The interesting thing will be who comes in 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. In my opinion, Lebron, AI, KG, and to some extent Duncan should not be that high. Lebron certainly didn't fail his team, but you got to make the playoffs. AI...plays with a lot of heart and passion, but not MVP. KG, no playoffs should mean no votes. Duncan...maybe top 5. He deserves to be up there, but missed 14 games. If I was voting, it would have gone like this: 1) Shaq 2) Nash 3) Ray Allen 4) T-Mac 5) Dirk 6) Duncan I hate putting Dirk ahead of Duncan, but he only missed 4 games, and the argument that if Nash is so good his loss should have hurth more is persuasive. Also, I heard that Amare might be up there. I'm sure D-Wade will be top 10. Which makes you wonder if there has ever been an MVP to win the award (and the Finals) with less talent surrounding him than Hakeem. AI is the only one who comes to mind.
Kobe and Odom didn't mesh. Before the season started, Kobe, Odom, and Butler looked like the nucleus of a pretty good team, and nearly everyone expected the Lakers to finish as a high playoff seed. But chemistry is a tricky thing. A team as deep as the Mavs can lose a great player and still do reasonably well. Not as well, obviously, as they would do with the great man, but reasonably well. Last year, San Antonio lost Tim Duncan for 14 games. This was about as big a loss as anyone can imagine, but the Spurs still managed to go 7-7 despite playing 13 of those games against Western Conference opponents. The one game in the East (which they won) was against the tough Miami Heat. So the Spurs did pretty well without Duncan, just as the Mavs have done without Nash. (With Nash, the Mavs won 60 games in 2003. 2004 doesn't count, because they had Antoine Walker that year to thank for wasting 5 to 10 possessions a game. This year, before Avery took over, they were headed for a 53-29 season, which would have been mediocre for a team as stacked as they are.) On a shallow team, a great player can make a huge splash. This is why Nash has made such a difference to the Suns.
The Suns' 2-5 record this year without Nash was nearly identical to their winning percentage of last year. That was what grabbed my attention. It told me that without Nash, the Suns reverted to last year's playing style, with last year's 29-53 result. Believe me, Nash has made a huge difference. I'm clearly a fan of Nash. But if we are lucky enough to meet the Suns in the next round, and he continues doing his penetration-and-dish thing, I want Deke to teach him forcefully why that would not be healthy.
Wow, that's a heck of an explanation for a team that went from 52 wins in 03-04 to 58 wins in 04-05. Somehow reading that you'd think the Mavs were worse this season without Nash, when the fact is they gained 6 games with Terry as his replacement. And I'm not an Antoine Walker fan, but the fact is that when the Celtics traded for him they were transformed from crappy team to one of the best in the East down the stretch. Nowitzki, Finley, Nash, Walker, Jamison - that's an extremely talented team. And Danny Fortson, a difference maker with the Sonics this year, barely could get off the bench for Dallas.
Bill Russell was never the top scorer on his team, but that did not prevent him from winning the MVP award <i>five</i> times. Heck, in 4 of those 5 seasons he wasn't even the second scorer on his team. Russell was extremely intelligent though -- just like Nash.
As I wrote, the Mavs were headed for a 53-29 record this year before Avery took over. That definitely would be much worse than the 60 wins they had in 2003. Another bit of evidence. In 2003, with Nash, their points-per-game differential was +7.8; in 2005, despite having Dampier to bolster their defence, the Mavs' differential declined to +5.7. The 2005 differential would probably look even worse if we subtracted the post-Avery record, but I am too lazy to do it. So Nash has made a huge difference. Incidentally, a +7 differential is what Phoenix has this year.
Forgot to add ... The Mavs' 2004 season was obviously an aberration. Cuban messed up when he got Antoine Walker, and Nash (unfairly) took the blame for the resulting mediocre season.
Nash deserves it this year. Shaq is the only other legitimate candidate and it wasn't a great year for him. If he won it this year he probably should've won it about 10 more times than he has.
Also, Nash is really the coach on this team. D'Antoni when asked what they would do in the playoffs when games became half court grind em out games replied that he has Steve Nash and that Nash could handle it. The same question was repeated and again he said Nash had been there before and could handle it. Without Nash this team I really believe would be hopeless.
