serbian is doing is extraordinary. An extraordinary one that takes on the contours of the legend if we analyze first of all the more raw numbers: 26.3 points. 13.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists: no player in history has ever averaged 26-13-7. From other even more detailed data, however, it can be seen how Jokic, of the three phenomena in struggle, is really the most “valuable“of all: with him on the pitch Denver travels at a pace of 68 seasonal victories, practically first place in both Conferences; with him on the bench instead the team is worth just 8 wins (data from Cleaingtheglass.com). From lottery to contender, only for the presence of a player.
Because yes: the concept of valuable is all in the added value that Jokic brings to a team that would be worth the last place in the NBA.
Why not: the NBA has shown that they know how and want to value the exceptional nature of a season, exactly as it was for Russell Westbrook’s famous triple-double average year after more than 50 years from Oscar Robertson. However, the further incredible seasons played by “The Broodie” have gone unnoticed despite having replicated those numbers never seen before. Jokic already comes from an MVP and also last year collected some numbers never seen before: the novelty element could be missing. Although there would be nothing wrong with rewarding an MVP who proves that he has become even stronger.
A close fight that still has 50 epic rounds that the 3 will play both at a distance and facing each other during the season, with Giannis Antetokoumpo, Chris Paul, Rudy Gobert and DeMar DeRozan extraordinary rivals who today still seem very much behind in the presence of the level of the 3 phenomena fighting. It will be a good fight.
