Warriors’ Curry won’t win MVP, but he should be proud of 2nd place
Curry #Curry
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry during an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Francisco, Sunday, May 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
During his first season with the Lakers in 1975-76, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was named NBA MVP for the type of dominant averages synonymous with the award: 27.7 points, 16.9 rebounds, 4.1 blocks.
What made that recognition unique, however, was that Abdul-Jabbar’s team had finished 40-42 and missed the playoffs. In the 45 years since then, no MVP has played for a club with a winning percentage worse than .561. Warriors guard Stephen Curry, whose late-season scoring surge thrust him into the MVP discussion, hopes to soon end that streak.
Even though Golden State finished the regular season with a winning percentage of .542, Curry has received public support for the sport’s top individual honor from everyone from LeBron James to Magic Johnson to Ja Morant. Never mind that many analysts believe Nuggets center Nikola Jokic secured the honor weeks ago.
Little more than a month ago, Curry wasn’t even on many top-10 lists for the MVP award. Now, as he prepares to lead the Warriors into the play-in tournament, Curry is widely considered second in the race.
According to DraftKings Sportsbook’s MVP odds, Curry now only trails Jokic (minus-10000), and is tied with 76ers center Joel Embiid (30000). PointsBet, meanwhile, puts Curry in a three-way tie for second with Embiid and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
To put Curry’s sudden rise into context, that same site had Curry as the 11th-likeliest player to win MVP on April 10. His emergences as a consensus top-three candidate is a testament to his gaudy point totals. In powering the Warriors to a 16-8 stretch over their final 24 games, Curry averaged 36.9 points on 49.1% shooting (43.7% from 3-point range).
He finished the season with 32 points per game to edge out Wizards guard Bradley Beal (31.3) for the scoring title, no small feat considering that Curry was averaging 3.5 less points than Beal as recently as March 17. The Warriors now boast a 37-26 record — equal to a 48-win pace in a typical 82-game season — when Curry plays.
What makes all this even more astonishing is that Curry didn’t have a supporting cast that warranted much defensive attention. With Klay Thompson injured and Andrew Wiggins filling in as the Warriors’ No. 2 option, Curry was swarmed by double-teams, triple-teams, quadruple-teams — anything opponents could dream up.
Curry’s unrivaled importance to his team has led some to question MVP voters’ apparent fixation on winning. In the almost half-century since Abdul-Jabbar won the award for those sub-.500 Lakers, only two players — Moses Malone (1978-79, 1981-82) and Russell Westbrook (2016-17) — have been named MVP despite being on teams that won less than 60% of their games.
Westbrook’s Thunder were better that season than the 2020-21 Warriors, and Westbrook still had to average a triple-double to earn the honor. But Curry supporters stress the “V” in “MVP,” arguing that the award should go to the player who means the most to his team.
The Warriors are just 2-7 this season with Curry. The problem for him is that Jokic played all 72 games, averaging 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists for a Nuggets team that finished third in the Western Conference at 47-25.
Perhaps Curry could’ve overcome the Warriors’ struggles to join Abdul-Jabbar in a rare class of MVP if there weren’t any other obvious candidates. But Jokic is also deserving, and he better fits voters’ criteria.
Connor Letourneau covers the Warriors for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron