Making An MVP Case For The NBA’s 4 Leading Candidates

3. Kawhi Leonard

2016-17 Stats:  26.4 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.7 BPG, .486/.387/.895 shooting, 28.4 PER

The best two-way player in the NBA right now is Kawhi Leonard, and frankly, it’s not particularly close. The “system player” labels are so off-base now it’s almost comical, especially since the Claw also doubles as one of the NBA’s elite individual scorers.

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For years the San Antonio Spurs have thrived on their balance and celestial ball movement. Even when they had Tim Duncan, the plan was hardly ever to give the ball to one guy and let him go to work. And yet that’s what their crunch-time offense has become at times, and more often than not, Leonard delivers with robotic precision and poise.

Though Kawhi may not win his third Defensive Player of the Year Award this season, he still ranks sixth in steals per game, sixth in defensive win shares and seventh in defensive rating.

His rebounding and assist numbers are nowhere near as strong as our other MVP candidates, but Kawhi also ranks eighth in the league in scoring (ahead of LeBron), first in win shares per 48 minutes, second in PER, second in total win shares, fifth in VORP and sixth in BPM.

Those are elite measures for any player, let alone one who’s the catalyst behind San Antonio’s 52-15 record, which is second-best in the NBA and only one game behind the Golden State Warriors for the No. 1 overall seed.

Head-to-head matchups between MVP candidates are slightly overblown, since one or two regular season meetings shouldn’t have a massive bearing on an award meant to recognize the full 82-game slate. But Kawhi has pretty much owned his competition, sporting impressive numbers and a stellar record against contenders and other MVP candidates.

People don’t think of Kawhi Leonard as the Michael Jordan, LeBron James, ultra-competitive type, but he’s averaged 29.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game against the Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets, Celtics and Thunder, sporting an 8-2 record in the process.

Early in the season, it was hard not to notice how the Spurs were so much better on the defensive end with Kawhi out, and it’s worth mentioning that their defense is still a whopping 8.5 points per 100 possessions stingier with him on the bench, per NBA.com.

However, that might actually be because Kawhi is SO good defensively that teams have started drawing his man out of the play and letting the offense operate 4-on-4 against San Antonio’s other aging defenders, as CBS Sports’ Matt Moore wrote about earlier this season.

To suggest Kawhi Leonard is anything less than a terrifying two-way player would be foolish, and though his on-court/off-court defensive numbers may hurt his DPOY case, they don’t affect his MVP case when he’s busy blocking James Harden or stealing Stephen Curry‘s lunch money.

Kawhi is what happens when a “system player” is given the fullest opportunity to thrive within a championship culture and transcends all preconceived notions of what his ceiling was. He has become something far greater than anyone expected, and even if he doesn’t win it this season, an MVP Award feels like an inevitability in his career.

For Leonard to win this year, his Spurs may have to snag the No. 1 seed in the West. His per game averages don’t quite compare to the raw numbers Harden and Westbrook are putting up, but team success factor and the defensive end of the floor certainly bolster his case.