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2016-17 NBA Awards Season: Ranking The Top 4 MVP Candidates

By Gerald Bourguet

Mar 26, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shake hands after a game at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 26, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shake hands after a game at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 26, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shake hands after a game at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /

With the 2016-17 regular season over, it’s time to review the top candidates for NBA awards season. Here are final rankings for the four MVP frontrunners.

The 2016-17 NBA regular season is over and the 2017 NBA Playoffs are already underway. But even with the postseason getting started, there’s still one thing that needs to be taken care of: NBA awards season!

Though a Golden State Warriors-Cleveland Cavaliers Finals battle seems inevitable for the third straight year, basketball fans were treated to a truly exceptional regular season.

From Russell Westbrook‘s triple-double feat to Kawhi Leonard‘s rise to greatness to a historic, unexpected season from James Harden, there were plenty of awe-inspiring performances and juicy story lines for NBA fans to digest in the MVP debate this season. Unfortunately, that also makes it much harder to decide between all the leading candidates for award season.

We’ve already covered Coach of the Year candidates, the top 10 for Rookie of the Year, the best Most Improved Player of the Year options, the Sixth Man of the Year frontrunners and a tight Defensive Player of the Year race, so today we’ll be wrapping things up with MVP.

After also exploring the five fringe MVP candidates we’d be talking about if not for the four frontrunners, the debate over LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Russell Westbrook deserves its own in-depth breakdown. Now it’s finally time to sort out one of the greatest MVP races in league history, including a factor-by-factor breakdown for our top two.