Gallery: 5/5
LeBron James
Why He Should Win MVP: He's in the same stratosphere as Westbrook and Harden in terms of the triple-double stats (26.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.7 assists), so that gets him into the conversation. While Westbrook is the first player in 55 years to average a triple-double, James is going to be the first to average 25, 8 and 8 while shooting at least 50 percent from the field since some guy named Michael Jordan in 1989.
Moreover, if you want to quantify "most valuable" by on/off splits, LeBron would get the nod. When he's on the court, the Cavs have a net rating of plus-7.7, and when he's off the court, they are negative-8.2, giving him a positive difference of 15.9 points per 100 possessions. Westbrook is close at 13.1, while Kawhi and http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612745/onoffcourt-advanced/ are at just 2.0 and 1.9, respectively.
Why He Might Not Win MVP: Team performance again comes into play. While the Cavs are second in the East, they've stumbled down the stretch, they've lost three in a row and they only have five more wins than the Thunder. Though that certainly hasn't been LeBron's fault, it will come into play when the race is this tight. (Getty)
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