Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook was named the league’s Most Valuable Player, as was announced on TNT’s awards show Monday night. He was selected ahead of the other finalists, Rockets guard James Harden and Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard.
Westbrook became the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1961/62 to average a triple-double for a season. He posted an NBA-leading 31.6 PPG, 10.7 RPG and 10.4 APG while carrying the Thunder to the postseason.
Harden averaged 29.1 PPG, 8.1 RPG and an NBA-best 11.2 APG. Leonard averaged 25.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 3.5 APG and was also a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award while averaging 1.8 SPG.
Four of five members of the Hoops Rumors staff chose Westbrook.
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All honesty if Curry had his team without KD he would have got his 3rd but I’m a huge Russ fan he made what Lebron gets marveled for look like a cakewalk. Shattered the triple double record and has a Jordan mentality that is a joy to watch.
I’m not trying to sound jerky but he only had like 1 or 2 more triple doubles than Robertson. Idk if I’d consider that “shattering”
He shattered Lebron’s record, he breezed by Lebron pretty easily. Top 5 in the league right now is
1. Leonard
2. Curry
3. Durant
4. Westbrook
5. Davis
Top 1 – LeBron
LeBron didn’t hold the triple double record, it was Oscar Robertson. And there is no way Anthony Davis is ahead of LeBron in terms of top players in the league. I’ll give you that he’s the best big man in the league, but LeBron is still ahead of Davis in terms of top players.
I don’t consider Curry a top 5 player. He can’t carry his team alone like all the players on the list. Curry needs to depend on Green to set up the plays for him and Curry isn’t a very good ISO player either. How many shots has he made at the buzzer? Not very many! You put LBJ or Westbrook on any team they are guaranteed to be better! No doubt!!!
You can literally google “Curry game winning shot” and find a lot of them. Do you watch basketball or just say things?
Dude Curry won 15 games in a row without Durant and has broke records, regular season 3 point and win records. Curry is the king of chemistry and is selfless, he showed us he could get 30 in his sleep and win MVP’s. What has Lebron showed us? Losing in the Finals? Flopping? Whining? “Lebron needs help”, lets get him another all-star. Lebron is not even top 5 in the league anymore.
Ahh yes the old LeBron is 3-5 in the Finals argument. The only people who bring that up are people who are still mad about The Decision or are still salty at him for some petty reason. The guy has been to 8 Finals, are we really going to keep bringing up his record instead of just acknowledging that LeBron has been good enough to take 8 teams to the Finals? Jerry West had a 1-8 record in the Finals, yet no one brings that up when debating West’s legacy/greatness. I mean if you believe that LeBron is no longer top 5 in the league anymore (and you’re wrong) then wouldn’t he need help to beat the Warriors (who have 2 of the top 4 players in the league in your opinion)? Or is LeBron, not a top 5 player in your opinion, expected to somehow magically carry the Cavs past the Warriors?
I think he’s def top 10 and could keep climbing, I just feel like he has the potential to be so much better but he is afraid to take over in 4th quarters when the game is on the line. Those are the moments that Kobe and Michael wanted, they took the moments Kyrie did Game 7. Kawhi Leonard outplays Lebron always, I just wish Lebron would be a scorer and stop passing so much.
Stop trolling bro you’re not funny.
I’m not tryna be funny.
Here is where I have to disagree with you. Look at the on/off court stats. LeBron leads them. His team is about 15 points worse on offense while it is 2 points worse on defense with him off the court. Look at Russell Westbrook who has about 11 points on offense and 2 points on defense for his differential. The only guy who you can make the argument is better is Kawhi who has a 10 and point differential on the on/off court metrics.
The guy who I don’t think you can consider over him yet is Durant who did get him in the Finals but has an 8 and -1 point differential with on/off court stats while his teammate Curry has almost a 17 point and -.7 for his on/off stats.
Lebron is still the best or at least the second best player in the NBA.
Curry-25pts-7 assists-5 reb-.468/.411/.898
Durant-25pts-8 assists-5 reb-.537/.375/.875
West-32pts-11 asst-10 reb-.425/.343/.845
Kawhi-25pts-4 asst-6 reb-.485/.381/.880
Davis-28pts-2 assts-12 reb-.505/.299/.802
Harden-29pts-11 assts-8 reb-.440/.347/.847
LBJ-26pts-9 assts-9 reb-.548/.363/.674
If you argue that Westbrook is the MVP because he had an historic season with the trip doubles yet LBJ ISN’T in your top 5 despite the fact that he had 1 fewer reb and 1 fewer assist per game to avg a trip dub for the season BUT was a much better and efficient scorer (55% FG vs 43% FG) and a better 3pt shooter then you sir have an obvious bias.
