LeBron vs D-Wade: Who's the NBA MVP?

D-Wade's Case

By Mike DeStefano

Last month, I wrote a piece
about All-Star selection and how it’s become a team award. It
seems the MVP has evolved in the same way.

Dwyane WadePrior to the 1979-80 season,
the MVP was voted on by players. Since the media has taken over
the voting, no MVP has been on a team that won less than 50 games (with
the exception of the lockout-shortened season in 1998.) It’s
time for that to change.

Dwyane Wade is playing at a
higher level than anyone in the League this year, yet many feel that
he doesn’t belong in the MVP discussion because his team is not elite
like LeBron’s Cavs or Kobe’s Lakers. It just doesn’t make
sense to penalize a player like Wade for the shortcomings of his general
manager while rewarding guys like LeBron and Kobe when the real honors
should go to Danny Ferry and Mitch Kupchak.

Don’t get me wrong; winning
should be a factor. There is no way that a player on the Thunder
or Kings or Wizards should be in the running while boosting their statistics
on a team that won’t win 20 games. That simply isn’t the case
with Dwyane Wade. If the award weighs the following three basic
measures of value, no player is more deserving of the award than Wade.

Statistics:

His numbers are (almost) in
a league of their own.

29.7 points, 7.7 assists, 5.1
rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game.

He leads the League in scoring
and rank 8th in assists, the perfect balance of aggressiveness
and unselfishness. That’s impressive, but the best part of his
stat-line is what he’s doing on the other side of the ball.
He’s second in the League in steals behind Chris Paul and ranks 20th
in blocks.

He’s 6’4, by the way.

The way he is dominating both
sides of the ball is what makes him most valuable. Furthermore,
he is 2nd in the League in PER, so he is doing it efficiently.
Simply put, he’s become unstoppable in every facet of the game.
The only player whose numbers are comparable is LeBron, and the only
statistic in which LeBron has the edge on Wade (PER aside) is rebounding.

Team Success:

This is the tricky one.
If you measure team success strictly by wins, then Wade’s case gets
weaker. If you measure success by how many win a team should
have based on personnel, no one has gotten more out of their team
than Dwyane Wade. Kobe and LeBron’s teams already have 50 wins,
but it’s not because they are more valuable players; it’s because
they simply have better teammates. Right now, the Heat are a game
and a half out of home court advantage in the first round of the Eastern
Conference playoffs. They already have 35 wins after winning only
15 last year.

I’m thisclose to agreeing
with those who say that LeBron’s supporting cast isn’t much better
than Wade’s, but a consistent 2nd option (Mo Williams)
and reliable veterans (Sczerbiak, West, Big Z, Wallace, etc.) are better
than inconsistent rookies (Beasley and Chalmers) and a former All-Star
center whose career has fallen harder than Wade himself on one of his
forays to the hoop. And while LeBron has had the past few years
to gel with his teammates to get to where they are at, the fact is that
Udonis Haslem is the only player left from the roster that Wade took
to the title in 2006. LeBron and Kobe have some help; Wade is
the only reason his team is where it is today.

Importance: The
word “valuable” can be defined as “of great importance, use, or
service.” Using that definition, who has been more valuable
than Dwyane Wade? He does whatever his team needs him to do.
Scoring? He’s got ten 40-point games so far this season.
Passing? In three of those games, he’s also recorded ten assists.
Defense? Clutch shooting? Look no further than the last
ten seconds of their game against the Chicago Bulls earlier this week.

MVPs have the incredible ability
to step up when it matters most. Playing in the East, Wade knows
that no playoff spot outside of the Top 3 is safe. So, Wade has
put the Heat on his back since the All-Star break, averaging 37.2 points,
10.4 assists, 5.9 rebounds while shooting 55% from the field and 42%
from 3. He’s also gotten close to 3 steals per game.

His leadership also cannot
be overlooked. The way he has integrated his two rookies and helped
them get comfortable in their roles. The way he has welcomed newcomers
like O’Neal and Jamario Moon. The way he has responded and aided
Erik Spoelstra in his first year as an NBA head coach. The way
that he’s handled a rebuilding situation in Miami with no complaints.
All of these reasons say that the Heat should be a bad team this year.
Wade has simply refused to let that happen.

LeBron is the only player in
the League who can rival Wade in terms of importance to his team.
Without him, the Cavaliers are not a good team. His all-around
prowess allows the rest of his team to serve as specialists and be effective
in those roles. The difference is that, if LeBron has an off-night
shooting the ball, Mo Williams is a proven scorer. If he doesn’t
get four steals and two blocks per game, the Cavaliers are still one
of the best defensive teams in the League. Wade doesn’t have
that luxury. The pressure of carrying this team (both offensively
and defensively) is on Wade every night, and he has only gotten better
in that role.

Taking a combination of all
the things that make a player valuable, Dwyane is just ahead of LeBron
in the race for MVP. Ask the Jazz, Wade’s most recent victim,
if they disagree.

Mike DeStefano can be reached at mike@hoopsdaily.com

LeBron's Case

By Jon Pastuszek

There are some things I don’t
understand.

