NBA MVP Race: Ranking LeBron James and the Top Candidates After All-Star Break

The NBA All-Star break is right around the corner, and while LeBron James has made quite a case for MVP, he isn't the only one to merit consideration thus far. 

The award can be interpreted many different ways, but realistically, the most valuable player is someone who excels individually while possessing a near-irreplaceable ability to lead his team throughout a season.

In a word, it's value. 

Deeming the best player on the best team as the MVP is a tired ideology that theoretically leaves only one player eligible for the award by each season’s end.

This season has been full of very good performers, and all of them deserve mention entering All-Star Weekend.

Honorable Mentions

Russell Westbrook

Despite playing alongside teammate Kevin Durant, Westbrook has averaged 23.4 points, 5.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds this season and deserves to be in the MVP conversation. The fact remains, however, that it’s going to take more than numbers to take over the leadership role on the Oklahoma City Thunder from Durant.

Kyle Lowry

Averaging career highs all over the board, Lowry has been relatively underappreciated this season. He's not the leading scorer on the Houston Rockets, but he has certainly been the driving force on a team that is looking to get back to the playoffs this season. 

Jeremy Lin

What Jeremy Lin has done for the New York Knicks is unbelievable. Averaging 25.0 points, 9.5 assists and 2.3 steals when in the starting lineup this season, Lin has brought the team back from an 8-15 start to being a team that has the potential to make some noise in the playoffs this season.

His sample size is small, but if he can keep up the pace, reduce the turnovers and continue to lead the Knicks to victories, his MVP candidacy is going to continue to rise throughout the remainder of the NBA season.

10. LaMarcus Aldridge

2012 Highlights: 22.5 PTS, 8.3 REB, 2.7 AST, .509 FG%

A first-time All-Star, LaMarcus Aldridge has become the undisputed leader of the Portland Trail Blazers.

On a team that has suffered from chronic injury problems over the past few years, Aldridge is averaging a career high in points and field-goal percentage this season.

Although his team is only sitting at 17-16, he has stepped up his game to a level that just might propel the Trail Blazers into another postseason appearance.

Although still a good jump shooter, Aldridge has improved his post game, which has allowed him to carry his team on more than one occasion this season.

The only problem is that his teammates may be relying on him too much. Without consistent play all around, the Trail Blazers are going to struggle throughout the second half of the season, and Aldridge will have a tough time creeping up to the top of the NBA MVP list.

9. Deron Williams

2012 Highlights: 22.2 PTS, 8.2 AST, .851 FT%, .366 3PT%

The argument can be made that Deron Williams belongs nowhere near this list because of how bad the New Jersey Nets have been this season.

But then again, think about where they would be without him.

Williams has been the only shining star on a Nets team that lost Brook Lopez before the season began and has gone just 10-24 on the year.

He's averaging a career high in points this season, and while his assists are down for his career, he still ranks in the top five in that category among the rest of the league.

The team's record will keep him from entering most serious MVP conversations this season, but don't let a poor record diminish Williams' value as a point guard and a great NBA player.

8. Tony Parker

2012 Highlights: 19.5 PTS, 7.9 AST, .806 FT%, .456 FG% 

Although his shooting percentages are down this season, Tony Parker is averaging career highs in both assists and free-throw percentage, more than making up for the shots he's missed.

In a year that has seen Manu Ginobili miss most of the season to injury, Parker has taken over as the team's leader.

The San Antonio Spurs have an aging superstar in Tim Duncan, and while the bench has provided much-needed depth, it is full of inexperience, as the team will try to advance beyond the first series of this year's postseason. 

The bench has been great for the them so far, but with the absence of Ginobili, it's the leadership of Parker that has helped the Spurs quietly run off 11 wins in a row.

7. Derrick Rose

2012 Highlights: 22.0 PTS, 7.8 AST, 3.4 REB .462 FG%

Following his MVP campaign last season, Derrick Rose has suffered from injuries and has seen his numbers drop three points per game this year.

Being in the top 10 in points and assists this season will keep him in consideration for the MVP award, but missing so many of his team's games—and having the team go 7-3 without him—has hurt his chances as being an early favorite.

The team is a legitimate threat in the East, however, and if Rose can stay healthy in the second half of the season, he may find himself closer to becoming the youngest back-to-back NBA MVP of all time.

6. Kevin Love

2012 Highlights: 25.5 PTS, 14.2 REB, .356 3PT%, .832FT%

To be an MVP candidate on a non-playoff team, you have to be a pretty outstanding player.

Luckily for Kevin Love, he's pretty outstanding.

In 33 games played this season, Love leads the entire NBA in double-doubles with 31, and as a threat to hit the long ball, Love's ability to spread the floor while snatching up the boards is a tough assignment for any big man in the league. 

But while his numbers are practically unheard of, he doesn't have the defensive prowess of a Dwight Howard, and his team is still subpar at best.

