The Golden State Warriors potentially have two MVPs on their team, but one, Stephen Curry, needs to get on the court in order to stay in the race.
There’s typically only one MVP in the NBA. This season, there are an array of players that could be up for consideration. Stephen Curry, the NBA’s leader in points per game, is currently one of top candidates.
He’s already missed seven games this season though. As we saw with Joel Embiid during his rookie campaign, in order to achieve an end-of-the-year honor, a player needs to typically hit at least 65 games.
Curry could easily miss over 17 games in preparation for the superstar’s fifth straight Finals run. That’s one reason why this standard is not necessarily fair for Curry though. As we’ve seen, the team is completely different when Curry isn’t on the court.
Without Curry, the team has seen their longest losing streak in the last five years. Currently, on that four-game losing streak, Durant has struggled to spearhead the team as both Draymond Green and Curry are absent nursing injuries.
LeBron James in the 2010-2011 season was the last player to play under 65 games and win MVP. If Curry doesn’t even hit 60 games, you’d have to go back to the 1998-1999 season to see an MVP not even reach 60 as Karl Malone played just 49 games and still won the award.
Ultimately, Curry’s performance on the court should outweigh just how much he plays, but in the judge’s eyes, it seems the narrative for leading for your by playing in the bulk of the games is key.
Will Curry be able to hit that mark though?
At this point, it seems doubtful. He’s missed seven of the first 19 and will miss at least the next two. Missing nine of the first 21 is not a good start to the season for the often-injured superstar guard.
When the Warriors finish second or third in the West, no one will remember how many games Curry missed when looking at his resume. With the Dubs struggling, if Curry has any chance, they need to finish atop the West, another trend in the typical MVP winner.
Curry needs to get on the court soon if he plans to snag his third MVP. The only sad part is that Curry has undoubtedly been the best and most dynamic player in the league this season, but these injuries might drop his MVP odds.