He is as good or better than half of the list. His only obvious deficiency is his FT% which has never been great but has certainly regressed this year. His 26pts on 55% shooting is the highest of ANY NBA player that scored at least 17 pts per game and the ONLY non-center in the top 10 (1-9 are all legit centers). It really isn’t a matter of opinion. It”s a fact. He was the most efficient scorer last year and Durant was close behind. Couple that with the fact that he was 6th overall in assists per game and what he can do on the floor is simply nothing short of amazing. Don’t be a hater. The guy is considered the best in the game and without a doubt top 2 or 3 even if you hate the guy.
No one cares about your NBA 2K17 roster homie
Dionis what Lebron did had nothing to do with what you said. You said Westbrook shattered the record. aren’t you taking about the triple double record?
Honestly, I’m not sure Curry would’ve been a lock to win a 3rd straight MVP. Taking out the anything can happen factor (Curry getting hurt, another player having a huge season), I wouldn’t have been that surprised if Curry put up another great year but didn’t win it. The media (the people who vote for the award) tend to get bored with voting for the same MVP three years in a row (LeBron and MJ both had this happen to them).
Just purely with the on/off court stats, Curry was I believe the third best player behind Kawhi and Lebron.
Shouldn’t be the be all, end all stat but it is a real showing of how a team is faring with each player on and off the court. An actual realization of the individual player compared to just the team.
I think Kawhi deserved it more because of what he does on both sides of the ball.
If I were to place value on a player it would be him over Westbrook since he does so much more without hogging the ball.
He also has the better teammates. Replace the two players on each team. Do you think Kawhi being a two way player matters that much?
We’ve seen Westbrook play with amazing players in Durant and Harden. You would think he would be a better shooter WITH them since you would assume he would have more open shots, a spread floor and teams would have to play him straight up. However, his career numbers don’t reflect that 43% shooting for a guy who is ball dominant isn’t great.
Westbrook wasn’t the primary ball handler even in that time and wasn’t running an actual offense. He didn’t this year either. It was run up the court and make a decision. I’m saying put Westbrook in a system where he is forced to run an offense like SA. His numbers likely dip but his efficiency numbers rise.
Conversely if you out Kawhi in OKC, across the board his numbers are dipping. He might be a great defender but no amount of great defense is covering up that garbage lineup in OKC.
You’re not wrong in your argument but Kawhi doesn’t hog the ball because he doesn’t need to (plus that’s the San Antonio philosophy ever since Popovich has been the coach). On the other hand, who else on the Thunder’s roster plays well enough to make Westbrook not hog the ball? The next best offensive players on the Thunder are Oladipo and Kanter, both of whom are worse players than LaMarcus Aldridge (who is the second best player on the Spurs). The Thunder-Rockets series really showed that after Westbrook, there really isn’t a second option to go to.
Hoops perverts
I’m a Rockets fan and I think LBJ or Kawhi Leonard should win every year because they got offense and defense so really it’s not MVP it’s more like OPY Offensive Player of the Year
Lebron has defense? You mean when he wants, right? His entire team was a dumpster fire defensively. Not just Kyrie or Love or Kroger. The entire team, including Lebron, were guilty of shoddy defense. Can’t call a dude who plays D when he wants a two way player.
Korver *
Indeed!!!
Lebron is the most overrated defender of all time.
Currently? Probably. But in his first stint with Cleveland, he was arguably one of the best defenders in the league. He was Draymond Green before Draymond Green…the guy who could guard 1-5, rebound the ball, get steals, and block shots. But even now I’d argue that there are other players who are more overrated for their defense.
Durant ate him alive on isos and so did Curry.
That’s now. Being the “most overrated defender of all time” means he has been overrated his entire career. Near the end of his first stint in Cleveland and while he was in Miami, he was often guarding the best player on the other team in crunch time (outside of bigs maybe).
I agree that LeBron’s defense these past two or three years are overrated, but using his poor defense against Durant and Curry as a reason why isn’t that great of an example when most players struggle to cover them. Especially Durant as the only other guy, outside of LeBron, who stands a reasonable chance of covering him is Leonard.
Lebron was rarely guarding the best guy in Miami. They had Battier on a teams best wing.
So you focus on what Curry did this year in the playoffs but dismiss how LBJ nullified him last year? Sort of short-sighted don’t you think?
