Who’s the NBA’s Real MVP?

So many days with sports have gone by, but one thing kept me busy. Who deserves the NBA MVP? Giannis or Lebron? It’s obvious that these are the clear favorites. But it seems no one can really come to a consensus on who truly fits “Most Valuable Player.” However, I have come to my own conclusion, and I think the answer is pretty clear. Giannis Antetokounmpo deserves the league MVP. No doubts about it. It’s the Greek Freak.

Side-by-side Comparison

Here we will be looking at all kinds of stats, from normal splits to advance numbers. I already said Giannis is MVP, but by no means am I putting down Bron’s season. Multiple players can have MVP seasons in one year, and for Lebron to be doing this in year 17 has never been seen before. He is able to dominate the league; but not as much as Giannis has. Going off of normal splits here is how each player performs;

Giannis: 29.7 PPG, 13.7 REB, 5.8 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 3.7 TO on 54.7% from the field in 30.9 MPG

Lebron: 25.7 PPG, 7.9 REB, 10.6 AST, 1.2 STL, 0.5 BLK, 4.0 TO on 49.8% from the field in 34.9 MPG

Just at a quick glance,  the two seem fairly equivalent. But Giannis is performing better on a game to game basis, here’s why: Giannis only plays 30.9 MPG. The current “record” for an MVP with the fewest minutes per game played is Stephen Curry with 32.7 MPG in 14-15. Not to discount his season, it was incredible and changed the way the game is played entirely, but those numbers don’t even stack up to Giannis or Brons. Giannis is leading a potential 70 win team on such few minutes per night (for an NBA superstar). If you want to compare pre and post all-star breaks you certainly can. Before the all star break, each players statline is virtually the same, only major difference is that Giannis has 30.1 PPG and Lebron’s points 25 on the dot. Otherwise, every other difference is even smaller. Now for those Bron lovers, you guys love to use the 9 games played after the all star break. In those games, Giannis dips to 29.3 PPG but his rebounds shoot up to 15.2 a night, meanwhile Lebron dropped 30 a night with a dip in assists. Now you still may view this as fairly even, but it’s such a small sample size. More metrics that add to Antetokounmpo’s resume are some advanced defensive stats and clutch stats. In terms of offensive ratings, Lebron has a rating of 113.3, and Giannis has a rating of 112.6. If you don’t know, offensive rating is essentially the amount of points produced by a player in 100 possessions. So by the numbers, Lebron is slightly better on offense, which makes sense. He plays more minutes, has better offensive weapons around him and is a better passer. When AD is on your team, you know you have a walking bucket on your team. Both teams overall produce equal numbers offensively, so we can give that W to Lebron. However when it comes to defensive rating, Giannis takes the cake. Among all players who played 15 minutes or more a game, Giannis leads all players in defensive rating. This is an extremely large sample size. Think about it this way. Players who play 15 mins per game may allow less points relative to people who play 30 mins+ simply because they aren’t playing as much. However this isn’t the case. To make this even more in his favor, defensive rating only accounts for mistakes made by the player on defense. In the same sample size, Lebron is 21st. The stats again are per 100 possessions. So in 100 possessions, Giannis allows 96.5 points, and Lebron allows 103.0. So that leads us to net rating.  Net rating is offensive rating – defensive rating. In the previous sample size, Giannis is 2nd behind Eric Mika. He only played one game this season though so it’s safe to say Giannis is probably the best. Lebron is tied for 13th with Alec Caruso, some who say is the goat; others believe him to be ok at best. This only adds to this all time great season. Now some of you may be baffled. “All time great season?” Indeed, it is.