Durant and Westbrook: Exceeding the requirements for NBA MVP
This season, the Oklahoma City Thunder may be the NBA’s best team. They’ve got the best record in the competitive Western Conference and are among the NBA’s best teams in advanced stats like SRS (third with 6.40) or offensive rating (second, with 108.6). This is happening largely thanks to two young stars: Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Their game styles may not completely mesh, but they’re working well together this year. Only a few weeks ago, they combined for an amazing box score in a win over Denver. Durant scored 51, Westbrook scored 40, plus nine assists, and Serge Ibaka picked up a triple double: 14 points, 11 blocks and 15 rebounds. Most teams would be lucky to have one player with this level of talent. That the Thunder have two is amazing.
This all makes the 2011-12 season interesting. Both Durant and Westbrook are putting up some of the NBA’s best numbers. It’s going to be fun to see just how good they will be: Durant the dominant scorer, Westbrook the take-charge playmaker.
Right now, Westbrook’s PER is 23.3, eighth best in the NBA. He has the second-highest usage percent, 33.1, meaning he’s used more than LeBron James, Derrick Rose or Blake Griffin. He’s among the league’s best in steals, assists and points-per-game (1.8, 5.5 and 23.6, respectively). And he’s setting career highs in stats like Win Shares per 48 minutes, defensive rating and scoring.
But Durant is having a great season, too. He’s right behind LeBron for the NBA’s lead in PER and Win Shares. Only Kobe Bryant scores more per game, but Durant does so more efficiently, with far fewer shot attempts. And the Thunder rely on him almost as much as Westbrook, with a usage percent of 31.5. It’s no surprise he’s played over 100 more minutes than any teammate.
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But there are still two big questions: first, which one is more important to the Thunder? And second, isn’t the most important player on the best team the league’s MVP?
Those are tough questions. Durant’s ability as a scorer wouldn’t mean much without a playmaker like Westbrook. But would the Thunder be this good without Durant’s scoring? And I haven’t even gotten to James Harden yet, either.
Harden’s younger than both Durant and Westbrook. Considering his beard, easily the NBA’s best, it’s remarkable. He does all the things you expect from the sixth man type: comes off the bench, can play either the two or three and he’s putting up great numbers: a PER of 20.8, an offensive rating of 124.3, which is third-best in the NBA, and 0.228 Win Shares per 48 Minutes, good for eighth-best.
Which I suppose raises a question: can a team be so good that no single player stands out above the rest? Can you have an MVP from a team as stacked as the Thunder?
Last year, LeBron James led the NBA in Win Shares and PER and was second in scoring. He was among the leaders in assists and steals per game. And he had a better offensive rating and shooting stats than Derrick Rose. However, Rose ran away with the MVP vote: he picked up 113 first-place votes. Why was someone who didn’t put up as good statistics seen as more valuable?
Part of the answer comes from head-to-head experience. The Bulls swept the Heat in 2010-11. Remember, Rose’s award was announced before their playoff series. Voters could say Rose’s Bulls never lost to LeBron’s Heat.
And maybe they couldn’t say another reason: they were punishing LeBron for The Decision. That PR stunt has been covered ad nausium, but there’s another angle here: with the Big Three in Miami, could any one player be more valuable than any other?
But Rose showed himself valuable in the absence of his peers. Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer missed big stretches of the season. There were nights where Rose scored 36 with 10 assists in a close game; there wasn’t anyone else to shoulder the load. There weren’t many nights where James, Bosh or Wade were in similar spots.
Could that mean Durant won’t be a slam-dunk MVP candidate? With Westbrook and Harden there, does Oklahoma have too much combined talent for any one player to stand out?
Voters aren’t going to look at Durant and think about how great he is and that he’s maybe the best player in the league. They’re going to have lingering questions about how good the Thunder would be without him. They’re going to wonder the same thing about other players: how the Bulls would look without Rose, the Clippers would look without Chris Paul or the Wolves without Kevin Love. There won’t be the same storyline with the Thunder. Writers love storylines.
It wouldn’t be fair to Durant, but the Thunder might be too good for him to be named MVP.
***Note: all stats accurate as of March 4
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