2011 NBA MVP: 5 Myths about Derrick Rose and Why He Is the MVP
By now, I think I've heard more reasons as to why Derrick Rose shouldn't be the MVP than why he should.
Stan Van Gundy will tell you that no one affects more possessions per game than Dwight Howard, which should make him MVP.
Colin Cowherd will tell you that LeBron James is the MVP because he is the best player in the NBA.
Skip Bayless will tell you that the Lakers incredible post All-Star break record means Kobe Bryant should win.
Countless columnists, radio talk show personalities, and analysts will say that the metric stats and Hollinger ratings all favor someone else, usually LeBron, and that Rose is just too "inefficient."
While lately Rose does seem to get a lot of push for the MVP, he still is the subject everyday of numerous columns and radio personalities, especially in New York and Miami, so I figure it's time to put these myths to bed.
Here are the 5 biggest myths about why he shouldn't be MVP.
5. Derrick Rose Is a Poor Defender, Unlike Lebron
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I hear this one the most, so I did the most research in to it. In the major statistical categories LeBron really doesn't have a major edge. He averages more steals per game than Rose but less blocks. LeBron averages more rebounds, but most of those are defensive, and Rose guards mostly perimeter guys while Lebron is often in the painted area.
So statistically, they are not really miles apart, though Lebron does seem to have a slight advantage, so i looked deeper. Now obviously, Rose faces more elite scorers in his position than Lebron does, mainly because there are more elite scoring point guards than small forwards. So I started looking at how many times he was outscored against the elite point guards and found that only once, on opening night against the Thunder when he and Westbrook had almost identical numbers (points and assists) but Westbrook had more rebounds, has he been outplayed by an elite pg, and only twice has he been outscored in his position.
LeBron was a lot easier to research. Against the "elite" scorers at his position, he has only had success against Danny Granger of the Pacers. In his two matchups with Kevin Durant he has been badly outplayed and of course, the one time he faced Carmello Anthony he was outscored and missed a potential game-winning shot.
The point, is that if Rose is such a defensive liability, wouldn't he be getting lit up more consistently? On most nights, LeBron has the luxury of playing off his man or playing the passing lanes to get those highlight steals and run down blocks, which again looks good on ESPN, but the reality is that on most of those occasions, he is just out of position defensively, which allows him to be in the right place at the right time.
The matchup against the Thunder in Miami highlighted that best. He was consistently out of position, his footwork was sloppy and he was unable to out "athletic" Durant, which is how he gets by on most nights. It's has ultimately been his undoing in the post season the last three years. He may score a bunch, but his guy often scores a bunch too.
You don't often hear that about Rose.
4. Dwight Howard Affects More Possessions Per Game Than Anyone Else in the NBA
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This is Stan Van Gundy's biggest argument for Howard over everyone else in the league, and he does seem to have a point. He is 10th in the league in points per game (23.1), second in rebounds per game (14.1), third in blocks (2.39) and 22nd in steals per game. Those are impressive numbers without a doubt, but it is the things that you don't see on most stat sheets that eliminate him from MVP consideration.
The most glaring is that his success or failure rarely affects the Magic in the win column. Howard actually averages more ppg and rpg in Magic losses than he does their wins. In every category, accept blocks, the better Howard does, the less the chances that his team wins.
He averages less than 1.5 assists per game but averages almost four turnovers per game. On a team surrounded by shooters, he should never average more turnovers than assists. Yet, he averages almost three times as many turnovers than assists.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Dwight Howard leads the NBA in blocks out of bounce. You've seen the highlights all the time, guy goes in for a layup and Howard swats the ball seven rows deep. It makes for great copy and replay value on ESPN, but a man with his pure athletic talent could easily simply stop the ball in mid air and tip it to himself. That's good team basketball. That's winning basketball.
Then there is his propensity for the technical foul because he is constantly bickering at the officials. This season, Howard is averaging 3.3 fouls per game, which is pretty much his career average, and seems like a lot (it is actually ninth in the NBA), except when you look closer, you see that no one else in the top 40 fpg plays more minutes than he does. When you look at fpg per 48 minutes (the true gauge of how foul prone a player is), you discover his is only 4.2 which isn't even in the top 50 in the NBA.
