NBA MVP is Still Undecided

By: Danny Cacace

All three of these NBA players have a great shot at the MVP award this season. Photo Credit: Thecomeback.com

Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, and Paul George all make a strong case to win the NBA MVP award this season. There can only be one winner though, so who should win it?

According to NBA.com and their MVP ladder, Giannis Antetokounmpo is leading the race for MVP. Antetokounmpo is averaging 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists in the regular season along with some great defensive stats with his 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.

He plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, who is not only the best team in the Eastern Conference but has recently clinched as the best team in the NBA along with the help of their star player, Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo has improved his game immensely to take his team from being the seventh best team in the Eastern Conference last season to the best team in the league this season. His team has also gotten a lot better, which is also part of the reason they are doing so well this season, but Giannis has been a major factor to winning these games as well. His ability to get inside the game easily and be so dominant is why he got the nickname, “The Greek Freak.”

He has been doing this all season, which a key reason as to why they have been so successful this year.

James Harden is second on the ladder and is making another strong case to win back-to-back MVP’s this season. Harden is averaging a whopping 36.5 points, which leads the NBA along with his 7.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game.

His 2.1 steals per game are second best in the NBA behind the third leader in the MVP race, Paul George.

Harden plays for the Houston Rockets where they are the third best team in the Western Conference. This is due to Harden’s high level of play this season.

Harden has done everything he can this season to win his team games, whether that be score a bunch of points, get as many assists as he can, or make a lot of highlight plays to throw his defenders off to score easy baskets.

However, he had to do all those things for his team to win games. Chris Paul, who is Houston’s second best player, has missed a significant amount of games this year which has made it more challenging for Houston to win games.

This made Harden’s job to get them to win games much more difficult, but he pulled it off pretty well without Paul.

Paul George, who is third on the ladder for MVP, has improved his game to another level which has made him an MVP candidate this season. He has helped his team greatly this year.

George is averaging 28.0 points along with his 8.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, which are all career highs for him. His 2.2 steals per game lead the NBA in that category.

Paul George plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder where they are currently the sixth best team in the Western Conference. George has brought it at both the offensive and defensive ends this season along with his teammate Russell Westbrook’s help to get to the playoffs.

George does have some help but is still doing his part and is giving them a better chance to win games than when it was just Westbrook doing most of the work. His case for MVP is still strong but it is up for debate if it is strong enough to win it.

However, I do believe the person who has the strongest case to win the MVP this season is Giannis Antetokounmpo because of his high level of play and help getting his team to be the best team in the entire league.

Sources:

nba.com