As the regular season draws to a close, the debate over the ownership of MVPs this season has become increasingly intense. After yesterday's daily training, Lakers coach Vogel also expressed his views on this, saying that no one has played better than James this season, and he should win the fifth regular season MVP trophy of his career.
"He, like the rest of the league, deserves to be included in the MVP's discussions." I know the final vote – better records or the top few on the team will be prioritized, and our record hurt him. But you can't tell me that there are other people who have played better than him this season. Vogel said.
So far this season, James has played 54 times for the Lakers, averaging 30 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game, the overall shooting rate is as high as 52.3%, from the data point of view, James does deserve this season's mvp, but the Lakers' record is too bad, currently they are 31 wins and 42 losses in the Tenth Place in the West, it is likely to miss the playoffs, even if the remaining 9 games maintain a full win, there is no 50% win rate.
In the history of the league, there was only one case of a team not entering the playoffs but getting a regular season MVP, that was the 1975-76 season of Jabbar, which was the first season of Abdul-Jabbar's transfer to the Lakers, the Lakers only got a record of 40 wins and 42 losses, ranking fourth in the West (9 teams in the West that season), missed the playoffs, and Abdul-Abdul-Jabbar won the fourth regular season MVP trophy of his career with an average of 27.7 points and 16.9 rebounds per game.
James' attempt to make history to become the second Abdul-Jabbar doesn't seem easy. Just yesterday evening, the NBA official also announced the latest issue of the mvp list, Embiid surpassed Jokic to the top, alphabet brother ranked third, Tatum fourth, Doncic ranked fifth... James didn't even make it to the top ten.
On the latest odds updated by the well-known website Caesars Sportsbook, Embiid (-160) topped the list, Jokic (+135) and Alphabet Brother (+900) ranked second and third respectively, while James's odds were as high as +30,000. Multiple indications are that James is unlikely to win his fifth career regular-season MVP trophy this season.