NBA MVP 2012: Underrated Contenders Who Could Steal Award
The NBA MVP trophy has been LeBron James’ to lose for the last few months, and other than Kevin Durant, nobody has been seen as any competition for Bron Bron.
Both James and Durant had MVP-worthy seasons statistically, but their teams finished 9-7 and 8-7, respectively. That leaves the door open for some underrated contenders who could steal the award.
This Los Angeles Clippers team isn’t a playoff-caliber squad without Paul.
Blake Griffin is still one of the rawest players in the NBA, using sheer strength and athleticism to put up 20 points and 11 rebounds a night.
DeAndre Jordan can throw it down and block some shots but can’t do much else.
Mo Williams and Randy Foye can shoot the three-pointer, but they're average NBA players.
Caron Butler and Kenyon Martin would be backups on most other teams.
Chris Paul is the orchestrator of this team, the perfect point guard. He’s especially impressive because he gets everyone on his team involved for the entire game, and he takes control of the game in the last five minutes.
Statistically, he’s the fifth-best clutch time player in the league, scoring 40.6 points per 48 minutes of clutch time (h/t to 82games.com). The clutch time of a game is defined as the fourth quarter or overtime, less than five minutes remaining and neither team up by more than five.
The next highest Clipper on the list is Williams with 18.6
Paul is definitely the MVP of the Clippers, and he could snatch the award from James and Durant.
In his 15th year in the league, Bryant finished second in the league in scoring, just one-tenth of a point behind Durant.
The two things hurting his case as a sleeper for the MVP award are that he shot just 39 percent in March and missed seven straight games in April.
I don’t know what this guy did in Dusseldorf, Germany that let him start playing like he’s 25 again, but I’m pretty sure it’s not legal in the United States.
Whatever horse tendons they put in his knee (kidding; he underwent a pretty simple process, kind of...not really) they enabled him to play 38.5 minutes per game in 2012. He’s also averaging a not-too-shabby 5.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.
Yeah, he’s got Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but every great player needs their sidekicks.
Kevin Love
Obviously, Love isn’t going to win the MVP award, but the well of MVP sleepers is running dry.
Before he was shut down because of a concussion, he put up 26 points and 13.6 rebounds a night on just under 45 percent shooting.
He put up 37.8 points per 48 minutes of clutch time, as per those nifty 82games.com stats.
Even after Ricky Rubio went down, Love gave Minnesota Timberwolves fans a reason to believe their season hadn’t been ended early.
Love became the first player since Hakeem Olajuwon to post 15 consecutive double-doubles to start the season.
The T-Wolves won just one of the final seven games that Love missed, although it’s not like the free-fall wasn’t already underway (they won just one of their final 14 games).
Love was dominant when he was on the court, the closest thing to a human double-double that you can find.
If Love and Rubio stayed healthy, Minnesota would have had a shot to grab the No. 8 seed in the West.
