By: Yama Hazheer
The Warriors have established themselves as a top-tier team this season. They have been the talk of the NBA as not only as a team that has surpassed expectations set prior to the year, but are considered by many to be the favorites to win it all.
When you have a team that is thriving off an incredible amount of success in the regular season, that means there has to be key assets to the winning formula. For Golden State, it’s evident as to who the difference-makers are.
Surrounded by experienced, flashy, and energetic players alongside an intelligent coaching staff, the Dubs have been in the conversation for not just one individual award, but multiple.
Here is how they stack up against their competition in their respective award races:
Stephen Curry and the Most Valuable Player Race
This is the first year in a while where the MVP race has been this tight. Curry is going up against the likes of James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and LeBron James.
James Harden: Harden is leading a Houston Rockets team that has been missing Dwight Howard for nearly the entirety of the season. Harden has helped Houston keep pace with the rest of the Western Conference and have them in position to have homecourt advantage.
However, Harden is still a negative to his team on the defensive end of the ball. Although he’s not awful like he has been in the past, he’s not average, either. His offensive game is one of the best in the league and is stepback jumper is deadly, but the Rockets are still on the bubble of being not only a top 3 seed in the league as a whole, but in the West. That’s not good enough to be the MVP.
The Rockets have also lost all four match-ups against the Warriors and Curry dominated him in individual statistics in those games. Yes, the lockdown defender in Klay Thompson was defending Harden, but Curry had no easy competition himself. Patrick Beverley is known as a point guard stopper and one of the peskier defenders in the league, yet Curry made him look like a mediocre point guard defensively with the way he was able to handle the pressure.
LeBron James: James has helped a team that was very unfamiliar with one another look like they have been playing together for years. The Cleveland Cavaliers record isn’t the nicest looking one, but James has missed a selective amount of games. The Cavs were struggling to beat even sub-par teams without James, as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were not able to lead the team. James has basically played a coach role too, helping David Blatt transition to the NBA level.
With that being said, James might have missed too many games to be in heavy consideration to win the award unless he goes on some barbaric finish to the season (which he is capable of).
Russell Westbrook: Westbrook has been a triple-double machine. There’s no denying his statistics that have been out of this world, but his team is still only an 8th seed and is struggling to get past the New Orleans Pelicans in the standings. They have been missing Kevin Durant, but KD kept the Thunder well in the playoff picture last season when Westbrook was hurt.
The freak of nature has also had a usage rate through the roof. Since the All-Star break, he’s at 40.6 percent and leads the league overall at 37.4. Although he’s played fewer games than Curry, Westbrook has more missed shots and turnovers. Triple-doubles look great for fantasy owners and for the media to sensationalize, but the Thunder are on the bottom of the playoff standings and that alone can’t merit you the most valuable player despite putting up monster numbers.
The Warriors’ Case: Curry has emerged as arguably the best point guard in the league and a top five player. With Kevin Durant hurt, the Baby-Faced Assassin is being marketed as the face of the NBA right behind obviously James.
Adam Silver called Curry the type of players commissioners dream about having. That’s high praise for a player on a team who has seen little to no success in the past couple of decades. Curry has made the Warriors not only better on the court, but off the court marketing wise. There’s a reason his jersey has been the number one selling and the Warriors have sold the most team merchandise in 2015.
But the array of moves mixed with the passion and skill that Curry demonstrates on any given night on the basketball court is taken to different levels. He is already being called the best shooter of all-time by a large amount of people, and he’s not even close to being 30-years old, yet.
His handles have vastly improved and so has his playmaking. He’s not a great defender by any means, but he can hold his own against some of the top-notch point guards in the NBA.
Curry has led the Warriors to a 51-11 record in games where he plays and the Warriors lineup of Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Andrew Bogut is 40-5 on the season.
50 wins in the middle of March in this tough of a Western Conference? Curry has to be penciled in as the MVP right now. The Warriors bench isn’t as great as the media makes it out to be and Klay Thompson has had his moments where he slumped. Curry has been able to help the team stay mentally strong when they have been in the spotlight for a longer length than anyone could have predicted.
His unselfishness mixed with the attitude to take over the game whenever he wants makes him elite. Even when Curry’s shot isn’t falling, he gets others involved and makes a significant impact on the game. He’s improved in areas he struggled in such as taking care of the ball and defense.
Fuck this dumb ass