Power Ranking the Threats to LeBron James' MVP Tropy

LeBron James is the best player in basketball. Yawn, old news. The dude is the reigning regular season MVP and the reigning NBA Finals MVP and capable of doing everything imaginable on the court.

At this point it has to be imagined that the Heat are the favorite to win the NBA Championship again next season and that LeBron James is the favorite to win his fourth NBA MVP Award. This would tie him with Wilt Chamberlain, put him one behind Bill Russell and Michael Jordan and put him two behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Oh yea, did I mention that he's only 27?

Still, there are no guarantees in life, and it's entirely possible that people get tired of voting for LeBron or he just gets beat outright.

So, to take a look into the future we might as well determine the biggest threats to his reign next season.

10. Steve Nash

I was thinking about ruling out Steve Nash, and then I slapped myself a few times and realized what an idiot I am for even having that thought.

Although Steve Nash is 38, he's still got the ability to lead the league in assists, especially now that he has actual offensive threats to throw the ball to.

Should he come in and go back to averaging 11 or even 12 assists a game, all he would need to do is score about 15 points a game and lead the Lakers to a top three seed for people to clamor for him to get some recognition. 

9. Russell Westbrook

Russell Westbrook is slowly creeping up the list of the best players in the NBA, and after that NBA Finals loss it seems like he's going to be determined.

Westbrook was able to absolutely take over games at certain points during the Finals in ways that few people in the NBA can on a regular basis (those regular basis guys are LeBron and Durant, even Kobe has troubles turning it on at times). This could be the season that Westbrook jumps from being an enigma to a sure-fire superstar.

Plus, with Derrick Rose out for a good chunk of the season, he could fill in as the crazy athletic point guard who graces SportsCenter every morning.

8. Deron Williams

Deron Williams is becoming an interesting player again, which is great because it was a bit sad knowing everything he was doing in New Jersey was all for naught.

Williams has four great offensive targets to pass the ball to in Joe Johnson (who should be able to revitalize his three-point shot with a real point guard passing him the ball), Brook Lopez (who is nothing if not an offensive threat), Gerald Wallace (who is still very capable of scoring in a pinch) and MarShon Brooks (great hot streak kind of guy).

He should be able to threaten the league leaders in assists, and on top of that he should be able to continue to hover around 20 points a game, which is a very compelling argument.

7. Kobe Bryant

Should we count Kobe Bryant out? Yea, before we do that let's go out into the mountains, smear ourselves with honey and assume that a grizzly bear won't come eat us.

Here's what we know, Kobe is old, and he seems to be realizing that he's getting older. On top of that, Kobe is still a great basketball player, capable of creating his own shot despite his old knees.

Now that he has Steve Nash get him his shot for him for a change, Kobe could find himself with open three-pointers to shoot, which could mean a Kobe shooting wiser shots and approaching a 40 percent three-point shooting season, something he's never attained.

6. Rajon Rondo

Rajon Rondo has become the most important player on the Boston Celtics, and with that he's also created a bit of a cult of personality that is ever so intriguing.

Rondo is sulky and brooding at times, while he's completely zoned in and happy other times, which is a very interesting caveat to his game.

This season, however, he's got an extra guy to pass to in Jeff Green, a wily vet who isn't playing on a busted lower half in Jason Terry, while still getting 16-footers from Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass and whatever Paul Pierce can give him.

In other words, Rondo will likely lead the league in assists again this season.

Now, if he picks up a jump shot this offseason then all bets are off and this dude could jump into top three conversation.

5. Tony Parker

Tony Parker surprised everyone who wasn't paying attention last year, even picking up serious MVP talk about halfway through the season before LeBron shoved his ridiculous statistics in everyone's face.

This season was lauded as a breakout season for Parker, although it wasn't really that, it was just the first season where he emerged as the no-doubt leader of the San Antonio Spurs, leading to him taking over a few games and wowing a voter or two.

Parker should have another one of those seasons, averaging around 20 points and eight assists while leading to the Spurs to yet another 50-win season, to which the voters will give him a third and fourth-place MVP vote here and there.

4. Dwight Howard

The voters hate Dwight Howard right now, that's obvious from the fact that Serge Ibaka beat him in the Defensive Player of the Year voting last season. That's not to say that Ibaka wasn't a great defender, but rather that he was still not near the level of Howard.

However, should Howard come back and recover well from his surgery he'll end up competing for the lead in rebounds, be one of the three best defenders in the league and score 22 points.

What would be interesting is if he were to go play in Brooklyn or Los Angeles with a legitimate point guard who could turn him into an amazing offensive threat, rather than a pretty good offensive threat.

Let's see voters poo-poo him then.

3. Kevin Love

Surely this is crazy talk, right? Kevin Love in the discussion as a top-four threat for the MVP Award?

Admittedly, Love doesn't play nearly enough defense for my liking, but aside from that he's got a game that anyone would want in their power forward.

Love is the best rebounder in the NBA in terms of motor, desire and instinct for the ball, which should mean he'll get at least 13 boards a game again next season, but that inside-outside offensive game he combines with it is going to continue to devastate the league. 

That's not the biggest argument he has in his arsenal, however. The fact that he's about to become the guy to lead the Timberwolves back to the playoffs is going to get people talking, as it well should.

2. Chris Paul

The best point guard in the NBA on both sides of the ball should have another year where he looks voters in the eye and dares them not to include him in their top three.

What Paul has going for him first of all is the fact that he's looking to be the guy to break the Clippers curse and lead them to the NBA Finals, which isn't a huge stretch with the lineup that they've thrown together this season.

Oh, and averaging 20 points, nine assists and 2.5 steals every game doesn't hurt one bit.

1. Kevin Durant

Was there any question at who the biggest threat to LeBron's award was?

Kevin Durant is the most wily, confusing, yet straight-up destructive offensive player in the NBA, and even though he's got some defensive deficiencies (of which he's fixed quite a bit since his rookie year), Kevin Durant is the only player in the NBA for which you can argue that he's anywhere near LeBron.

Durant looked like a crushed man after his Thunder lost in the Finals. He looked like he just felt a hurt that he never wanted to feel again, and he'd do anything to keep himself from feeling that.

If he plays with that mentality then there's no reason why he can't win the award and even a title next season.

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