Piece by: Nicholas Cosmai
Twitter: @CozzyNick
The 2018/19 season for the Golden State Warriors was supposed to be the coronation of the NBA's next threepeat team since the 2000-2002 LA Lakers. Unfortunately, they saw long term injuries to Kevin Durant who ruptured his achilles and Klay Thompson who tore his ACL both happening in the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors who went onto be champions.
Last season they were short handed without Klay because of his injury and KD who signed with the Brooklyn Nets. Four games into the season Steph Curry had broken his hand on a horrible landing. They ended up finishing 15-50 which was the worst record in the league and had picked 2nd in last year’s draft where they selected James Wiseman out of Memphis.
This season we have definitely seen a more competitive Golden State Warrior team, they currently sit at a .500 record of 28-28 which sees them in 9th in the Western Conference. At this point they are definitely a playoff contender as they currently sit at a play in spot, meaning if the season ended today, they would have to win two games to be the official 8 seed for the playoffs.
This brings up the question, should Steph Curry be the 2021 NBA MVP? He is by distance Golden State’s best and most important player even more so with Klay Thompson out again for the whole of this season, but what about the whole league?
Now, the first thing that people will point out is the team’s record and position in the standings. As it stands right now, Steph is averaging on a per game basis 30.7 points which is his career best, 1.3 steals, 6 assists and 5.6 rebounds which is also a career best. Yes, the argument can be made that these stats look a little better than what they are compared to his two MVP seasons because of the talent that surrounds him.
The contrary to this is that Steph has had to carry his team more than other mvp candidates. Most other candidates have at least a perennial/borderline all-star. Giannis has Middleton and Holiday, Embiid has Simmons, Jokic has had Murray most of the season before he went down just recently with an ACL injury ending his season. Harden has had Kyrie and KD and even if you want to say LeBron, he’s got AD.
Now no offence to Draymond Green, but he is not as good as some of the players that are listed above. As previously mentioned earlier, no Klay Thompson this season again means that the load for Curry is far greater than what it’s been even for most of his career.
In my opinion, the case for Steph Curry to be this year’s MVP is entrenched in the actual definition of the word valuable. The Golden State Warriors are 1-7 without Stephen Curry this season, which out of most of the candidates this year is the worst, e.g. Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, James Harden, etc.
With approximately a month left of regular season basketball, the Warriors are unlikely to avoid the play in games and finish top 6 in the west. They are currently 2.5 games ahead of the Spurs who are in 11th and if the play in games started tomorrow, they would not be involved.
If the Golden State Warriors are to be playing playoff basketball this postseason, a huge credit of it is due to Steph and his incredible play and leadership on the court. Steph should be rewarded by receiving his 3rd MVP award and what a story it would be for what this team has gone through the last 24 months.