Who's the MVP? I think it's Derrick Rose

[Rush]

This is one of the weaker MVP classes in memory which is partially why Rose has such a great chance to win, and right now, is probably the favorite. Of course, winning an MVP in a weak class is...

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By: Doug Thonus

 

[RamiTheBullsFan]

I wouldn't say that this is a particularly weak class for MVPs compared to recent years. Nash, Nash, and Nowitzki won the award from 2005-2007 and I would say that was a much weaker class than this season.

Rose benefits a lot because he is one of the only players to play on an extremely good team with lack of help from a second star player (it's more than fair to say Boozer is not a star player anymore).

Durant has Westbrook.

Bryant has Gasol.

James has Wade (or vice versa, depending on which way you want to look at it) and Bosh.

Ginobili has Parker (and some serious depth)

Rondo has KG. KG has Pierce. Pierce has Rondo. And that entire team has some serious depth.

Howard, like Rose, lacks a second star. And I don't blame someone too much who thinks he's the MVP right now. The Magic do have some quality starters though (Nelson and Richardson) and some more depth beyond that (Tukoglu, Redick, Bass, Clark, Anderson, Arenas, Q-Rich).

Nowitzki doesn't have a second star either. And the Mavs actually have a little better record than the Bulls. But Terry, Kidd, Marion, and a much-improved Tyson Chandler are all not far away from being All-Star caliber players. Rose has 3 other guys who could potentially be All-Stars. And Butler was there for about 30 games. That did help the Mavs rack up some wins early in the season. And the Mavs had a stretch where they dropped some games because Nowitzki was hurt. So that hurts Dirk in that regard, too.

 

[RamiTheBullsFan]

It seems like the voting is going to come down between Rose and James. And I think this is actually a pretty easy choice right now.

It's Rose.

For the first time in James' career, he is making his teammates worse. He used to play with a bunch of spot-up shooters and had a low-post presence also for most of his 7 years in Cleveland. But now he is taking shots away from Wade and Bosh, who both need a high-volume of FG attempts to get into a groove scoring-wise. James as the PG is really hurting Wade because it takes Wade's hands off of the ball in half-court situations. The Heat would be way better off if Wade (or even Bibby/Chalmers) was/were the main play-maker in Miami. LeBron cannot penetrate the lanes and thick defenses like Wade can. LeBron needs to post up more (mid-range/high-post) and work in Paul Pierce+KG type of style on offense in slow sets. And Bosh needs to stay in the low-post or they need to trade him- simple as that.

Also when you look at how many missed game-winning / game-saving shots LeBron James has missed this season... that has cost them a number of games.

Those are the reasons why I think Derrick Rose will run away with the MVP over James this season.

 

[RamiTheBullsFan]

Oh yeah. I shouldn't have left out Chris Paul in the "lacking a 2nd star" discussion above. He just has David West, Emeka Okafor, Trevor Ariza, and some shooters. That isn't a whole lot to work with compared to anybody else in the MVP discussion. But I don't think you can make a case for Paul over a guy like Rose, Howard, or Nowitzki this season.

 

[clonetrooper264]

To me it's between Dwight, Rose, and Dirk. All 3 lack a true 2nd all star and have a pretty good supporting cast and depth. Imo it then comes to Rose and Dirk because Howard's team is doing worse. I think that Rose would get it over both those guys, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. Like Doug said, the award is somewhat political and Rose getting this early in his career isn't that likely.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

rose....fo sho

 

[Skills]

LOL @ Skip & whatever that other guy's name is on First Take earlier. First Skip says the Bulls aren't better than the Knicks (seriously?) & now he wants to give the MVP to Kobe. The other dude brings up LeBrick which makes no sense. He obviously didn't see the 24 point meltdown the Heat had against the Magic on Thursday, or the weak shot LeBrick took while Joakim was D'ing him up. Nobody and I repeat NOBODY on the Heat deserves an MVP award, that's just ridiculous. I can understand his argument for Dwight, but Orlando is the 4th seed, the Bulls are the 2nd & it's because of Derrick.

No doubt in my mind it's Derrick Rose.

 

[Chi-Town Brahma]

Poohdini FTW!