yes or no / oustisde of Steph, Damian Lilliard is the MVP

[kshutts1]

Lebron second (as much as I hate to admit that right now)

then Lillard.

No other choices make sense. Leonard is good but Spurs would still be amazing without him. Harden lol. Westbrook and Durant depend on each other to stay good but no great.

Lillard is carrying a team on his back.

Curry is clear winner so this is stupid.

What other qualification for MVP should there be?

[RoseCity07]

What other qualification for MVP should there be?

Record is one. You must be a top 4 team to be seriously considered. That means Lillard is out.

[kshutts1]

Record is one. You must be a top 4 team to be seriously considered. That means Lillard is out.

Disagree.

Top 4 record generally means the team is very good, which means the value/requirements/responsibility are split among a handful of good-to-great players.

You said as much as Thunder and Spurs. Same argument applies to Warriors, Cavs.

[StephHamann]

[Edgar Friendly]

If he were to win, he would join Iverson as the only sub 43% shooters in the history of NBA MVPs. Only difference is AI's team was 1st in the East. Lillard is a tier below CP3, Curry,Kawhi, LeBron, and Westbrook in qualification.

[Harison]

Lillard will be lucky if he cracks Top5 in MVP voting.

[Collie]

To be an MVP, you either need to have a transcendent season (MJ in 89, Hakeem 94) OR be the best player on one of the best teams (the past few MVPs).

Lillard is having neither a transcendent season, nor is his team one of the top NBA teams, so definitely no.

[Fallen Angel]

I think Lillard could possibly win an MVP award if he gets a better team and can put up his best games consistently over a full season.

but this year no chance even if curry and kawhi and lebron and lowry and westbrook and durant and cp3 didn't exist.

fixed it for you

[iamgine]

Portland's unexpected record is more because Mccallum stepped up to replace the hole left behind by Aldridge.

[Rocketswin2013]

carmelo had ridiculous hotstreak towards the end of 2013 and got a vote for MVP, over a bunch of superior players. of all the voters, some people will simply only look at the hype and large numbers toward the end of the year. itll be fresh in their minds. i wouldnt be shocked if it prevents curry from being unanimously picked.

[Spurs5Rings2014]

carmelo had ridiculous hotstreak towards the end of 2013 and got a vote for MVP, over a bunch of superior players. of all the voters, some people will simply only look at the hype and large numbers toward the end of the year. itll be fresh in their minds.

[hold this L]

Lillard should be nowhere near MVP talk, but this is the typical 'what have you done for me now' mentality. He's playing like a top 5 player since the ASB was done, but you shouldn't getting awards for playing at top level for 1/3rd of the season (assuming he keeps it up).

If Lillard plays like he's playing right now throughout an entire season though.. he can challenge Curry for MVP next year or the year after. Assuming of course that Curry does not get any better than he's been this season, which I'm assuming and the league is praying that it isn't possible.

This season for me:
Curry
Durant, Lebron (in this order)
Kawhi, Green, Westbrick (in any order)

[3peated]

top 3= steph, cp3, dame. cp3 has been doing amazing without blake this year. including comeback wins, i'd watch out for the clippers to upset some people in the playoffs....warriors included, they're a very hungry team.

[MoMoney]

I rarely log on to post on this website, however I consistently browse and feel like most of the points I would make in any given thread have already been made. For this, however, I think everyone is ignoring what kind of argument can be made for Damian Lillard.

The approach that's been taken on this thread has been a comparison in numbers and consistency of on the court performance that "doesn't put him second to Steph." I think that the argument OP is trying to make is that voters should be able to look past or at least qualify the averages and seeding of Lillard and the Blazers for the net impact he has made overall on the team. The text of the Most valuable player award doesn't require the voter to think only in tangibles, although that's how it's traditionally been voted on.

Before you consider the rest of my argument, keep in mind that Steph Curry should hands down receive the award barring a 45+ pt. average from Damian the rest of the year, and anybody who denies that is living in a delusion.



During the summer, the Blazers decided to trash start a rebuilding process. They traded their Prius in at the car dealership for some future credit and in the meantime got a rusty car that could barely run. This car, however, wasn't what they expected it to be. The damn car turned out to be packed with cocaine worth 150x anything that it was expected to.

Intangible Impacts :

Damian Lillard practiced daily in the summer with C.J. McCollum, and the bond that they have created is surely part of, if not majorly responsible for his dedication to living up to his new role. If you get a chance to catch any Blazer game, you will notice that over the course of the game there will be period of time in which C.J. catches some kind of fire. Damian Lillard, instead of looking first for his shot, will unselfishly feed him the ball anywhere from 3 to 10 possessions in a row because he recognizes that he needs C.J. to score in order to win. Even when C.J. is having a slow shooting night, it's Lillard who initiates the turn around.

tldr : Damian isn't offered the luxury of only focusing on his own game because he isn't surrounded by the talent, money, and experience that every other MVP candidate is.

When the Blazers lost 4/5 starters, it was Damian who persuaded the team, organization, and fans that they were still a team worth watching. It's his unselfishness that makes this Blazer team considerably more enjoyable to watch than even the last few seasons where their record was better. (Also a reason why Stotts should get coach of the year votes.) In an economic sense for the league, the ticket sales and viewer ratings of Blazer games were legitimately saved by Lillard himself. When everyone else left, he saved the family. The warriors would still sell out if Curry was out for the season, as would the spurs without Leonard and although Cleveland may not without Lebron they would definitely not sink to the numbers a Lillardless Blazers would attract.

My point is that I haven't even had to throw a basketball statistic into this argument to make my case for Lillard, and when they're combined with his overall impacts on the team should at least force those who continue to sleep on him to look twice. He's the drugs in the car, and he's the value to the organization that had resigned itself to years of rebuilding and profit voids that all of a sudden don't seem to unavoidable.


Just my two cents on a lazy afternoon.

[references]

as long as lebron is out of the top 5