Re-Selecting The 2017 NBA MVP Award, Strictly By Advanced Metrics— Official Results
2017’s NBA MVP trophy went to Russell Westbrook, but should it have…?
Since the announcement that Russell Westbrook was the 2017 NBA Most Valuable Player, fans, journalists, and experts alike have speculated as to who should have won the MVP trophy that season. Coming up to the ceremony, the race was very tight. Westbrook ended up winning with 69 1st place votes.
Many people debated that James Harden should have won MVP over Westbrook, but I’m here to set the record straight. I will be using a plethora of advanced NBA impact metrics to judge whether Russell Westbrook or James Harden should be the rightful 2017 NBA MVP.
I will be using LEBRON, RPM, and RAPTOR as my overall advanced metrics, and I’ll be including the offensive-and-defensive-specific counterparts of LEBRON, RAPTOR, and RPM to narrow down each player’s proficiency in specific areas of the game, not just overall values. This article contains the official results of my experiment, with a side-by-side comparison of each player’s statistical totals from the season in question. At the end, I’ll give my final verdict based solely…
