{"id":5656,"date":"2017-04-07T10:58:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=5656"},"modified":"2017-04-07T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:58:54","slug":"case-make-russell-westbrook-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/04\/07\/case-make-russell-westbrook-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case to Make Russell Westbrook MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

With only eight days left until the NBA playoffs begin, the hot-topic discussion of who will win the Most Valuable Player award is circulating at an all-time high. Even though many fans\u00a0vouch for LeBron James out of admiration for arguably the greatest in the game, and talks of Kawhi Leonard<\/a><\/strong> have picked up, the race this year is really down to two candidates: Russell Westbrook<\/a><\/strong> and James Harden<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, when taking a look\u00a0at where these two players are 78 games into the season, I wonder\u00a0why we are still having this discussion. Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder deserves the MVP award. Part of me isn’t sure how this is still up for debate.<\/p>\n

The Case to Make Russell Westbrook MVP<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Definition of MVP<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before I get into the numbers and make my case for Westbrook as MVP, I want to make clear the common misinterpretation of the MVP award. MVP stands for Most Valuable Player (I think that\u2019s something widely known), but for some reason, it seems that the words \u201cvaluable\u201d and \u201cbest\u201d get interchanged sometimes when discussing candidates for this award. I want to get the objective definitions of these down so that the argument is made clearly with any disagreements coming in terms of candidates and not in definitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cValuable\u201d is defined as \u201chaving monetary value\u201d or \u201chaving desirable or esteemed characteristics or qualities,\u201d while \u201cbest\u201d is described as \u201cexcelling all others\u201d or \u201cmost productive of good\u201d (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Clearly, these two things do not mean the same thing. Otherwise, Stephen Curry<\/a> or LeBron James might win this award every year. Instead, we are looking at value<\/i>. This is where Russell comes in.<\/p>\n

Triple-Doubles for Days (or Half of the Season)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Russell Westbrook just tied Oscar Robertson<\/a> for the most triple-doubles in a season with 41. Forty-one triple-doubles. Forty-one times he has recorded double-digits in points, rebounds, and assists. Meanwhile, his competitor, Harden, has 20. Don’t get me wrong, 20 is still a lot, especially considering the only other person that has more than ten is LeBron, who holds 12 on the season. However, 41 is on the verge of record-breaking; and 41 helps sell Westbrook\u2019s case of being the most<\/em> valuable. If you know that a player is going to put up a triple-double in half of the games in a season, he is clearly going to be an impactful player and will hold a lot of value to any team.<\/p>\n

\n

1961-62 Oscar Robertson<\/a>: Played over 3500 minutes<\/p>\n

2016-17 Russell Westbrook: Played 2700 minutes.<\/p>\n

Each had 41 triple-doubles. Wow.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brady Trantham (@BradyDoesSports) April 5, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Per Game Statistics Breakdown: Westbrook vs. Harden<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Westbrook has not only recorded 41 triple-doubles, but he is also averaging 31.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists. He is the only player to average a triple-double in the league this year. He is doing so while taking an average of 24 shots per game\u00a0but still maintaining a fairly good field goal percentage at 42.6%. When comparing these numbers to Harden, they aren\u2019t terribly far off. Harden averages 29.2 PPG (19 FGA, 44.0 FG% ), 8.1 REB, and 11.2 AST. As one of the best players offensively in the NBA right now, he can keep competing with Westbrook statistically. However, when we look at the team impact, things are different.<\/p>\n

Team Impact\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Without Westbrook, the Thunder probably would not be even close to where they are right now. His usage percentage – “an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor” (Basketball-Reference) – stands at 41.7%. This means that 41.7% of the time, Westbrook is used to run plays and the offense. Even though he has not been extremely efficient shooting the ball, his high usage percentage proves that he has a large impact on how things are run on the court.<\/p>\n

If Westbrook is off, things aren’t going to go well for the Thunder. However,\u00a0this superstar hasn’t missed a game this season. With that being said, I think it’s safe to say that the Thunder’s position as the six seed in the Western Conference right now has a lot to do with Westbrook. It’s hard telling where this team would be without him. It all comes back to that middle word of the MVP acronym: valuable.<\/p>\n

Give Westbrook the Trophy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After one of the most impressive seasons we have seen from an individual player in quite some time, I believe that Russell Westbrook deserves the award this year. However, it’s not up to me – it comes down to sports writers and broadcasters weighing their options and casting their votes.<\/p>\n

What we do know for sure is that we have a lot to look forward to eight days from now when the playoffs tip-off. With the Houston Rockets at No. 3 and the Thunder at No. 6, it looks like we will get to see these two front-runners go head-to-head. Maybe that will solve any lingering disputes before the NBA announces the award on June 26th.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here’s a non-basketball example of why Russell should be MVP this year:<\/p>\n

\n

MVP. pic.twitter.com\/ANc0kjxtA3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Larry Beyince (@DragonflyJonez) April 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I rest my case.<\/p>\n

All statistics are from www.basketball-reference.com and are accurate as of April 7th, 2017 before play.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 05: \u00a0Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City Thunder looks on during the warm up prior to the NBA Global Games Spain 2016 match between FC Barcelona Lassa and Oklahoma City Thunder at Palau Sant Jordi on October 5, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. \u00a0(Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russell Westbrook MVP: The case for Russell Westbrook to win the 2017 NBA MVP award, including a breakdown of his season and statistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1914,"featured_media":3827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,62,22],"tags":[65,333,444,96,564,54,53],"class_list":["post-5656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-basketball","tag-houston-rockets","tag-james-harden","tag-nba","tag-nba-mvp","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Harrison Marcus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}