NBA MVP Race: Derrick Rose vs. Dwight Howard

At the beginning of the year, if I would have told you the MVP race would come down to Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose, you would have laughed.

Fast forward to March and this is exactly the case.

No LeBron James. No Kobe Bryant. You can scratch the early Amare Stoudemire talk, too.

This one comes down to the best center in basketball and the best point guard in basketball.

Let's start with the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard.

We all know about Howard's dominance on the defensive end, where he has taken home the Defensive Player of the Year award the past two seasons and will most likely be given the award again this year.

But it's his improved offense that has made him an MVP finalist.

Dwight Howard is having, by far, the best statistical year of his career putting up 23.1 points per game, 14.2 rebounds per game and 2.4 blocks per game.

Howard has developed a nice stroke on his jump shot thanks to his offseason work with Hakeem Olajuwon and his ongoing training with Patrick Ewing.

Dwight has demonstrated much better finesse around the rim than he has in past years, which is why we have seen a near five-point jump over his career scoring average of 18.1 points per game this year.

The Magic will go as far as Howard can take them, and I would argue he is the most important player in the league to his team. Take Dwight out of the Magic lineup and you're left with a bunch of perimeter scorers and average defenders.

Dwight Howard has his Magic at a current record of 46-26, good for fourth in the eastern conference.

Enter Derrick Rose.

The Chicago native has his Bulls at the top of the Eastern Conference ranks (51-19) and has set the Bulls up as serious title contenders for the first time in the post-Jordan era.

If you sit down and watch a full Bulls game, no matter what team your a fan of, you'll respect Rose by the time the game is over.

The 22-year-old point guard has offensive moves that will make your jaw drop at any given time. He's as physical as a point guard can be.

Rose is averaging nearly 25 points per game and eight assists, while improving his three-point percentage from last year by eight percent, which has attributed to his five-point increase in points per game.

When Rose first came into the league, opposing defenders could play off of him in hope to keep him for penetrating, but those days are over.

So, there are your two MVP finalists.

It's refreshing to be able to hear different names being discussed for the award and it will be interesting to see who takes it home in May.