LBJ is still a great and capable defender. If you watch more than 3 games a year, what you will observe is that he isn’t not a stay at home defender. I don’t know if he doesn’t trust his teammates or what but he tends to float and help out too much. Problem is when the rest of the team fails to rotate or cover your man when you leave them to help others and you go against a team that moves the ball well, then easy shots are their for the opponent to take. Those are the actual reports from an NBA scout I know. So as with everything, context is important.
Leonard can play more focused defense because his TEAM plays focused defense. That fact is evident once you look at Defensive Player Rating. In 2016-17, Gasol ranked 8th, Leonard 9th, D.Green 12th and Aldridge 15th. Break the ranking down by position and every night they usually have the best ranked player at every given position.
I’d like LBJ to trust his teammates and stick to his own assignments but when Love, Irving and others are weak or not consistently giving 100% effort then I can understand why maybe he doesn’t trust them.
You should be short sighted when talking about MVP… it’s not who was the best 3 years ago…
I agree he is overrated but some of the chase down blocks are amazing. You’ve gotta give him that.
Well deserved. One of if not my favorite player to watch in the NBA right now. He is exciting, he plays hard every game even if every game he doesn’t kill it he is still out there hustling. You don’t see that kind of consistency from guys very often. Everyone has a bad night but it seems this guy barely does it seems like. If more of these young guys played with the heart and passion he plays with like they have a chip on their shoulder they’d have way more success in the NBA. When I see a guy like DeAngelo Russell who has a ton of talent play I can’t help but think of Russel because I feel that while he doesn’t have the same talent he could still be a lot better if he took the game more serious, put more effort and more passion into his game Westbrook does. Too different players, I know but for some reason I always think of Westbrook and how he plays when I think Russell or other younger guys and how inconsistent they are and when you hear that their work ethic sucks and they still very immature. I know they are still going but at some point they have to realize that this is a mans game and they need to step it up like players like Westbrook have done.
This is a joke. 6th best record in the West/ 10th best record in the NBA = MVP in 2017. Most valuably led his team to a single playoff win.
And if you take Westbrook off the Thunder then the team is near the bottom of the standings and watching their ping pong balls in the lottery. If you’re going off of only record, then Curry or Durant should’ve won it. But MVP is a regular season award, not a playoff award. I doubt that any other player could’ve done better with the supporting cast that Westbrook had.
Lebron took teams like that to the conference finals on a yearly basis, but no one could do it now, I agree.
LeBron and maybe KD would be the only guys who might be able to do better with that roster. James Harden would essentially do the exact same thing Westbrook does now. Steph Curry would struggle too since the Thunder don’t have the shooting to create enough space for Curry to operate. I’m unsure of how Kawhi would do, but I don’t think he could do better than Westbrook did.
“That roster” was just fine for the last 3 seasons. Obviously KD is a big chip, but they were one game away from the finals and got better imo with the Oladipo trade. Plus their GM is the one who decided to give $200 million to the combo of Steven Adams and Enes Kanter. Even still is that roster that much worse than Portland, Denver, Memphis, and Utah? As I said in another post when Oscar averaged a triple double, the same season Wilt averaged 50 (FIFTY!!) points and 26 rebounds, guess who won MVP? Bill Russell cause winning is more important than stats
That roster was entirely different from the last few years sans Adams and Westbrook. Instead of Durant and Waiters you have Roberson and Oladipo. Instead of Ibaka you have a rookie in Sabonis. Then your bench is Gibson and McDermott (mid season), Kanter and….it trails off significantly. The year prior wasn’t great with Augustin, Payne, Morrow, Kanter and Roberson but you swap a few pieces and see that the roster was nothing like it was a year ago. They had to start a guy at the 3 who shot 24%. That is almost a 15% drop from the year prior. I don’t know how you even pretend they were the same team.
I’m disappointed that James “Swiss Cheese Defense” Harden was even a finalist.
Top five (retired):
PG – Magic Johnson
SG – Michael Jordan
SF – Larry Bird
PF – Tim Duncan
C – Bill Russell
if u put Micheal Jordan 3rd in any top five….. delete ur app!!!
immediately!!!!!
***2nd MJ #1 dude
About 2 months ago Dionnis also claimed that LeBron was better than Michael…and now he’s ripping him and his accomplishments.
Dude totally flips his arguments more than Karshdian’s swipe out guys.
Smdh
I’m just dissapointed, he’s a great player but doesn’t have that killer instinct.