NBA Midseason MVP is Chris Paul
By Matt Miller
The Clippers are back from the All Star break, and there is little question to me that Chris Paul is the first half MVP of the league. The Clippers are 20-11 at the break (.645 winning pct.), compared to 9-22 a year ago at this time. That is the biggest turn around in the league. But Paul is definitely not slated to win the award because there is no precedent for players who aren’t on the team with the best record to be named MVP.
Frankly it is true Chris Paul’s 19.2 points a game, 8.6 assists, 2.3 steals per game don’t stack up to the Lebron’s likely MVP numbers of 27.4 points per game, 8.1 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 1.8 steals. On top of that, he is shooting 54.7% from the field, 6 points above his career average. But the difference Chris Paul has made to the laughing stock of professional franchises is worthy of the MVP, or at least some sort of life time achievement award.
The coach of the year award is commonly given out to the coach who has turned his team around, but never for the MVP. Last year Tom Thibodeau was the coach of the year in his first season with the Bulls, leading them to the NBA best record of 62-20 when the year before they were the 8-seed in the playoffs. In the last five years Scott Brooks (OKC), Byron Scott (New Orleans), and Sam Mitchell (Toronto) all received the award for similar types of turnarounds.
In major league baseball they have given awards to players on losing teams, especially recently. In the last three seasons, Cy Young awards have gone to Zack Greinke of the Royals, King Felix in Seattle when he was 13-12 on the season, and of course Clayton Kershaw. The Major League Baseball MVP hasn’t been awarded to a player on a team that doesn’t make the playoffs since A-Rod with the Rangers in ’03. But to be fair, Chris Paul and the Pacific leading Clippers would currently have made a four team Western Conference playoff berth.
All of the players who won the MVP were the star players on one of the teams with the two best records in the league. Rose, Lebron (2), Kobe, Dirk, Nash (2), Garnett, Duncan (2), Iverson, O’Neal were all MVPs, and that’s after the Jordan and Malone era. The players and their stat lines were phenomenal, but obviously to be a good team the superstars had talented people around them. But with some players, like Steve Nash and Lebron in Cleveland for instance, the argument for their MVP status is oftentimes what would the team be without him? With Chris Paul we actually do know what the team would be like without him (see last season, and every other season in Clippers history). That is more than any other reason why Chris Paul is the first half MVP, unless heralding other new arrivals like Caron Butler, Reggie Evans, or the unfortunately injured Chauncey Billups as the reason.
How Chris Paul goes, is how the Clipper’s go. In the Clippers 9 losses that Paul has played in, he is averaging 7 points a game less than in the 17 wins, and shoots 41% compared to 53%. His assist, rebound, steals, and minutes played are virtually the same between both wins and losses, but when he does not score the basketball, the Clippers lose.
Chris Paul should be MVP of the league, but strangely though I wouldn’t consider him to be the MVP of the Clippers season thus far. Nor would I consider it to be Blake Griffin. In both wins and losses, he averages almost identical numbers (21.7 points, 11.2 rebounds, and shooting 53%). That consistency makes him indispensible and an All Star, but Chris Paul’s output and presence this year has meant more to the Clippers.
That distinction of Clippers MVP, however, I would award to David Stern who pulled off the trade for Paul in the offseason, after vetoing the deal the Lakers had in place for Paul. Without the angel of stern, Chris Paul would not be on the Clippers, the Clippers would be, well . . . the Clippers, and Chris Paul wouldn’t be the MVP of the first half of the NBA season.
Now this part I know I am getting way ahead of myself because not only has Chris Paul and the Clippers not won any championships, but Paul hasn’t won any MVP awards either. Ultimately, it doesn’t much matter if Chris Paul is the first half MVP. MVP awards don’t mean much in the NBA. Looking at the list of players with the most MVP awards, they are not THE NBA legends because of these distinctions, but their NBA titles. Kobe is an all time great, yet he has only been MVP once. Lebron and Steve Nash’s two MVPs each equal zero rings. Next time you walk by them on the street, just ask former MVPs Karl Malone (2) and Charles Barkley what their MVP seasons meant, considering the context of no championship rings. This has been by far the best Clipper first half of a season, but I think that section of the discussion is getting more than a little ahead of the Clippers fantastic 2011-12 season.