I don’t understand when French
is being spoken. I don’t understand why millions of American taxpayers
should have to pay for the huge mistakes of a few irresponsible CEOs.
I don’t understand how Lil’ Wayne has suddenly been anointed as
“best rapper alive,” as if Nas, Rakim and Black Thought have all
just suddenly died.

LeBron JamesAnd I don’t understand why
LeBron James (for yet another season) isn’t being considered as the
clear choice for MVP.

A month ago, the MVP race was
down to two: Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, two excellent players who
help drive two outstanding teams in two different ways: Kobe, with fine
preciseness; LeBron with refined ruggedness.

Since then, starting with a
50 point outburst against Orlando on February 22nd, Dwyane
Wade has strung together ten games where he’s amassed six double-doubles,
five 40+ point games, six stitches… and a legion of newfound MVP supporters.
Two has now become three.

Stuck on a bad team, Wade has
entered a mode that is ignorant of the impossible. Starring in his own
one-man band show, Wade’s performances have become must-see, legendary
exhibitions that display just how high individual greatness can reach.
Every improbable win starts and ends with Wade, his nightly heroics
only seeming so epic until the next night where he somehow finds a
new way to outdo himself yet again. To the Heat, Wade truly means everything.

But, to many, that is not important.
The Heat are on pace for around 45 wins, well below the projected win
totals of the Cavs and Lakers.

That matters because the recent trend in MVP voting
logic is that “winning matters.” Under this creed, “valuable” equals
being on a winning team. Fans, coaches, commentators, analysts, and
other media personalities can discriminate against players like Wade
for MVP based purely on the fact that their teammates stink. If your
team doesn’t have 50 wins, then you as a player are not “valuable”
enough, no matter how extraordinary the individual performance may be.

Never mind that this logic takes away the very essence of the MVP award, which is meant to honor
which player is most valuable
to his team. Instead, it rewards the superstar whose GM was smart and/or
lucky enough to surround him with talent.

“Winning matters” misses
the point completely. To award the MVP, you need not to measure win
totals, you need to measure each player’s value. To measure value,
you need to look at the impact each player makes on his team.

Kobe Bryant makes the Lakers
an elite team. That is his impact. If you took away Bryant from the
Lakers, they are no longer the favorites to represent the Western Conference
in the NBA Finals. So, in that sense, Bryant is very valuable.

But, without Bryant, the Lakers
still have enough talent and depth to remain as a playoff team. Kobe
is a great player, but his impact in the win/loss column is not great.

Take away James and Wade from
their teams, however, and you have two fan bases checking out NBADraft.net
twice daily. Unlike Bryant, both Wade and James do not have great teammates
to pick up the slack for them. For Cleveland and Miami, Wade and James
are the difference between relevance and insignificance. For Los Angeles,
the Lakers are relevant both with and without Bryant.

That is why this year’s race
comes down to Wade and James. They make the biggest impacts on their
team, and their presence alone turns then from lottery to playoff teams.

The question to be asked then
is who makes the bigger impact, D-Wade or King James?

The initial response might
be Wade, because he “does the most with less” and is utterly indispensible.
But, a closer look into Wade vs. James reveals this dirty little secret:
LeBron’s supporting cast is not that much better than Wade’s, yet
the Cavaliers are a far superior team.

LeBron, besides being a master
at dominating almost every phase of the game, is also a master illusionist,
a 260-pound shaman who is able to conjure vivid mirages and false impressions.
By distracting us with stuffed box scores, uncanny floor vision, mutant
athleticism, and newly developed defensive prowess, James has fooled
us into believing the Cavaliers are going to win 60-65 games this year with
an All-Star point guard (sneaking in on injuries does not count, Mo Williams)
and a group of wily veterans, when in reality, it’s just a collection
of role-players. Role-players who, without LeBron, would be free-falling
towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Look at the Cavs’ roster. LeBron has managed to
parlay a shoot-first, second and third point-guard (Williams); several
spot-up shooters (Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Daniel Gibson, and
Sasha Pavlovic); one rookie power-forward (J.J. Hickson); one
journeyman power-forward (Joe Smith); two clumsy bigs (Anderson Varejao
and Ben Wallace); and a plodding perimeter-oriented 7-3 center (Zydunas
Illgauskas) into the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

The record is possible only because of LBJ. He
handles the ball, facilitates the offense, scores, sets up teammates,
runs the break, and guards the other teams’ best player. He masks his
teammates’ weaknesses and maximizes their strengths. He single-handedly
pushes the Cavaliers to their collective limit which, astonishingly, is
limitless. With LeBron and his teammates playing their best, the Cavs
could win a championship.

The same cannot be said for
Wade. With D-Wade at his best, the Heat are playing golf by mid-May.

Wade and LeBron are both indispensible
for their teams. Without them, both the Heat and the Cavs are counting
ping-pong balls.

The difference, however, is
the degree to which they are indispensible. When Wade maximizes his
team’s potential, the Heat eek out home wins against the Bulls and
Knicks. When James maximizes his, the Cavs are one of the favorites
for the NBA championship.

What’s not to understand?

Jon Pastuszek can be reached at jon@hoopsdaily.com