Points in the Paint 5.14.08: MVP Talk

Posted by Rob Bonnette on 05.14.2008

Kobe wins the MVP! Plus, the Knicks get a new coach and more...

Hey there all and welcome to another edition of Points in the Paint, where we're wondering what will end first between the second round and the Democratic Primary. This week we talk some second round, some MVP, and some Mike D'Anotoni. Let's do it!

And the winner is…..

Kobe! In what was the most hotly contested MVP race in recent memory, Kobe got the MVP over Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, and Lebron James. In addition, he also was bestowed with the honor of being the season's only unanimous selection to the All-NBA team. Did he deserve all this? Many don't think so, believing that either Paul or James should have gotten it this year and that Kobe got it mainly as a lifetime achievement award more than for this season's work, kinda like how the Oscar voters have done on a few occasions. I see their point, but tend to disagree. First of all, it's not like Kobe didn't have a great season. To equate his winning the award to Denzel Washington winning for Training Day (great individual performance, just OK movie) or Martin Scorcese for The Departed (good film but clearly not up to the level of some other films he directed) makes for a bad analogy. The race for MVP this year was more like the Democratic primary in that you had top candidates with very vocal constituencies that all had a real case for why you should pick them. In the end, Kobe won because more voters chose him out of the group and little else.

Now was there a political side to the voting? Of course! Even if it's just subconscious, when faced with a choice between options that are really close in quality, you're often forced to make some rationalized decision that relies on nitpicking along with a good surface argument. This is what happened here. Paul backers stated how he made his teammates better, to the degree that they dismissed David West and Tyson Chandler as bums who'd be nowhere without Paul dishing it off to them. Garnett partisans went for the best player on the best team argument. Lebron lovers went for the numbers game, noting that he led the league in scoring while also getting eight rebounds and eight assists every night. And Kobe's crew liked the fact that he led the Lakers to the best record in the West. Now here's where the subjectivity comes in. KG already got an MVP a few years ago, and his team went 7-2 during games he missed this season. That does him in. James is on a fourth place team in the inferior Eastern conference; there goes his shot. Paul has done the most with less, but his team probably won't get but so far in the playoffs, and no one wanted to risk the awkwardness of giving the MVP award to a guy who had to accept it after his team got knocked out early like many (myself included) thought would happen.

And then there's Kobe. The voters already whiffed on giving it to him two years ago when he led the league in scoring, scored 81 in a game, and led a sorry Laker team that started the likes of Kwame Brown and Smush Parker to a 3 games to 1 lead over Phoenix before succumbing in seven games. At that point Kobe was a polarizing figure, while good guy Nash was in year two of the feel good story of the decade. They didn't want to have to look back with shame over an era when they called one player the best in the league for several straight years and never voted him MVP, especially when they denied him at least once because they were being haters. That's embarrassing, and I'm guessing that some voters wanted no part of that and voted for Kobe. The guy is right at that point where the decline may start any year now, and they didn't want to wait any longer because in a year or two somebody may legitimately pass him. I made this argument before, and I'll admit that it is not an objective one at all. But until we have computers doing the voting, this is what we got. The same group of people who gave one to Karl Malone because they were tired of giving it to MJ every year are the ones doing the voting here, so these goofball rationales will always come into play.

Now was there an objective case for Kobe winning it? I think so. He is the best player in the league; anyone who actually watches real live games can see he has a variety of ways to score, as opposed to the primarily jump shooting Kevin Garnett or the drive to the basket and not much else scoring of Lebron (Seriously, how can a guy his size not post up defenders? What small forward could defend him on the block?.) He's better on defense than any wing player in the league, and is a better free throw shooter than Tim Duncan. If anyone can show me a better player, than do so. Right now you can't. His team finished first in the West, and he actually facilitated and got other guys involved in the offense unlike years past. And spare me the teammates argument. Lebron has a legit All-Star at center who would have bigger numbers if they used him right, Garnett has two All-Stars riding alongside him and even Paul's teammates are better than advertised. West plays pretty well for himself when Paul is out of the game, as opposed to a year or two ago, while Peja Stojakovic is no slouch and Tyson Chandler was a good rebounder before he got to New Orleans is a better scorer since he got there.

Who would I have given the award to? Kobe, although I would have had no beef with Paul getting it. I can't really make a case against Paul, so I won't try to. I'd throw Tim Duncan into the mix as well; if you really take the time to watch him operate, you'll see just how he is better than KG and even Lebron. He clearly should have more than one MVP award as well.

Knicks Fan Update: We got a new coach!

Boy, is this a whopper. Mike D'Antoni leaves the Phoenix Suns under duress and decides to go to….the Knicks? That's like bailing out on a girl who's soured on you before she can dump you and then immediately hooking with a really hot but crazy psycho girl. What about the Knicks job makes them comparable to hot girl, you ask? Try $24 million over four years. The crazy psycho parts have already been well documented. A lot of local media don't like the pick, I'm on the fence. I think he's a good coach but I don't see him getting through to this group of malcontents, mainly Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph. Hey, he'll last a season or two, get fired and get paid $24 million. America, what a country!

Eastern Second round so far

Orlando-Detroit: This one could be over by the time you read this, and if it is then we basically ended up with the same series we got a year ago from these two teams, just one round later and one game longer. If that is the case, well, the Magic have some work to do. Dwight Howard has played much better than he did against the Pistons last season, but it hasn't been enough. Game four looks to be the series decider, no matter what happens in game five. The fact the Magic couldn't get a win at home when the Pistons were playing without Chauncey Billups speaks volumes. Billups is the player who provides the biggest mismatch in the series, yet the Pistons were able to pull out a win without him on the road. The magic are going to need to do something about their backcourt; I think they can live with Jameer Nelson at the point but they have to get some kind of full time starter at the shooting guard position; they're getting killed there. Detroit looks like the likely Eastern Conference winner right now, but they still have to find some way to beat either or Boston or Cleveland in the next round, which won't be easy.

Boston-Cleveland: The Celtics are the bust of the playoffs so far. They are 0-5 on the road, and have struggled mightily against two opponents they should not have much trouble with. I blame Doc Rivers for some of this. I've noticed that he likes to go with this Paul Pierce and a bunch of reserves lineup at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and that has cost his team on more than one occasion because the lineup has trouble scoring. Last night, the combination of Pierce, PJ Brown, Sam Cassell, James Posey, and Glen Davis couldn't get a basket for several minutes and allowed the Cavs to get control of the game. Against the Hawks similar lineups blew early fourth quarter leads on the road or allowed the Hawks to jump out ahead of deadlocked games. Rajon Rondo's minutes are down in this round, even though he has clearly outplayed backup Cassell. When Rondo is on the floor the Celtics are able to push the tempo a lot more, and they'll need to do that against Cleveland, which prefers a grind it out ugly game. They've got to win game five or else they're done. Surprisingly, though, I still like their chances against Detroit. The Pistons, like the Celtics are a jump shooting team that doesn't score much in the paint so there won't be any advantage in terms of offense there. We'll see though.

OK, that's it for this week. Next week I'll look at the West some and do a stock up/stock down for the first two rounds.