The Point Four-ward: MV(re)Peat

Four points I’m thinking about the NBA and the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) Stephen Curry made history Tuesday afternoon.

Not only was Curry named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second straight year, there was not a single contrarian ballot in the box. Curry became the first unanimously voted MVP in league history, following a regular season that saw him lead the Golden State Warriors to 73 wins and a new gold standard for dominance during the regular season.

Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs finished second and, just like last year, the Cavaliers’ own four-time MVP LeBron James finished third. James is the last player to have won back-to-back MVPs. He did so in 2012 and 2013.

Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant came in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Over the course of a thrilling regular season run, Curry kept basketball fans and casual viewers alike tuned into the Warriors, taking every amazing feat — every casually drained near-half court shot… every 40+ point game — as a slight raising of the bar he would quickly turn around and top, sometimes several times in the course of a single game.

Curry became much more than a three-point shooter, but he is the NBA’s unquestioned best at it. With so much attention being paid to the Cavs’ own long distance barrage this post-season, the numbers Curry put up in the regular season compared to every other player in the league is jaw dropping.

In 79 games played, Curry hit 402 three-pointers, 126 more than anyone else in the league. His teammate Klay Thompson was next with 276 treys. The difference between Curry’s long distance proficiency and Thompson’s is equal to the number of threes made by another great long-distance shooter, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks (126), for the entire season.

2.) That’s right. Curry shot one Dirk Nowitzki better than everyone else in the NBA from deep.

Curry hit only 38 fewer threes than the entire Milwaukee Bucks team in 2015-16!

Or, put another way, by himself, Curry nearly matched the total combined three-pointers made by Kevin Love (158), LeBron James (87), Kyrie Irving (84) and Matthew Dellavedova (98).

J.R. Smith led the team with 204 triples, good for seventh most in the league.

With the Cavs suddenly bombing their way toward a second straight shot at the NBA title, a possible Finals rematch against Curry and the Warriors could mean throwing all sorts of three point records into the fire and writing them anew.

3.) As for the third place finish by James, I have to wonder what the voting would have looked like had the Cavs had played the regular season with the spunk and vigor they’ve been displaying since the playoffs began. Make no mistake, this was Curry’s year. I don’t know what kind of performance could have even changed the voting from being unanimous, let alone making it a true contest for the MVP’s top spot. What I’m curious about, rather, is how MVP voters will take to a LeBron James who doesn’t necessarily lead his team in scoring.

Through two rounds, James is leading the team in assists at 7.3 per game, but Irving is the team’s leading scorer (24.4 PPG) and Love is its leading rebounder (12.5 REB). James’s 23.5 average is his lowest playoff PPG average of his career, edging his previous low during the 2010-11 playoffs (23.7). His jumper comes and goes and he is taking less than half as many free throws per game (4.6) during these playoffs as he has averaged over his postseason career (9.3).

Still, this postseason has been some of the best basketball I can remember seeing James play. I wrote that after the Pistons series and I think it’s even more true now.

Even with Irving and Love — with Smith and Tristan Thompson and Channing Frye — all taking center stage at various times during the Cavs’ 8-0 start in these playoffs, James’ fingerprints have been all over every single win. The success of his teammates has allowed basketball fans to see less LeISO ball which, in turn, has freed up James to do a little bit of everything.

And, make no mistake, Steph Curry is your rightful MVP, but there is no basketball player who does a little bit of everything better than LeBron James. In fact, you could argue that no one is playing at a higher level through the first two rounds of the playoffs than James.

This is how James wanted it. He wanted to come back to Cleveland and play with a young, talented bunch who could take some of the scoring burden off him and let him focus on steering the ship, so to speak. But if this trend continues — if James can keep the Cavs locked in and hungry over the course of an entire season — will another player’s numbers outshine the contributions James makes across the board?

In short, have we seen the last MVP season by James, even if we haven’t seen the end of his brilliance?

4.) But the Cavs still have two rounds of increasingly difficult opposition to go before NBA security personnel will letthem anywhere near the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Nothing’s been won yet.

So, to refocus the conversation on things the team can still do better, I asked CtB’s resident Xs and Os guru, Ben Werth, what the Cavs need to clean up on the defensive end going forward.

Ben brought up ‘Bron.

BW: “It’s hard to get too worked up about the defense when the team has yet to drop a game in the 2016 playoffs.  And thus far, the Cavaliers have locked down their opponents during crunch time. While it’s been very encouraging to see their dedication to the sound defensive game plans drawn up by the coaching staff, the Cavs defense has had several lulls in intensity that have undermined some of the great planning.

We all know that LeBron has the ability to lock down his man without working particularly hard. When he puts it in overdrive, LeBron has the capability to lock down entire offenses. That is why it can be particularly frustrating to watch James lose his man off-ball time and time again. While it is true that LeBron “playing safety” can lead to steals and points on the break, that same ball watching can also lead to seemingly one dunk per game from simple opponent cuts to the rim.

Most of LeBron’s defensive deficiencies come from lack of effort. They are largely cured when he flips the switch in the playoffs. The off-ball defense doesn’t quite qualify. LeBron was right to play far off of Kent Bazemore. It was how they drew it up. But when he loses complete track of his man, dunks and offensive rebounds can pile up quickly. Against better competition, James will need to stay more focused.”

Okay… so, I guess he can play even better.