{"id":96497,"date":"2024-09-19T06:49:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T10:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=96497"},"modified":"2024-09-19T06:49:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T10:49:05","slug":"kendrick-perkins-calls-this-active-player-best-to-never-win-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/19\/kendrick-perkins-calls-this-active-player-best-to-never-win-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Kendrick Perkins Calls This Active Player Best To Never Win MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> has recently become the face of load management, he\u2019s also had a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer. The 33-year-old has nearly done it all. That is besides be named the league\u2019s MVP. Leonard has MVP finishes of second, third, fifth, ninth, 10th, and 13th in his career.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perkike01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kendrick Perkins<\/a>, former NBA player and ESPN employee, stated on ESPN\u2019s NBA Today that Leonard is the best player ever to never be named the NBA\u2019s MVP.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is D-Wade the GREATEST player to NOT win MVP? + KD&#039;s perfect starting 5 | NBA Today\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bWdtGBNwG8E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Kendrick Perkins Calls This Active Player Best To Never Win MVP<\/h2>\n<h3>Accolades Galore In Leonard\u2019s Career<\/h3>\n<p>Leonard certainly has a laundry list of accolades that can be rivaled by few. The six-foot-seven forward is a two-time champion, winning one apiece with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/15\/san-antonio-spurs-waive-former-g-league-standout-jamaree-bouyea\/\" target=\"_self\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/15\/demar-derozan-speaks-about-potentially-retiring-with-toronto-raptors\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Raptors<\/a>. Both of his rings were accompanied with being named the Finals MVP. Leonard was named the back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year in 2014-15 and 2015-16.<\/p>\n<p>Through his first 12 seasons, Leonard is a six-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA, and seven-time All-Defensive member. He was named to the NBA\u2019s 75th Anniversary Team, has a career PER of 23.4, and owns 99.3 career win shares. Leonard\u2019s career averages in 696 regular season games include 20.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.7 blocks. His scoring and rebounding averages increase to 21.3 and 7.8 respectively in his 139 career postseason games.<\/p>\n<h3>Injury Woes With Clippers<\/h3>\n<p>Since joining the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/15\/does-new-la-clippers-era-spell-success-or-setback\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> in 2019, Leonard has still been mighty productive. Unfortunately, his time with the Clippers has been marred with injury. Last season, his 68 regular season games were the most he has played with the team. A right knee injury though forced Leonard to miss the team\u2019s first round exit in the playoffs against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/17\/former-dallas-mavericks-center-leaves-nba-for-turkey\/\" target=\"_self\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard also missed the last three games of the 2023 first round matchup against that same Dallas team. He missed the playoffs, and the entire 2021-22 season, due to a torn ACL. As mentioned, Leonard has become one of the faces of load management. Much of his Clippers tenure has seen him sitting out one game of a back-to-back when he\u2019s been available.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Candidates For Best To Never Win MVP<\/h3>\n<p>Despite his injury history, Leonard is certainly one of the best players in NBA history to never be named the MVP. There are numerous other all-time greats that have never received the award.<\/p>\n<p>Known as \u2018The Logo\u2019, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westje01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jerry West<\/a> was the runner-up for MVP four times. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bayloel01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elgin Baylor<\/a> averaged at least 34 points per contest for three-straight seasons. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stockjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Stockton<\/a> is the all-time leader in assists and steals. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kiddja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jason Kidd<\/a> sits second in both of those categories, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a> is third in both (with the opportunity to pass Kidd in both in 2024-25). <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wadedw01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwyane Wade<\/a> is on most people\u2019s Mount Rushmore of shooting guards. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomais01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isiah Thomas<\/a> was the best player on back-to-back championship Detroit Pistons teams. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/ewingpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Ewing<\/a> is arguably the greatest <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/18\/knicks-tom-thibodeau-unsung-hero-julius-randle-importance\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Knicks<\/a> player of all-time. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Pippen<\/a> may have been seen as a Robin, but he finished third in MVP voting in 1993-94 while <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jordami01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a> was playing minor league baseball.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just a short list of players who never won MVP that are enshrined (or will be) in the Basketball Hall of Fame. It\u2019s a fun debate to be had as to the best NBA player ever that never won an MVP award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Kawhi Leonard has recently become the face of load management, he\u2019s also had a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer. The 33-year-old has nearly done it all. That is besides be named the league\u2019s MVP. Leonard has MVP finishes of second, third, fifth, ninth, 10th, and 13th in his career. Kendrick Perkins, former NBA player [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":96534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[1608,27,62,3],"tags":[229,296,2048,1853,218,2049,147,168,3215,564,415,894],"class_list":["post-96497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","tag-chris-paul","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-elgin-baylor","tag-isiah-thomas","tag-jason-kidd","tag-jerry-west","tag-john-stockton","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kendrick-perkins","tag-nba-mvp","tag-patrick-ewing","tag-scottie-pippen"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96497","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\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}