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I dont think Houston "easily' makes it. Howard was no offensive threat, but he changed a lot of shots. Capela is no Pau Gasol on defense, but he's no Howard either.
In this West? Where Utah is supposed to win 50 games?
Houston will make it fine. There are a ton of terrible teams in the West.
Kings
Nuggets
Mavs
Suns
Lakers
Most likely have 0 chance.
Then you have Portland OKC and the Pelis who are going to be fringe playoff teams anyway, but Lillard and Westbrook could keep them into the >45 win category.
Houston should easily get 50 wins this year.
I dont think Houston "easily' makes it. Howard was no offensive threat, but he changed a lot of shots. Capela is no Pau Gasol on defense, but he's no Howard either.
Lillard is good. Damn good. But he's a small guy, and basketball is still a bigger man's game. Usually if a small guy wins it, you understand why. I guess if Derrick Rose could win it, Lillard could too. But that had a lot to do with not wanting to give LeBron a 3-peat as MVP. (Ultimately, it would have been a 5-peat.) The year Rose won it, they had Dwight Howard second, and everyone knew he wasn't the league MVP. I think Kawhi would give them every excuse they need not to pick a PG as MVP.
Not dissing Lillard a bit, nor your point. But If I'm starting a team, give me a big(ger) guy every time.
I wasn't on this forum at the time; but as a Jimmer follower, I was well familiar with Kawhi (a fellow MWC player); and I told people that he might be the most talented player in the draft. Trolls like apalisoc_9 who trashed him and then put chips on him later will try to say he was ahead of the curve.
Pels will be down there with Suns. Then Lakers and Sactown. Mavs and Nuggets will be much better than those bottom-dwellers and may challenge for eighth place. With a complete make-over Houston is a big question mark in my book. They did not look good against the Lakers last night, though.
MVP voters love the traditional stats. Without having to share the ball (and limelight) with Durant, Westbrook may average close to a triple double. He is one of my favorites.
Kawhi averaging 32.5 ppg after the first two games.
I probably laughed at you, and not because I thought Kawhi was going to be better than that. I imagined him being Bruce Bowen with elite rebounding skills for his size, and thought that was probably too optimistic. I can't think of the last player who came out of college with so little fanfare and became this good. I'm not sure anyone ever has. Ever. The lowest drafted MVP in NBA history was Steve Nash, who didn't deserve either of his awards and didn't have to learn how to dribble and shoot after he entered the league.
He was a good shooter from the elbow in college (despite overblown reports of how bad his shot allegedly was). I knew he could be a solid contributor in the various facets.
You are correct that he was a good shooter. ESPN did a sports science thing on Kawhi before the draft, and he shot great when they had him in the studio. It pointed out that his mechanics were poor when he was in college. So you're right that he was working on his shooting even then. But going from a 10-15 foot shooter to NBA three point range is one thing, and he became completely ing elite at it. , he was a 74 percent free throw shooter in college! And his ball handling improvement is even more mind-boggling than his shooting. Now he's adding getting to the line to his game, and he's facilitating. It's insane.
To be fair, "solid contributor" is a completely reasonable take, but it's miles from being the second or third best player in the NBA. Again, kudos to guys who predicted he'd be this good, but I really don't think there was any real logic behind it, because nobody has ever improved this much.
Well, he'd shoot the 17 to 19 footers from the elbow as a weapon. That was the place where SDSU would get him the ball to score. I can't say I had Kawhi pegged as an MVP candidate (or MVP). But I saw the scoring potential and knew he was a great rebounder for a small forward. Like I say, I considered him top three in the draft and possibly the best. I was bewildered that most "experts" had him eight to fifteen on their lists. It made me second guess my judgment of talent, tbh. But given that, I can't say I was surprised that Kawhi hit all-star level. I can't say I had called his defensive prowess. SDSU didn't even consider him among the top three defenders on their own team.
He should have a boarderline All-Star point-guard when Jrue returns otherwise KG used to make the postseason w/ Wally Szczerbiak & didn't get an MVP until the Wolves won 58 w/ old ass Cassell/Sprewell.
>When Jrue returns
Might not be until halfway through the season. Until then his second best player is ing Lance Stephenson or Langston "Porker slayer" Galloway. KG didn't have stacked rosters when he took them to the playoffs but they were never this bad.
Should be an interesting race. Hopefully, they'll meet in the Finals, too. That would be one for the ages.
Lebron already won 2016-17 MVP
Kawhi is a good chance for 2nd place
In '04-'05, he led the league in PER/WS/VORP/BPM/Rebs & finished 11th in MVP voting b/c they "only won 44 games" as Cassell was injured & Sprewell was washed up. Fred Hoiberg was 3rd in win-shares on that squad:
Davis isn't finishing top 5 let alone winning the MVP if the Pelicans win 41 games unless that's good enough to make the playoffs.
As far as non-playoff teams, KG had Ricky Davis as his wingman during his last season w/ the Wolves.: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2007.html#all_roster
Last edited by Kawhitstorm; 10-28-2016 at 12:05 PM.
Basically this.
Not ready to declare Kawhi MVP yet. We should if he can this scoring up while getting wins for the team.
All that while not getting burned out trying to chase an individual award.
I hope he wins it, but under all the right cir stances.
Lebron coasting won't matter imho as long as he's Lebron and nobody takes it from his hands.
Which Kawhi has some chance to do, given that Curry/KD will get penalized for having a super team.
But only if he can give the voters a reason, like a top 2 seed and ~25 ppg, imo.
Howard should've won in 2011. Rose was kinda riding Thibs success in his rookie season as HC.
If 20 on 50 FG is a slow night for Kawhi, I'll take that.
i think kawhi will have a hard time to win the MVP because of playing time!!
This articleThe cavs announcers blowing that pass up like it wasn't a set play that they STOLE from the Spurs
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/10/lebr...land-cavaliers
Then Lebron saying "only one guy in the world can make that pass"
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