I caught some grief from all corners today after news came out that I was the only voter among 125 who had Blake Griffin second, behind Kevin Durant and ahead of LeBron James, in the NBA’s Most Valuable Player voting.
Quite frankly, I am stunned I was the only one.
Doc Rivers made the case in April that Griffin was the better No. 2 candidate, and that was something I decided, too, over the final two months of the season — a time when the Los Angeles Clippers were defeating all comers and the Miami Heat were blowing a chance to win the No. 1 spot in the East.
Here are five reasons why I voted Blake ahead of LeBron. I elaborate in the podcast below.
1. Griffin had the best year of his career as the Clippers had the most successful season in franchise history.
2. The award is about value to a player’s team. The Clippers had a better year than the Heat, and Griffin was the main reason why — especially when he carried the team during Chris Paul’s injury absence. Lest you forget, the Clippers (57-15) won three more games than the Heat (54-28).
3. The Heat had eight more losses than they did a year ago. Buy their own standards, they had a subpar season. They lost to a ton of bad teams.
4. The Clippers put up those 57 wins in a much tougher contest than the one Miami plays in.
5. Griffin had a 31-game stretch in which he scored 20 or more points. That is sustained greatness. LeBron’s longest such streak was 10, accomplished twice.
If you need more, it is right there for you in this segment from the NBA channel on Sirius Radio. Enjoy.
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The “value to a player’s team” thing is your opinion. Just about everyone else treats MVP as a “best player in the league this season” award which is what it should be, since value to a team is very subjective and also no-one really cares.
Not sure why the Heat’s reduced regular season performance reflects badly on LeBron, seeing as it was in large part due to Wade missing games, role-players like Battier and Allen being much much less productive offensively, and Bosh especially coasting through a lot of games. Sure, LeBron was probably not quite as good as the last couple of seasons (increased shooting percentage aside), but that’s why he’s #2 instead of #1… still better than Griffin, offensively and defensively. And arguably more valuable to the Heat than the last two seasons, because with Wade absent and the roleplayers not scoring LeBron has had to do it all much more often.