NBA Finals: Would The Finals MVP Please Stand Up?

Three games in, the Golden State Warriors lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 2-1 in the NBA Finals. But no player has stepped up as the favorite for Finals MVP, including superstar Stephen Curry.

For a team, the pinnacle of success is the Larry O’Brien Trophy, awarded to the winner of the NBA Finals. The team that emerges victorious after 82 regular-season games and four playoff series gets the prestige of immortality as the champions.

Commensurate with great team performances are great individual performances, and those receive recognition as well. The highest postseason honor for players is the Bill Russell Trophy, also known as the Finals MVP award.

Most years, this award is easy to give out. Pick the best player on the winning team, hand him the trophy, problem solved.

However, last year introduced a glitch in the system, when the reigning MVP Stephen Curry had an unremarkable NBA Finals and the trophy was given to swingman Andre Iguodala.

This year Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors again entered the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers as favorites, with Curry the odds-on bet to take home the Finals MVP award.

Then Who?

If not Stephen Curry, who should win the Finals MVP? This is a question completely up in the air. Shaun Livingston was the star of Game 1, scoring 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting as he bullied Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith. But in the two games since he’s scored only 12 points combined.

Leandro Barbosa also had a hot start to the series, hitting 10 shots in a row over the first game and a half. But he is 2-for-7 since, with three assists and four rebounds to go with his 9.7 points per game average.

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After Game 2 Draymond Green was the popular choice, after he became the third Splash Brother for the night. Green hit five three-pointers en route to 28 points, the most points scored by any Warrior in any of the three games.

His scoring crashed down to earth in Game 3 as Draymond went 2-for-8 for only six points. He is averaging 8.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists with a handful of SportsCenter highlights on both ends of the court, so his candidacy has some shine to it if the Warriors close out the series.

Can Andre Iguodala mirror his All-Star teammate and bring home back-to-back trophies for Finals MVP? Offensively his numbers don’t leap off the page, as he is averaging 10.0 points per game on 13-of-22 shooting.

But his defense on LeBron James and the entire Cleveland team has been stellar, even as the Cavs found more team success on offense in Game 3.

The key stat for Iguodala is plus/minus. When Iguodala has been on the court, the Warriors have outscored the Cleveland Cavaliers by 39 points, by far the best of any player on the team (Shaun Livingston is next at plus-29).

Without Iguodala’s defense and playmaking the Warriors may be in a very different place in this series. He is deserving of being in the conversation.

If Steve Kerr elects to start Iguodala for Andrew Bogut, as he did in last year’s Finals, and the Warriors close out this series, “Iggy” could be on the fast track to a repeat.

The Favorites

If the Cleveland Cavaliers come back to win this series, building on a standout victory in Game 3, then LeBron James will almost surely hoist his third Finals MVP trophy, one for each of his NBA titles.

The Cavaliers are nowhere close to being the favorites after one victory, no matter how dominant, but they are in better shape than they were just Wednesday.

FiveThirtyEight’s prediction model gives them only a 23 percent chance to win the series, but that’s more than double the 11 percent the model gave them before Game 3.

LeBron has been dominant in the box score all series, averaging 24.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 8.0 assists. In Games 1 and 2,those stats came along with poor shooting, but in Game 3 the King dropped his 28 points on 14-of-26 shooting from the field.

Winning three of the next four games would almost definitely come along with more full box scores from James and a third trophy for his case.

But the Warriors are still favored to win this series, significantly so. Twice during these playoffs they stumbled in Game 3 on their way to a five-game closeout, improving on last year’s pattern of losing Game 3 before winning in 6.

And the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder showed that blowout losses don’t preclude this Warriors team from winning a series.

Stephen Curry has not been on his game thus far in this series, but that’s no reason to think he won’t be able to show up in the games to come. Last year he turned in a couple of mediocre games before scorching the Cavaliers for 37 and 25 points respectively in the final two games.

The most likely course of action for the Warriors is to start the “Death Lineup” and blow this Cavaliers team off the court.

That’s no sure thing — every lineup of the Warriors played poorly in Game 3 — but it is Golden State’s best lineup and would limit the minutes of Andrew Bogut, who has been terrible in two consecutive Finals against the Cavaliers.

When that happens, the floor will be spaced for Curry to shine. With his lightning-quick sidesteps and sniper shots and shimmies, the stage is set for Curry to show why he’s the most popular player in the league.

Last season, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared for LeBron. This series it could become a whole lot closer, and Steph Curry has the potential to speed LeBron’s train along.

In doing so, Curry can redeem himself and these NBA Finals, which have been a collection of uncompetitive blowouts. By reeling in fans across the world, he can show himself to be the star we all know him to be. And add a certain trophy to his collection.

must read: 3 Reasons Cavaliers Are Doomed

Steph Curry, Finals MVP. It’s a pairing that seems destined to happen. Despite a slow start, the Baby-Faced Assassin has the time and the skills to make that trophy his.

Would The NBA Finals MVP Please Stand Up?

By Josh Cornelissen | Jun 9, 2016

Three games in, the Golden State Warriors lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 2-1 in the NBA Finals. But no player has stepped up as the favorite for Finals MVP, including superstar Stephen Curry.

Then Who?

More from Hoops Habit

The Favorites