Who’s to blame for the Michael Brantley saga? Everyone.
August 16, 2016Cavs to retain majority of Tyronn Lue’s assistants
August 16, 2016After leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to the city’s first major sports championship in 52 years, star LeBron James has been given the third-best odds to win the NBA MVP for the 2016-17 season, according to online sportsbook Bovada.
Before free agency began on July 1, James and Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry were the co-favorites to win the MVP. But, following forward Kevin Durant deciding to join Curry and company in the Bay Area and Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook surprisingly re-signing with the Thunder, Westbrook has now taken over as the favorite to win the upcoming season’s MVP honors.
Although he has been given the third-best odds to win the MVP, James knows that the regular season MVP isn’t as important as the NBA Finals MVP or even an NBA Title, which he proved last season when he won both of those. Curry, who was the unanimous regular season MVP in 2015-16 has been given the second-best odds, just above James.
Last season, James finished third in MVP voting after averaging 25.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.8 assists while shooting 52 percent from the field and just 30.9 percent from beyond the arc in 76 regular season games. While the 31-year-old had some of his lowest averages of his career during the regular season, he turned it on when it matter most, which is all that matters.
Just a few months ago, James shared his thoughts on the MVP award after Curry was the first player in NBA history to ever be voted the unanimous winner, per cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
“I think there’s a lot of valuable guys in our league that adds value to their team. I think sometimes the word ‘valuable’ or best player of the year, you can have different results. When you talk about most ‘valuable’ then you can have a different conversation.”
James isn’t wrong. He meant more to the Cavs than Curry meant to the Warriors. But then again, the Cavaliers star won the trophy and award that mattered most, so that’s all that matters, right?
Full rankings:
- Russell Westbrook, Thunder: 2-to-1
- Stephen Curry, Warriors: 4-to-1
- LeBron James, Cavs: 5-to-1
- Kevin Durant, Warriors: 12-to-1
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans: 16-to-1
- Kawhi Leonard, Spurs: 16-to-1
- James Harden, Rockets: 16-to-1
- Paul George, Pacers: 22-to-1
- Blake Griffin, Clippers: 22-to-1
- Damian Lillard, TrailBlazers: 28-to-1
Recently, ESPN forecasted James as the favorite to win the award, with Westbrook, Curry and Durant right behind.
2 Comments
Nobody from the Warriors should even be considered.
I’m surprised by Curry’s short odds. After his no-show in the Finals, I am surprised he hasn’t lost the respect of journos. I know he got pegged down a notch in my mind.