Yet, he has been whistled for 18 technicals. This will cause him to miss his second game due to suspension, Sunday against the East leading Bulls, and who knows what will happen in the playoffs. He also is fouled more than any other player in the league, and based on how poor his free-throw shooting is, why should he want more fouls called for him. What real reason does he have to get all of these technicals?
But you see, he does affect more possessions than any other player, but most of the time the better he does, the worse for the Magic.
3. Kobe Bryant Should Win MVP Because of the Lakers Amazing Second Half Record
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All due respect to Kobe Bryant, and I have quite a bit for him, he has had less to do with the Lakers second half than the Laker big men getting healthy and Ron Artest deciding that the NBA season had started. That's not to say he hasn't been spectacular at times, just not as overwhelming as he has been in the past.
In the second half, he has had four games in which he scored 30 or more points (including a 42-point game against Phoenix), but he has also had four games in which he failed to score 20 points, and in each of those games the Lakers won. In fact, the Lakers have won eight of Kobe's nine lowest scoring games in the second half, the lone hiccup his 20-point outing against the Jazz the other night.
It's not that Kobe is doing poorly, and he is still the best player in the NBA in my opinion, but Rose has had a larger affect on his team.
2. Lebron James Is More Efficient Than Derrick Rose
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Hollinger's stat rating on efficiency lists LeBron as the most efficient player in the league, with Rose coming in at seven. This is the stat that is most used to state LeBron's case over Rose for MVP, but it isn't nearly as telling as you would think.
In the key categories that truly affect a win or loss, true shooting percentage assists and turnovers, Rose is either very close to or higher in rating than LeBron. It is the rebounding categories that LeBron outdistances Rose in, specifically the defensive rebounding in which he has an 18.5 to Rose's 9.6, but as Kevin Love and Dwight Howard will tell you, rebounds don't really affect wins and losses as much as scoring and causing scores by assisting in them. So I looked even closer.
In "clutch" games, games decided by five points or less, the Bulls are 15-7 this year. In the fourth quarter of those games, this being the quarter in which these games are won or lost, Rose shoots almost 67 percent from the field and 92 percent from the free-throw line with an assist to turnover ratio of almost four. In those same games, "clutch" games, the Miami Heat are 5-13. In those games LeBron is shooting 46 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free-throw line with an even assist to turnover ratio.
Furthermore, on 82games.com's "clutch" charts (situations in which a player's team led or trailed by five points or less in the last five minutes of a game), Derrick Rose is the second best clutch performer in the league behind only Kobe Bryant.
The bottom line is, in the fourth quarter when MVP's are made, Derrick Rose is far and away better than LeBron.
1. LeBron Is the Best Player in the NBA Every Year Just Like MJ
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Definitely not, and that is no insult on LeBron. LeBron James is, by far, the most athletic player in the NBA. His combination of size, speed and skill are insane, and he truly is an athletic freak. But those things alone don't make him like MJ, MVP every year, but other people win it because no one wants the same person to win every year. As I stated earlier, Kobe Bryant is the "best" player in the NBA, and he has five championship rings to back it up. Tim Duncan has four championship rings. LeBron has an NBA finals appearance.
What I am saying is that in order to be called the best player in the NBA, you have to be a winner, and to compare a player with no championships to the player most call the greatest of all time is absurd. Yes, he is super athletic, but that doesn't make him MJ or Kobe, it just makes him Dominique Wilkins.
That isn't an insult to "The Human Highlight Reel," he's one of my favorite all-time players. I'm just saying that you can be the most athletic player in the NBA and still never win a ring.
Bottom Line Is; Derrick Rose Is the MVP
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The term "MVP" is, at times, obscure in its meaning. Is it the best player in the NBA? Is it the player that means the most to his team? Is it the player with the best statistics? I believe it means the player who affects winning the most to his team in the NBA.
Based on that, it is Derrick Rose.
His team was picked to win about 50 games, and they are currently at 58 with a chance at home court throughout the entire playoffs. He actively works incredibly hard to fill the holes in his game, he rarely sacrifices the good of the team for his personal brand and he has been there throughout the entire season putting the team on his back when his supporting cast either didn't show up or missed games due to injury.
He affects winning on a nightly basis, and the Bulls would truly be lost without him.