I wonder why nobody mentioned Stackhouse. Dallas didn't just replace Nash with Terry. They added Stackhouse and subtract Walker. Stackhouse replaces Jamison and I think Stackhouse fits better with the Mavs. In the end, the MVP is always controversial because it is impossible to objectively measure a player's VALUE, which is supposed to by what mVp is all about.
They should give two different awards...MVP and Player of the Year. You hear MVP, and you pretty much think Player of the Year, but it shouldn't be like that, because that's not what MVP means.
on the one hand, now shaq doesn't have more mvp's than hakeem, but now steve nash has just as many. others have said it, but this was essentially the perfect storm for nash to win. league rules and the type of talent and style of his team helped. the suns injuries/down year last year made him look even better. and then no one else really stood out. duncan, imo, just cruised through the regular season, and then missed basically the last month. cruising is smart if you can still have a great record and be rested for the playoffs, but it's hard to give an mvp for that. lebron put up huge numbers but cleveland missed the playoffs (and basically just collapsed) and it would be hard to start his mvp parade this early. iverson may have had the best statistics of anyone with his huge 30/8/2.5 stls year and he basically willed his team into the playoffs (and then was huge in the playoffs, even though that doesn't count) but since they barely made the playoffs it was still hard to give it to him. kg, enormous stats, no playoffs. kobe, enormous stats, no playoffs and year full of hate for ego/chasing shaq off/rape trial to contend with so he definitely wasn't getting it. wade put up huge numbers but plays with shaq so people pretend he can't be mvp. so you basically had shaq and nash left b/c of their teams conference leading records and big improvements (miami didn't really turnaround since they were going up). shaq put up essentially career low numbers and cruised while still having the best record in the east by far. and he has a teammate who may be better than him (and whoever said the mvp should at least be leading scorer on his team, well then shaq wouldn't win it either since wade led the heat in scoring). scored huge points for lakers demise though people ignore malone leaving (and he, ugh, was a big difference for them last year), big time injury problems, payton and fisher leaving, rudy leaving, and essentially them giving up at the end. got big points for heat turnaround though they were already east's 3rd best team last year. nash scored a measly 15.5 ppg, even if he did lead the league in assists by a good margin. he doesn't play defense and he doesn't rebound. and he has a teammate who may be better than him. scored huge points for suns turnaround though they had injury problems and added Q and then a few bench guys during the season. lost points for mavs improvement, though most of it came under avery, and they not only replaced him with terry, but added dampier to give them their best center yet (though he overrates himself), and got stackhouse and harris for jamison. loses points b/c he signed as a free agent to directly add talent to his team while shaq was traded for some talent. gains points b/c some of the talent shaq was traded for was brian grant. in the end, you had two guys who aren't as good as maybe 4 or 5 other guys in the league (and more in nash's case), but since team success is considered so heavily and their teams improvements were so hyped, they were the only two left to be considered by the voters. i'm glad nash won b/c i think shaq sometimes gets overpraised for his dominance (he's still considered the most dominant by so many in the league even with only putting up 23/10 in the east these days and that clearly is not the most dominant), and i've liked the suns season (and now i hope they beat the hell out of the mavs). so good for nash, even if he is the worst mvp ever. personally, i may have voted for iverson, but that may just be because i've found a level of respect for his game i didn't have before while watching him this season. just incredible the numbers he put up while almost never resting.
