The Golden State Warriors currently hold the league’s best record. At 31-6, they currently sit two-and-a-half games ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers, who have the conference’s second best record. Those are two undebatable facts.
Something perhaps a little more up in the air, is Stephen Curry‘s chances of being this year’s league Most Valuable Player (MVP).
There is no doubt that Curry has been the Warriors best player this season. He is currently averaging 23.2 points per game, which puts him seventh in the league this season.
While that doesn’t seem like a staggering number, of the past six league MVP winners, only one of them (Kevin Durant) has led the league in scoring in the year that he won the award.
If Curry isn’t wowing people with his scoring, then where is this MVP talk coming from?
Perhaps the reason that Curry is the subject of nearly every duscussion about the NBA’s MVP is his ability to do it all. On top of his already powerful scoring, Curry is currently top five in assists per game, and he is second in the league in steals with 2.14 per game.
Other candidates such as Marc Gasol and James Harden may be putting up bigger numbers in certain categories such as scoring and rebounding, but they may not have as well-rounded a stat sheet night in and night out.
Sekou Smith from NBA Hangtime Blogs gives his take as to why Curry is Number Two on his list of top MVP candidates this season:
Curry used 2014 as his breakout season, from the Warriors’ playoff run last season to that gold medal he won with the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team at the World Cup in Spain to the start of this NBA season. He’s made major strides every step of the way, improving as a leader, defender and staying as diabolical as ever as a shooter. If his 2015 is anything like last year, the Warriors have to feel good about their immediate and long-term future. Curry’s status as one of the top two All-Star vote-getters, alongside LeBron James, is further proof that he has arrived as an NBA superstar.
Perhaps the biggest reason for Curry being so heavily in the MVP discussion is his team’s success. If there is anything we can see from previous MVP winners, it is that they come from very successful teams. In the past twenty years, the MVP’s respective team has been a top-two-seed every single year.
If that is the case again this year, then Curry has a really good chance at taking home the league’s top individual honor.
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