MVP Narratives, Drama and Deconstructing the Case For Each Guy.
If we were to compile a list of the most overused buzz words in the MVP discussion I’d imagine that “narrative” would be the one on top. And yet it is somewhat true that narrative is almost as important as stats, wins and moments in deciding who wins the trophy. Dwight Howard and Lebron James were, at least in my mind, clearly better than Derrick Rose in 2011. Dwight was a two-way (buzzword!) wrecking ball and Lebron was Lebron. Both men were sullied by very different dirt. Lebron had taken the easy way out, broken hearts in his hometown and fled to his closest conference rival (whose team had won 14 fewer games than the Cavs the year before. But whatever). Dwight hadn’t quite become the pariah he would eventually become, but the seeds were there. We hadn’t quite gotten to this for example:
Anyway.
He didn’t “demand” the ball, was “soft’ (again, incredible claims against a man who’s main offensive weapon was shoving the ball down your throat in a what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it way.)
But Rose, he was pristine. He was “gritty”(buzz!), “brought it every night” (double buzz!) and “shouldered a load” (you get it.) He was the sole off the dribble creator and scorer on a team that hung their hats on the defensive end. The Bulls won 62 games and he had great traditional stats (25 and 7). It’s hilarious now, given what we know about each man after the fact, but Rose positively shone with ecclesiastical light next to the man who had scorned his hometown.
Narratives, nonsense and drama are always going to exist in NBA coverage, and truth be told the league is a hell of a lot more interesting for it. In one of my favorite books “The Libertines: Bound Together” by Anthony Thornton, he remarks that, and I’m paraphrasing here, if Rock and Roll were all about the music we’d all have lost interest years ago. The stories behind the music are as fascinating as the music itself. Tales of vicious trash talk, social media wars and scorned teammates all help to keep people engaged.
They can also affect awards talk. Before KD went down he was essentially excluded from the MVP conversation for the same reason Lebron was in 2011. He was a coward who had joined his biggest rival instead of gutting it out with the team that drafted him. (NOTE: For someone who spent his formative years watching soccer this line of thought is incredible. A small market team in England can only dream of having a superstar in their prime.)
The more empirically inclined basketball follower or reporter likes to think they’re above this sort of nonsense, but the truth is everyone falls victim to narrative based thinking. (I for one hated the 2011 heat. I thought they were prissy, cocky a**holes and I was delighted to see Dirk and the digglers beat them in the finals. I may have gone over the top but gosh darnitt it was fun having real “villains” to root against.)
Let’s have a closer look at the main guys and the narratives behind them. I decided to focus on the 3 guys with a chance to win the award for the first time. I was going to get into Lebron but his argument is remarkably controversy free. He remains the best player in basketball when he wants to be and has been great all year. If he wins the award i’ll have no complaints.
Kawhi Leonard (26.1/5.9/3.4/1.8 on 48/38/89)
“Kawhi isn’t marketable enough to win MVP.” This one is driving me crazy. Nonsense. TIM DUNCAN, the big monotone, won back to back MVPs in the early 2000s with a media persona that verged on catatonic. Why? Because he was incredible on both ends and his team won a shit ton of games. Also, why are people acting like the term “two-way player” is a pejorative? It’s a pretty apt description, no? KL is neither an offense nor a defense onto himself the way a Harden or a Gobert is. He can score, but can’t create at an elite level, and you can’t funnel offensive players to him on defense (his defensive advanced stats actually suffered earlier in the season because teams were just having Kawhi’s guy stand 10 feet out of the play to neutralize him.) He’s still the most incredible wing defender I've ever seen though. I wasn’t old enough to truly appreciate Pippen in his prime, but from what I've seen on tape Kawhi is at least every bit his equal. He snatches the ball from NBA players like I would an apple from a four year old. And of course he occasionally does stuff like this:
That’s Kawhi’s pitch. Incredible in specific ways on both ends of the floor for a team that might be the number 1 seed in the league. This stuff doesn't have to be mystical.
Russell Westbrook (31.4/10.5/10.3 on 41.8/33.6/84.2)
First of all, there is absolutely a basketball hipster/contrarian section of twitter that would be more likely to think Westbrook is the MVP if he WASN’T averaging a triple double. The anti-triple double faction see nothing more than empty stats, padded with the help of willing teammates. They cite clips of gimme rebounds and assist hunting as their proof and frown at the mere mention of history. I find this argument idiotic for several reasons. First, as has been noted by Royce Young throughout the season, Westbrook grabbing rebounds is by design. The Thunder are at their most dangerous when Westbrook is attacking the defense on their heels in transition. Secondly, who the hell cares if he gets a gimme board here or there? Steven Adams? Westbrook does shoot a little too much for my liking, but to discredit his numbers as merely a product of anti-team selfishness is quite frankly ludicrous. How many times have we seen Westbrook sprint from outside a play, elevate over 3 trees and snatch a rebound that probably 3 or 4 other guys in league history his size could have gotten to?
Scratch that, the only other guy I can think of in my NBA watching lifetime is Stevie Francis. The other side of this coin, and we all know who they are, believe Westbrook is the MVP no matter what BECAUSE he’s averaging a triple-double. Most often these people resort to bullshit claims of him “wanting it more” that expose nothing more than the fact that they aren’t really watching the games. Nuance is a quality that is sorely lacking in the sport’s world, and that is no more apparent than in the discussion of Russell Westbrook.
James Harden (29.4/11.2/8.1 on 44.6/35.2/84.9)
Very few players in league history have experienced the kind of perception renaissance that Harden has this season. He was crucified, mercilessly, last year for being out of shape, playing an unattractive brand of basketball and not trying on defense (oddly the whole not-trying-on-D thing was only really pushed heavily on Harden, while equally atrocious defenders like Lillard and Westbrook were given a pass.) I’ll never forgive him for rolling the dice on his career with a Kardashian, but I also might just be exposing my prejudices. Enter Magic Mike and a bevy of shooters and suddenly it’s always sunny in Houston.
The most unpalatable narrative against Harden at the moment is the notion that he just has way more talent, particularly on offense, than Westbrook. I would argue that he has made all of the guys on his team better than we expected. Harden has been incredible in adjusting his game to D’Antoni’s system. He has headfakes and feints in the pick and roll that would make a lifetime boxer red with envy. He flicks cross court passes to shooters with laser beam accuracy and can basically score on anybody at anytime. Even his defense has improved to a level that most of us expected from an off -guard with his size, length and strength.
Conclusions
On a podcast I did with Dave DuFour a few weeks ago I remarked that the MVP race this year was like a game of rock, scissors, paper and I can’t really think of a better way of putting it now(Would Kawhi be rock, for his stoic deadness, or paper because he envelops everything? Maybe we’d have to make up a new one for Westbrook, dragon or something). Pretty much each player has their own incredible strengths and some weaknesses, and to think one is the MVP over the other probably says more about your own biases than anything else. I’ll reserve my final judgement for the end of the season.