This post comes from spursreport.com User RichB. Pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about this- couldnt have said it better myself. Let's get real people, the 03/04 Phoenix Suns were not a lotterry team in the traditional Atlanta Hawks sense or even the Nets (pre-Kidd). That's like saying Tim Duncan came to a legitimate lottery team in 1997. The pieces were here, the team had just been decimated by injury. The Suns had just come off a hotly contested series with San Antonio in the 03 playoffs and hopes were high for a team that featured Stephon Marbury, Stoudamire, Johnson and Marion. They started the 03/04 season badly underachiveing. By December, Marbury was gone and the club was in full re-build mode. Stoudamire spent 25-30 games on the IR and the team spiraled out of control and missed the playoffs. They were expected to be much better than what they were, but managements decision to trade Marbury, firing Frank Johnson and injuries to Stoudamire totally derailed their season. Before they ever acquired Steve Nash, I knew they would add some peices and probably be back in the playoff hunt after an off season. They didn't need Nash to make them a playoff team. The pieces for that were already in place, plus they add another coveted free agent in Q Richardson, and the Suns were expected to be good. Nash didn't exactly inherit a bare cupboard OK? Let's not act like he was some damn miracle worker. If he was so stinking valuable of a player, why did his former team the Mavs win more games without him(58) than they did in his final season with him (52)?? Nash had a great season, but MVP?? That's a freakin joke. I may not like Shaquille O'Neal - but he deserved this award. I don't care if it ties him with Tim Duncan or not. Dwayne Wade does not make them an NBA Title contender - Shaquille O'Neal does. And if you think otherwise , you need your head examined. Dwayne Wade didn't "shift the balance of power" to the East, Shaq did. Dwayne Wade didn't completely change the landscape of two franchises - Shaq did. Dwayne Wade didn't make the Heat an NBA Title contender - Shaq did. Dwayne Wade didn't put the fear of God into the rest of the Eastern Conference - Shaq did. No one in their right mind can say that a Heat team with Wade, Odom, Butler and Grant would have contended for anything other than 4th in the East. Certainly not an NBA Title. Wade made them a favorite to make the playoffs. Shaq made them a favorite to go to the NBA Finals. MVPs make their team into an NBA Title contender. Nash has not done that. He makes Phoenix a flashy, entertaining team to watch. He makes them better than what they would have been without him, but that's probably about it. Let's be real: No one on this board honestly expects the Phoenix Suns to actually get to the NBA Finals, much less win a championship. If you do - you really need to have your head examined. This is all I'm going to say on the matter. I've said enough about it - and I think I make a good arguement to why O'Neal was more valuable than Nash. I'm angered by this announcement and it's bitterly disapointing. It's an insult to the 24 great players that have won this award before this season - that their elite group will now be joined by a mere mortal player like Steve Nash. A player that is not even close to being a Hall of Fame player, 9 years into his career. It's an embarassment to the award, to the great Maurice Podoloff for whom the trophy is named, and an embarassment to the league as a whole.
Like free throw shooting? This is a team game. The award is called the Most Valuable Player. If you compare the Suns last year with the Suns this year and ask yourself how that happened you can’t really deny that the clear MVP this year was Steve Nash. And Iverson?! Puleeese! Anyone who is saying Iverson should even be close doesn’t understand team sports. This isn’t the “ME ME ME” award, it’s the MVP. The 76ers aren’t going anywhere with him. They’d be better off getting rid of him in fact. He’s no MVP.
Congratulations to Steve Nash. He deserves this award. He had a fantastic year and was largely responsible for the Suns' turnaround. However, I feel sorry for Shaq for not getting it. IMO this is his last chance to win the MVP award. We should see a more rapid decline in Shaq's game starting next year. It's just a shame that Shaquille O'neal, possibly the most physically dominating player ever to play this game, ends up with only one MVP award.
then shaq should've considered getting rid of the spare tire earlier. or getting surgeries in the offseason instead of right at the beginning of the season. or not coasting through the regular season. or trying on defense. or learning how to make a free throw.
Shaq saves his best for the finals. He just coasts thru the season, then come playoff time, owns eveyone. Put shaq in a rockets uniform, and we would of made it past the mavs. The best players, play there best in the finals. Btw, shaq won nba player of the week, in his frist week of playing in the nba.
perhaps it has to do with this, the mavs replaced Nash with a point guard by committee consisting of jason terry, marquis daniles and another dude. they got rid of Antoine walker, they brought in dampier. Nash wasn't the only change they made. The lakers got back an overrated Grant, underachieving Caron and injured (for most of the second half) Odom. In addition they did not rid themselves of the biggest problem...Kobe who missed a career high in games this year. Also they had an early, unexpected and major coaching change. All this plays into it to a degree
Bottom Line if Nash is on the rox, they beat dallas and all of you guys who are hating would be saying how much HE deserves this award
