Derrick Rose Is Not Your 2011 NBA MVP, Despite Popular Belief

I hate to be a contrarian for the sole purpose of ticking someone off. I've never done that, and I'm not about to.

That post title you seen when you clicked to read the rest of this article is for real. Derrick Rose isn't your NBA league MVP.

Dwight Howard is.

That's because numbers don't lie, people. I don't care how you break down the MVP race, and how you determine an MVP. ("The best player on the best team!" or "The player who, if you remove him from the team, is missed the most!" aren't valid. Stop it.)

Quantitatively, Rose isn't putting up the numbers most casual NBA fans think he's putting up. There's no doubt he's had an amazing impact in the NBA in just his third year, but he's not the best player in the league. Not yet.

Numbers don't lie. And one number that's especially glaring is Rose's assist ratio, an advanced stat that tells us the rate of assists that end a player's possession. Rose doesn't rank in the top 50.

And while he uses 32.4 percent of his team's possessions—second in the league, only to Kobe Bryant—other players that are gifted playmakers and passers all ranked in the top 50, while also ranking in the top 10 in percentage of possessions used.

That above paragraph says, in a nutshell, Rose isn't the playmaker you think he is. This isn't to say he's not a playmaker, or won't ever be a great playmaker—that's ridiculous.

Rather, Rose doesn't seek to pass first. He utilizes his passing skills when scoring via penetration isn't possible, oftentimes kicking it out to, for example, Luol Deng out in the corner. In essence, it's pretty Allen Iverson-esque.

Another set of glaring numbers? Estimated wins added, as well as win-shares.

Though they are different from one another, they tell a similar story. They calculate the amount of wins a player adds—or the amount of credit a player earns in a win—compared to an "average" player that would replace him.

Rose ranks seventh. And while that's damn good, his opposition, Howard, ranks fourth, meaning Howard contributes more to his team's wins than does Rose. The reason people advocate for Rose's candidacy is because the Bulls are winning, while the Magic are staying well below the radar.

You cannot penalize Howard in the MVP race solely because his team isn't doing as well as Rose's. Howard is easily the only reason the Magic are above .500.

In a time where his teammates cannot produce the slightest "role-player" amount, Howard has been absolutely beastly. Though Rose's play has been pretty spectacular, he has players he can—and should, more often—defer to, even if it seems as if he's their only option on offense.

And the reason Rose looks like he's the only option on offense is his usage-of-possession rate, meaning he's eating up his team's offensive series at the rate of Kobe Bryant. And unless he is an L.A. Laker, that won't go down too well.

It sucks, though. As Kelly Dwyer—easily the most dedicated basketball analyst in the country—had pointed out, Rose fans are becoming obsessed. You know, Kobe Bryant/LeBron James-obsessed.

That cult-like fan base is giving him more MVP publicity than he deserves. And though at some point in his career he will deserve it, his time isn't now.

Because Howard deserves it. Take him off of his team, and his team is crap, and that can be backed up by those wins-added stats.

Give him the consistent role players that Rose has, and the Magic are a 70-win team this year, thanks to his play alone. Feed the ball to Howard more, and we might see some more of that awfully-efficient and special play.

(Howard ranks 21st in possessions used, which is pretty high for an average NBA player, but pretty low, too, for a superstar who is the sixth-most efficient player in the league, according to basketballreference.com.)

So those stats I just presented to you? They're a good measuring stick. But watch the games. Don't watch the highlight reel on ESPN. Don't look at those shallow "per-game" statistics.

Instead, use those advanced statistics to guide the way you watch these games. Just pay attention to the impact Howard has on his team, and the impact Rose has on his. Both are insanely beastly, so enjoy the show.

Just remember that MVPs shouldn't be decided by marketability and popularity. It's about the guy who is carrying his team on his shoulders, no matter the load.

That, dear friends, is not Rose. It's Howard.

Appreciate him.