LeBron Trumps Stephen Curry in Battle of NBA Candidates
With their win over Golden State on Friday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced themselves as true NBA title contenders to the rest of the league and LeBron James helped throw his name back into the MVP discussion.
As the season begins the homestretch, the MVP race begins to heat up (even more so than the other year-end award races), and the spotlight is brightened on certain individual players. And after their recent matchup, the spotlight is firmly on Stephen Curry and LeBron James.
While the MVP resumes of the two are quite different this season, strong cases can be made for either candidate, making the final 23 games of the year that much more exciting.
For Stephen Curry, his Golden State Warriors have been dominant from the very start of the season. They’ve played lock down defense, break neck-paced offense, moved the ball as well as any team in the entire league and most impressive of all, find themselves atop the hyper-competitive Western Conference at 45-11. Curry is averaging 23.6 points and 7.9 assists per game, but those simple statistics don’t even begin to help explain how well Steph has played this season.
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Offensively, Curry has been able to do anything he’s wanted all season, resulting in his fourth overall Offense Rating of 113.5. But Curry has also impressed defensively, which is especially surprising given his well-known defensive struggles earlier in his career. Curry’s Defensive Rating of 96.6 is currently higher than Klay Thompson‘s and when considered alongside his Offensive Rating, gives Curry the highest Net Rating in the NBA, indicating high-level play on both sides of the ball.
Additionally, Curry has the second highest Defensive Real Plus Minus of all point guards in the league at 1.75, while also leading the league in steals. While Defensive Rating is more based on how well a player fits within a team’s defense, Defensive Real Plus Minus focuses on how well a player does on defense individually, recording the points allowed by the player per 100 defensive possessions.
This season is the first in which Curry has recorded a positive DRPM in his career, and the level of point guard play in the West this year makes that feat even more impressive. Curry has to face guards like Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul and Tony Parker on a fairly frequent basis, and is not only scoring the ball better than they are, but he is also locking them up better than any other guard in the conference.
But, where MVP candidates separate themselves from the rest is in crunch time. Part of being the NBA MVP is being that guy that teams know is going to take the last shot– and still being able to make it. And thus far, Curry has fit the bill. In the clutch, defined as the last four minutes of a game that is within five points, Curry has been able to elevate his game even further. In 18 such situations, the Warriors have won 15 times and Curry has registered a 120.6 Offensive Rating, despite having the sixth highest usage rate of all guards that have faced at least 15 clutch situations.
But while Curry’s success has been the talk of the entire NBA this season, LeBron James’ MVP credentials have flown under the radar.
Regardless, James has put together a strong MVP candidacy, especially since returning from his two-week rehabilitation break. Prior to LeBron’s break, Cleveland struggled to remain in the upper half of the Eastern Conference, bottoming out at 19-20 while LeBron recovered from his various injuries. But their rebuilt roster and LeBron’s renewed motor have led the Cavaliers to a 18-3 record since LeBron’s return and improvements in various offensive and defensive categories.
From the start of the season until LeBron’s two-week absence, Cleveland ranked a lowly 25th in Defensive Rating. Since his return in mid January however, Cleveland has had the 10th best Defensive Rating in the league and LeBron has improved his rating to 98.1 since his return compared to 103.3 prior to his break. LeBron has also seen his Offensive Rating jump from 108.9 to 116.8 since his return and his 34.2 Assist % (the percentage of overall field goals a player has assisted on) has been the second highest of all forwards in that span.
Feb 26, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) shoots in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Obviously, the additions of Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith have contributed to Cleveland’s improvement, but the way LeBron has bounced back from his assortment of ailments can’t be discounted. His return to the roster is the biggest reason Cleveland has changed the narrative of their year and his underrated ability to put his teammates in spots he knows they’ll succeed in is why he should be given more consideration in the MVP discussions.
LeBron’s 42 point, 11 rebound, five assist performance on Thursday night further solidified his MVP candidate status, especially in light of Curry’s underwhelming output. LeBron hit on 15 of 25 shots, and scored 20 points with defensive ace Andre Iguodala on him as the primary defender, dazzling with an array of turnaround jumpers and dominating drives to the rim. On the contrary, Curry only connected on 5 of 17 shots, and scored just six points after the first quarter.
MVPs know when to take over, and it was clear to all when LeBron showed up two and a half hours early, he was there that evening to do just that. Though a poor performance in a single game doesn’t weaken Curry’s overall candidacy, the fact that LeBron utterly dominated in a matchup versus the best team in the NBA proves that many are overlooking LeBron as a candidate.
If the Cavaliers continue to climb up the rungs of the standings, LeBron should certainly win the MVP award. Considering Cleveland’s record less than two months ago (19-20), the fact that they’re on pace to win 55 games means that they’re doing something right up in Northeast Ohio.
So when people ask “Curry or LeBron for MVP?”, just know my vote’s with LeBron.