For a while this season, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry looked likely to win his third regular season MVP trophy of his career. The Warriors were in their honeymoon, Draymond Green was still in full health, veteran Andre Iguodala also provided leadership on the bench, James Wiseman would return to the team at any time, and Andrew Wiggins also played the best performance of his career and was selected as an All-Star starter. A year ago, Curry, although he missed the honor of the regular season MVP because of the team's poor performance, he is still the third player in the MVP rankings, and with such a strong team record this season, he certainly has a good chance of becoming the ultimate winner.
But a lot has happened since then, including Curry's rare shooting downturn, bench issues throughout the lineup, and the delicate balance between developing young players and winning games, all of which have thrown Curry's habitual rotation strategy and playing time into disarray. Today is Curry's 34th birthday, and while he's set an all-time record for three-point shooting this season, does he still have a chance to win the MVP?
His odds for a regular season MVP have plummeted to 100 to 2200, which means that if Curry does win the MVP, your $100 will turn into $2,200. From the MVP odds list, the biggest favorite at the moment is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, with odds of 120 to 100, the 76ers are currently in second place in the East, good team record allows Embiid to get a lot of extra points, plus he has good personal data, his chances of getting MVP are naturally the largest. In terms of individual performance alone, last year's regular season MVP winner Nikola Jokic actually performed better this season than last season, but his odds were only 100 to 260, which was entirely because the poor record of the Denver Nuggets, where he was, was only two wins behind the Philadelphia 76ers, but they could only rank sixth in the Wild West, and usually the team in this ranking would not produce MVP winners, except for Westbrook, who scored a triple-double in the regular season for the first time that year. In third place is the 2019 and 2020 MVP winner Alphabet Brother, whose Milwaukee Bucks team is actually tied for second in the East with the 76ers.
Team rankings are really important for where MVP belongs, except for 2017 when Westbrook took the MVP trophy with the miracle of averaging three-doubles per game, the other MVP winners are from one of the best teams in the league, and in the 40 years from 1977 to 2016, the league's MVP has never been lower than third, and even the third-best team usually needs some extra points to get into the regular season MVP trophy, such as Michael Jordan in 1988 His Chicago Bulls, who are in third place in the East, took the MVP trophy with honors as scoring king and best defensive player.
What's more important than that? After all, MVP is chosen by sports journalists, commentators and fans, especially the media has a great say in the selection of this award, what do these people like the most? Of course, the reason why Derrick Rose was able to win the regular season MVP in 2011 was because of his excellent personal performance, but the more important reason is that these people are also tired of continuing to give the award to LeBron James, otherwise he will achieve the MVP five consecutive championships and complete the great things that Jordan cannot achieve. Steve Nash was able to win the 2005 regular season MVP, partly because the Phoenix Suns' crazy offensive storm swept the league, and on the other hand, because the Dallas Mavericks had just abandoned Nash before, and Nash completed the rise, which is a topic that can't be better.
The league isn't going to allow anyone to win an MVP for three consecutive years unless you're Larry Bird or Wilt Chamberlain, and unless there's a player who can average 30 points and 20 rebounds per game at the pace of the modern NBA, so Alphabet Brother definitely didn't have a chance to win this award last year, and it's boring to give this award to the same person. Even Jordan had to watch Charles Barkley and Carl Malone take away the MVP trophy in their six-time victory for the Chicago Bulls, and he could only turn that regret into motivation to completely destroy them in the NBA Finals.
Having said all that, how can Curry return to the ranks of MVP contenders? First, Curry needs to start scoring, currently averaging just 25.5 points per game, ranking 11th in the league, behind Ja Morante (27.5 points per game, MVP fourth) and DeMar DeRozan (averaging 28.1 points per game, MVP fifth). Curry needs to at least get ahead of DeRozan to have a chance, which means that in the Warriors' last 14 games, Curry needs to average 40 points per game, and he should average at least 5 assists per game. Most importantly, the Warriors also need to lead Morante's Memphis Grizzlies, who are currently half a win ahead of the Warriors and second in the West.
Second, the Warriors need to win all of the remaining 14 games, although they may still not be able to catch up with the Phoenix Suns to become the league number one, so one might say that the Warriors' bloodspring for the remaining 14 games doesn't make any sense, they should focus on the playoffs and reintegrate four or five injured players into the lineup. But that's the way it is, if Curry really wants to create a conversation in the league and help him win the votes of those in the media, he must try to lead the team to end the regular season with a 17-game winning streak.
Third, Curry needs to dominate the Warriors' game against the Memphis Grizzlies in two weeks, the Warriors not only need to win, but also win beautifully, Curry needs to score 50 points, preferably a few goals from Morant, score difficult goals against Morant's defense, and have to beat Dillon Brooks. For Curry, this will definitely be his best time to perform this season.
Is that enough? Maybe it's not enough, and other candidates have to do something, such as Embiid suddenly self-destructing the Wall, announcing that the cooperation with Harden has not been successful, such as Jokic's sudden dissatisfaction with the team, but all this is still too idealistic. While Curry didn't want to hit him on his 34th birthday, overall, he had too much difficulty getting the MVP, and Embiid was the player who deserved the award. Hopefully, all the Warriors will recover as soon as possible, Wiggins will be able to get back in shape as soon as possible, and Curry can kill all four parties in the playoffs and even the Finals, so that he may be able to get another MVP trophy that he has been looking for.