If Love can improve those two categories, expect him to make more noise in the MVP race for years to come.

5. Dwight Howard

2012 Highlights: 20.3 PTS, 15.3 REB, 2.1 BLK .547 FG%

In an NBA that has shifted from a big man's league to a point guard's league, Dwight Howard remains a dominant force.

Like Kevin Love, his numbers are tough to duplicate, and he is one of the premier big men in the NBA. 

Unlike Love, his team is going to threaten a deep run in this year's playoffs.

The only part of Howard's game that makes him a major liability is his free-throw shooting. At just over 50 percent on the year, that is the one glaring flaw in an otherwise dominant game.  

When Shaquille O'Neal won his MVP award in the 1999-00 season, his free-throw percentage was an embarrassing 52 percent. He made up for it, though, with nearly 30 points per game and a championship run at the end of the season.

If Howard can mask his shooting woes with those types of accomplishments, count him in as the first true center to win the NBA MVP since the original Superman did it 12 years ago.

4. Kobe Bryant

2012 Highlights: 29.0 PTS, 5.0 AST, 5.8 REB, 1.3 STL

In his 16th NBA season, Kobe Bryant's game is in no way resembling the usual play of a 33-year-old veteran.

Atop the league this year in points, Bryant is having his typical well-rounded season. The only part of Bryant's game so far that appears to be bad news is his willingness to shoot seemingly every time he has the ball in his hands.

Then again, with the lack of scoring support on the Los Angeles Lakers' roster this season, how can you blame him?

At 19-13, the Lakers are headed for a playoff spot. But considering the disappointment of last season's early exit against the Dallas Mavericks, this hasn't exactly been a season of redemption thus far.

There's not much more that the former MVP can do to help his team win, as he's taken it upon himself to get the Lakers where they are so far. But looking back on his MVP season of 2007-08, not only were his shots down, but his percentages were up, and the Lakers were the No. 1 team in the West that season. 

If he duplicates these marks in the second half of the season, you could see Bryant pick up his second NBA MVP award. 

3. Kevin Durant

2012 Highlights: 27.7 PTS, 8.2 REB, 1.3 BLK, .516 FG%

With the Oklahoma City Thunder's incredible rise to the top of the West, it would be easy to argue that Kevin Durant belongs anywhere inside of the top three MVP candidates heading into NBA All-Star Weekend.

Putting up career highs in blocks, rebounds, assists and field-goal percentage this season, Durant has evolved his game to MVP status, and he will surely have people mentioning his name in this category for the rest of his career.

Even more impressive is that he's doing it alongside the emergence of his teammate, Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook has become an All-Star with borderline superstar numbers. But despite how well Westbrook has played this season, Durant is the unquestionable leader of the Thunder, and his ability to take over a game is what the team is counting on most as it looks to maintain its No. 1 spot in the West this season.

2. Chris Paul

2012 Highlights: 18.3 PTS, 8.7 AST, 2.3 STL, .443 3PT% 

While Kevin Durant has clearly turned around the Oklahoma City Thunder over the past few years, the fact that Chris Paul has been an instant catalyst in the Los Angeles Clippers' immaculate turnaround this season earns him the No. 2 nod at this point.

Paul is shooting the ball extremely well, and while he's certainly had better individual seasons, the fact remains that if the MVP is about measuring value, all you have to do is look at the Clippers a year ago to see what he has done for the team in his first year in L.A.

At this point last season, the Clippers were 8-22 and looking ahead to another offseason full of watching the playoffs from home.

Through 30 games this season, the Clippers are 19-11, first in the Pacific Division and ready to contend out West behind the production and leadership of one of the game's best point guards.

1. LeBron James

2012 Highlights: 27.9 PTS, 6.8 AST, 8.2 REB, .548 FG%

LeBron James is having a career year, and that's saying something considering he is already a two-time NBA MVP.

Career highs in rebounds, three-point percentage and field-goal percentage are impressive, and keeping the Miami Heat consistently near the top of the standings is great. But his transformation into the post might be the most impressive part of his game this season.

Despite the career-high percentages James has displayed, he's also putting up a career low in a category that is just as important to point out—shot attempts. 

More production with fewer shots has allowed James to show off an efficiency that he's never possessed before this season.

One of the biggest critiques of James' MVP candidacy is that his team would survive even without him. Dwyane Wade is a superstar, and Chris Bosh is a star in his own right.

But while the team would still compete without James on the roster, his impact is something that simply could not be duplicated in his absence.

Should Kevin Durant be passed over because he plays next to Russell Westbrook? Not a chance, so why the same treatment for James?

The Heat are doing things this season that the team's most optimistic analysts expected it to do last year, and while Wade and Bosh are important to the equation, they would surely struggle to find the same success without the dominance of James looming over every unworthy opponent.