Hey guys. Been a while, years probably, since I've posted not the board, thought you might be interested in this though.
Having a decent amount of time on my hands this year, I decided how an MVP race would look if it was determined in the same way as we do the AFL Brownlow. As a result, I've spent/wasted a whole bunch of time allocating votes on a 3-2-1 basis for each regular season game with the results posted on the @HoopPerspective Twitter feed (shameless plug over).
Doing this mainly from looking at the box score, and articles about the games, I understand that it is far from a perfect process in regards to actually giving votes that match the reality of each game. Nonetheless, I was interested in seeing how voting this way would pan out rather than the way the MVP is determined by 'the vibe' when media vote on it, where performances from earlier in the season tend to get forgotten. Using this system, being the best player in any given game is the worth the same at the start of the year versus the end of the year, and also perhaps gives players performing well on a poor team a fighting chance. Certainly another limitation is that this is only one person's opinion.
Anyway, if you're interested in how the voting has gone so far, the current leaderboard is:
1. James Harden (109 votes)
2. John Wall (102)
3. Steph Curry (97)
4. Anthony Davis (87)
5. Chris Paul (83)
6. LeBron James (81)
7. Marc Gasol (77)
=9 R. Westbrook, L. Aldridge (73)
10. T. Lawson (70)
Obviously the big outlier in there is John Wall, who is probably not considered in the top 5 for the MVP race, but he is often in the best couple of players on the court, win or lose. Obviously James Harden has been absolute beast and a well deserved MVP favourite at this point. Also, as in the the Brownlow, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have probably stolen some votes from Steph, whereas Harden probably hasn't had that problem.
Anyway, though this might be a discussion starter, I'll post an update every now and then.
Having a decent amount of time on my hands this year, I decided how an MVP race would look if it was determined in the same way as we do the AFL Brownlow. As a result, I've spent/wasted a whole bunch of time allocating votes on a 3-2-1 basis for each regular season game with the results posted on the @HoopPerspective Twitter feed (shameless plug over).
Doing this mainly from looking at the box score, and articles about the games, I understand that it is far from a perfect process in regards to actually giving votes that match the reality of each game. Nonetheless, I was interested in seeing how voting this way would pan out rather than the way the MVP is determined by 'the vibe' when media vote on it, where performances from earlier in the season tend to get forgotten. Using this system, being the best player in any given game is the worth the same at the start of the year versus the end of the year, and also perhaps gives players performing well on a poor team a fighting chance. Certainly another limitation is that this is only one person's opinion.
Anyway, if you're interested in how the voting has gone so far, the current leaderboard is:
1. James Harden (109 votes)
2. John Wall (102)
3. Steph Curry (97)
4. Anthony Davis (87)
5. Chris Paul (83)
6. LeBron James (81)
7. Marc Gasol (77)
=9 R. Westbrook, L. Aldridge (73)
10. T. Lawson (70)
Obviously the big outlier in there is John Wall, who is probably not considered in the top 5 for the MVP race, but he is often in the best couple of players on the court, win or lose. Obviously James Harden has been absolute beast and a well deserved MVP favourite at this point. Also, as in the the Brownlow, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have probably stolen some votes from Steph, whereas Harden probably hasn't had that problem.
Anyway, though this might be a discussion starter, I'll post an update every now and then.
