Don't Sleep on LeBron James as an MVP Candidate Just Yet
It's become an annual pastime to hand out midseason NBA awards, but there's a reason the real hardware isn't presented until the completion of the campaign.
LeBron James might be sitting uncharacteristically low on the MVP ladder, but few players can cover ground as quickly as the 6'8", 250-pound freight train from Akron, Ohio.
Don't look now, but that speeding locomotive has left the station. And plenty of time remains for the four-time award winner to add to his already historically relevant collection.
It's no coincidence that the Cleveland Cavaliers' season-high seven-game winning streak kicked off at nearly the same time James returned from a two-week absence to rest his aching body. Throughout the entire year, this has been a dramatically different time when the two-time champion takes the floor.
| With James | 25 | 12 | 110.3 | 103.3 | Plus-7.0 |
| Without James | 1 | 8 | 100.7 | 109.7 | Minus-9.0 |
But James' impact seems to increase by the day.
Since getting back in action, his stats have soared to the absurd levels hoop heads expect from the King. Over his last eight games, he has erupted for 30.5 points on 50.6 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 2.0 steals a night.
A couple quick notes to contextualize those numbers. If he had produced at that level all season, he would lead the league in scoring, have the second-highest field-goal percentage among 20-points-per-game scorers, be tied for 43rd in rebounding, tied for 14th in assists and tied for fourth in steals.
James would also join Hall of Famer Michael Jordan as the only players to have ever produced a line like that over an entire season.
Even by James' incredibly lofty standards, his recent performances have been special. And there's a reason for that.
As he told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick, James' body is back where he wants after waging a few wars with the injury bug earlier this season:
"My first step is back. ... I was trying to play through it. Obviously, if I was in Miami, I would have probably sat out sooner, when I felt, because chemistry-wise, we were already there. So I could afford to sit out. But here we were trying to build so much chemistry and camaraderie, I was trying to play through it.
"
More importantly—both in terms of the big picture and the MVP discussion—the Cavs have followed his rise up the ranks.
Cleveland is starting to look like a championship contender. Since this streak started Jan. 15, the Cavs are tied with the Los Angeles Clippers atop the NBA's offensive efficiency rankings, according to NBA.com, and sit 15th in efficiency on the opposite end.
Altogether, Cleveland has been outscoring its opponents by an astronomical 14.6 points per 100 possessions over this stretch, a mark only cleared by the soaring Atlanta Hawks.
There are some non-LeBron reasons behind Cleveland's emergence.
Kyrie Irving has been a wrecking ball of late, posting a 24.6 points-per-game scoring average over these seven games and compiling a sizzling .546/.541/.846 slash line. By turning Dion Waiters and draft picks into J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov, the Cavs also netted themselves an incendiary shooter, along with stoppers on the perimeter and interior to plug their defensive gaps.
Opponents are shooting just 42.7 percent from the field against them during this streak, a far cry from the 47.1 percent success rate they allowed before it began.
The credit for this turnaround extends to every part of this roster and formerly beleaguered coach David Blatt, but make no mistake—this all started with James.
"They follow my lead," James said of his supporting cast, per Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer. "It's my job. It's what I'm here for."
It's impossible to separate that part of the narrative from James' statistical brilliance. The combination of both elements is the reason he's quickly leaving otherwise well-qualified MVP candidates in his dust.
Anthony Davis has the statistical dominance down (24.5 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.9 rebounds), but numbers alone won't decide this race. The numbers need to impact winning, and it's hard to say the Brow's have done that with his New Orleans Pelicans in danger of continuing their postseason drought.
James' teammate Kevin Love posted his own absurd statistics the past few years with the Minnesota Timberwolves: 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 2013-14; 26.0 points and 13.3 boards in 2011-12. But Minnesota had losing records in each of those seasons, and Love couldn't crack the top five in MVP voting either year because of them.
For Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul, his candidacy could be ruined by the other side of the coin. You'd be hard-pressed to find guys with better grades in the leadership department, but there's a handful of players (at least) with more impressive per-game averages than Paul's 17.4 points and 9.8 assists.
James doesn't have the same issue. Not only is he leaving fingerprints all across the box score, he has also assumed control of this team—of his team.
It didn't always seem like this was how the story of Cleveland's prodigal son would play out. Between the shove heard 'round the basketball world, whispers of Blatt losing his locker room (as reported by ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst) and James' apparent disinterest in anything related to the defensive end, the Cavs seemed to be ripping apart at the seams.
James didn't let that happen.
"The most noticeable difference, of course, has been in his body language," NBA.com's Sekou Smith wrote of James. "He's been engaged, both with his teammates and in games, in ways he simply was not earlier this season. His increased activity level has been a boon for the Cavaliers, who were literally lost without him in the lineup."
As James himself noted, his renewed commitment has seemed to trickle down to his teammates, per Fox Sports Ohio's Sam Amick:
"Cavs' LeBron James: "Not saying it's gonna result in a win every night, but we're starting to understand what it means to be a professional"
— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) January 28, 2015"
To simplify James' accomplishments a bit, he has elevated the players around him both with how they produce and how they approach the game.
The NBA might lack a clear-cut standard for its MVP, but that is the essential element voters need to see. It's not only about playing at a high level, it's getting guys around you to do the same.
James is clearly checking off that box, which has Blatt wondering aloud why his star player hasn't generated a bigger MVP buzz, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin:
"That's just kind of funny, to be honest with you. First of all, he's the greatest player in our game, and he's had, since he's been healthy -- and really all year, but particularly since he's been healthy -- his performance has been as high level as ever. And you don't have to look very far at our record to see what impact he has on this team when he's playing and not playing.
"
Blatt is right on a lot of different things, except for one critical component of his claim—people are moving James up their MVP ballots.
But James still has work to do. The apparent front-runners didn't assume their positions as placeholders for James, they earned their spots.
While James' MVP credentials are improving, they still aren't at the levels of James Harden's or Stephen Curry's.
Curry and Harden sit first and second, respectively, in ESPN.com's all-encompassing real plus-minus category. James is down at No. 7, also trailing the likes of Davis, Paul, DeMarcus Cousins and Kyle Lowry.
Both Curry (27.0) and Harden (27.9) also check in ahead of James (26.1) in player efficiency rating. Given this award's historical premium placed on team success, it also bears noting that Curry's Golden State Warriors are on pace for 68 wins and Harden's Houston Rockets are on course to capture 56 victories, while Cleveland's current pace would net only 46 wins.
And even this glosses over guys that really don't deserve such treatment.
Based on one's current preference, James must also either surpass or hold off the likes of Jeff Teague (Hawks), Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies) and John Wall (Washington Wizards), just to name a few. Reigning MVP Kevin Durant is having another superb season (25.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists), but early-season injuries could keep him out of the running.
It's hard to count James out of any race, particularly when he's flashing this type of dominance with regularity. If the Cavs keep following his lead up the Eastern Conference standings, he may yet pull off an MVP comeback for the ages.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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