Dissecting the four-headed NBA MVP race

The Oklahoma City Thunder star has the co-sign of no other than the man whom he shares history with, the great Oscar Robertson. He had the storyline of the jilted lover after Kevin Durant’s departure for Golden State, and he went on a rampage through the league that many expected. He probably has the perfect wardrobe selection if he actually gets the writers’ vote, and there's little doubt he'll throw shade West if he gets the chance.

In many ways, Westbrook represents the old-school mentality toward award season: Go for history, team success be damned. It’s hard to not marvel at what he has done: lead the NBA in scoring and total field goals, one of just three players with over 800 total assists, and the only guard to rank in the top 10 in defensive and total rebounds. But there are a few advanced metrics that help make the case for "The Brodie": No. 1 in assist percentage (57.4 percent), box plus/minus (15.7), player efficiency rating (30.8) and value over replacement player (12.4). He also amassed the incredible numbers while playing almost two fewer minutes per game than James Harden and three fewer than LeBron James.

The greatest knock against Westbrook is that he couldn’t pull the Thunder into a higher seed. Yet, this glosses over that the team lost its starting small and power forwards, both of whom played in four conference finals in six seasons. The other top MVP contenders play on teams that may have still made the postseason without them, but Westbrook carried a team that seemed destined for the draft lottery into a comfortable playoff position with nearly a month to spare in the season.

James Harden

"The Beard" is getting more of the “winning record” love that perhaps would have gone to the aforementioned Durant if the Golden State Warriors forward wouldn’t have potentially split the vote with Stephen Curry. Yet, he’s also getting it because of how his individual stats were the only ones that seemed comparable to Westbrook’s this season.

Harden notched 29.1 points, a league-leading 11.2 assists, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. Even with career highs in three-pointers made and attempted, he still managed to not only become a more efficient mid-range shooter, but also get to the foul line even more than in the previous two seasons. The preseason cynicism about Harden’s move to the full-time point guard upon Mike D’Antoni’s arrival was wiped away rather quickly as Houston was second in the NBA in offensive rating and third in pace.

Like Westbrook, Harden had more turnovers than a Sara Lee factory; in fact, he broke the league record that he also set a season ago by hilarious margins. Harden also may have one too many threes to keep his individual offense efficient, but in a D’Antoni offense, that risk/reward trade-off has always been encouraged. Yet, Harden also had the superior supporting cast compared to Westbrook, which helped give credence to his 50.7 percent assist percentage and league-leading 15.0 win share.

LeBron James

There’s a staunch belief by some that the widely accepted best player in the league should take home the MVP award every season. Perhaps this is another lane that the mere existence of Michael Jordan created, as both Charles Barkley and Karl Malone took home the honors while His Airness was still winning titles.

James once again had an incredible season with per-game averages of 26.4 points, 8.7 assists, 8.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals. In some ways, it could be the finest of his 14 NBA seasons as the assists and rebounds are both career highs while his points per game were the most in three years. That LeBron has done this at the age of 32 is remarkable, considering that only four other active players have logged more minutes than him. Each of those men was drafted between two years (Joe Johnson) to five years (Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and Paul Pierce) before him. That he’s also leading the charge for a team that could put him in his seventh straight NBA Finals is enough for the “best player” crowd to hail its King.

Of course, that sort of ignores the Cavaliers’ maddening play after the All-Star break to the point that the Boston Celtics were able to overtake them for the No. 1 seed in the East. It’s not entirely on LeBron, but some of the moves that he (allegedly) pushed for made an already top-heavy roster a bit weaker as the season progressed. Voters won’t forgive him for the champs’ 20-21 road record or the sub-.500 record since mid-February.

Kawhi Leonard

Because people still seem to see the San Antonio Spurs as the “sleeper” contender despite being the league’s premier franchise since 1999, they will see Leonard as a “sleeper” candidate for the MVP. For a few weeks in February and March, some pundits had him as the actual winner based on the occasionally skittish play from the Thunder, Rockets and Cavaliers. The Spurs as a team were once more steady in their excellence, though still unable to supplant the Warriors at the very top of the Western Conference.

What did the two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year do? Continue to evolve in his offensive powers with career highs in points (25.5) and assists (3.5) per contest. Leonard’s perimeter game keeps growing, and by and large, he defends the best offensive talents around the league at a high level night after night.

That San Antonio had been able to effectively reload the roster at the end of and after the Tim Duncan era doesn’t provide the digestible narratives like the other candidates. Yet, something has to be said about being the leader of the only team that has been able to keep pace with the historic Warriors in the standings all season long. You can debate if it’s fair to punish the Spurs for wanting a brighter spotlight or not, but an MVP award should come in the near future for Leonard because is unquestionably one of the few superior two-way players in the league.