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

3. Kawhi Leonard

From this point onward, you can’t really go wrong picking any of the three remaining candidates. LeBron James seems to be the consensus No. 4 choice in this four-horse race, but from here on out, the three frontrunners are all deserving of the award.

In their first season without Tim Duncan since 1997, the San Antonio Spurs won a staggering 61 games, giving them their fifth-best season in franchise history. How’d they do it? Mostly under the guidance of Kawhi Leonard’s hand (or baseball mitt, I suppose).

In his best season yet, Kawhi averaged 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game, while also doubling as the best individual defender on the league’s top-ranked defense. That matters to voters, especially since LeBron, Harden and Russ were average at best on the defensive end this season.

Much was made of San Antonio’s defense being better without Kawhi on the floor, since opponents would stick whoever he was guarding away from the action and operate four-on-four to prevent him gumming up the works. But even though the Spurs were eight points stingier per 100 possessions with Leonard off the floor, it’s hard to penalize him for his bench playing such great defense.

Leonard’s D took a step back this year, which is probably why the two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year won’t add a third trophy this year. But the way he stepped up as a go-to scorer for the NBA’s fourth-ranked offense shouldn’t be overlooked either.

With the elderly LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili serving as his best teammates, Kawhi led the Spurs to 61 wins and the second-best record in the league. People talk about how little help Harden and Westbrook have, but if not for Gregg Popovich’s reputation, you could definitely make the case Leonard exceeded expectations more than anyone based on his supporting cast.

Being a two-way player, winning the most games out of our top-four MVP candidates, improving as a playmaker and posting efficient .485/.380/.880 shooting splits all contribute to Kawhi’s MVP case, and as we said before, you can’t go wrong picking any one of these top three candidates.

But as much as the individual talent is lacking with his supporting cast, the collective chemistry and systematic balance of the Spurs can’t be overlooked either.

Kawhi didn’t singlehandedly carry this offense, and as much as the defense wouldn’t be better without him on the roster, he wasn’t quite the same lockdown force of nature he was the last two years for the long haul of the season…even if his head-to-head numbers against other MVP candidates and fellow superstars are favorable.

From a raw numbers standpoint, Leonard’s assist and rebounding numbers fall well short of our other three candidates, as do his career-high scoring numbers — even if he only played 33.4 minutes per game. Missing eight games also makes it harder to vote for him over Russ (81 games) or Harden (81 games), even it that’s far from the most important or noteworthy criteria to consider.

In such a historic season — the year of the triple-double — there’d be no shame in Kawhi Leonard finishing third in the MVP voting. There’s more to this award than picking the best candidate from one of the league’s winningest teams, because if that were the deciding factor, the MVP would either go to Steph Curry or Kevin Durant again.

Kawhi Leonard has a compelling case for MVP that’s built on team succcess, two-way play and drastically improved offense that helped the Spurs exceed expectations in their first season without Duncan. But compared to the historic seasons Harden and Westbrook just submitted, he comes up a bit short.