Bloggystyle -- The Greatest

Weeks ago, Fitz and I had a series of debates over whether or not Nash was the MVP. I argued for Nash, who did eventually win MVP.

Fast forward to now, Fitz is just about gone, TeamFitz has taken his place, the new guys are making the same Fitz argument and a few rounds of the playoffs have occurred. Of course, TeamFitz waited til the Spurs were annihilating the Suns (Shawn Marion, are you out there?) to argue against Nash all over again.

Someone's gotta stick up for Nash, so I'll counter some of these arguments.

One of my biggest problems with Nash receiving this award is that the only other point guard I have seen receive the league MVP award is Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson in my opinion is #2 all time, and was three times the MVP of the league.

I have decided to name off some more great players current and past who have never received MVP’s who in my opinion are better than Nash..

The MVP doesn't work like that, obviously. If the MVP was about who was the best player in the league, I think it would always go to Shaq or KG. Regardless of whether or not Isaiah Thomas was ever an MVP, that has no bearing on Nash's numbers or this season. This was unquestionably the weakest MVP race that I can remember.

This year is what counts. If we put everybody all in one season and compared their numbers, nobody would have taken an MVP over Wilt, who sometimes averaged close to 50/20 a year.

In my opinion the League MVP should be someone who is beyond proficient in every aspect of their game.

No player is perfect, obviously. A lot has been made about Nash's defense, but none of his closet competitors were defensive stalwarts. Shaq is average at best. Dirk? AI is so little he gets absolutely abused by bigger guards. And the list goes on.

B) Minutes Per Game- Steve Nash only plays 34 minutes per game. This means that ¼ of every game he is on the bench. Now when you compare this with a player like Allen Iverson who averages 41 mpg for his entire career you can see that there really is no comparison at all. How can you be an MVP if you sit out ¼ of the game?

The mid 30s are the normal starter's minutes. Besides, I think it's more than fair to argue that Nash's minutes per game are low because the Suns fucking destroyed so many teams this season that none of them were playing most of the 4th quarter. That AI averaged 41 just goes to show how poor his team was.

I would like to pose the argument that Amare Stoudemire is by far the best player on the Suns.

Amare Stoudemire is a natural Power Forward, Shawn Marion is a natural Small Forward. However thanks to Nash’s “new” fast break style these guys are forced to play out of position on defense.

The team could throw in Steve Hunter at the 5 and the defense would be the same. The Suns weren't playing half court defense by design for the entire season so that they could run and take advantage of offensive mismatches that would put an Amare Stoudemire against a Dan Gadzuric.

If anything, the playoffs to this point have bolstered Nash's case and clearly hurt his closest competitors'. After watching Wade score half his team's points in the Game 2 victory over Detroit, does anyone think Shaq, who only averaged about 20/10 this year to start, is the MVP of his own team?

Meanwhile Nash has averaged about 25/12 in the playoffs with his typically high %s, and carried the Suns to victory over the Mavs when Amare had his 2 bad games.

As for the Suns themselves, a lot of people are pointing the finger and saying I Told You So because the team that doesn't play strong half court defense is getting trampled by the Spurs. However, I think the Suns' style can work as long as their team stays healthy next time and continues to get deeper. Remember, they were up in the 4th quarter of the first 2 games before fading down the stretch, partially because of depth problems and partially because Shawn Marion has been pathetic.

But don't take it out on the MVP.