NBA Awards Watch: The 5 Serious MVP Candidates

Mar 1, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives the ball to the basket during the third quarter against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives the ball to the basket during the third quarter against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
1 of 11
NBA
Mar 1, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives the ball to the basket during the third quarter against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Week 19 of NBA Awards Watch, where we take pride in attempting to mix small sample sizes from the past week and season-long projections for the league’s most important award!

In an effort to make some sense of the wide open 2014-15 MVP race, we’ve taken a look at the top 10 candidates for each and every week of NBA action. Last week, Russell Westbrook was on a tear through our top 10 and Anthony Davis took a small step backward due to injury.

More from NBA

This week, Westbrook joins Davis in taking a slight step back, if only because they’re both injured and LeBron James, Stephen Curry and James Harden have all been on a tear lately.

Where does the original King James stack up to “the new King James?” Can Westbrook realistically win the MVP Award? And is there any reason to care about the bottom-five candidates in our top 10? We may only have five candidates that have a realistic shot at winning this thing, but here’s a look at our MVP rankings, starting with the honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions: Damian LillardJohn Wall, Jimmy Butler, Paul Millsap, Kevin Durant, Jeff Teague and Blake Griffin.

Next: No. 10 - Z-Bo