First Candidate - Russell Westbrook

First off I'm aware that I am slightly contradicting myself with Westbrook, since in my last post I said that team record and making the playoffs plays a pretty big part in my decision making process (if the playoffs started today OKC would miss out) but his body of work this season just simply cannot be ignored! Below are his numbers for the season

27.5 PPG, which is tied for the league lead, on 42/29/83 shooting percentages (floor/3pt/FT)

7.3 RPG which is first among guards (36th total)

8.6 APG which is fourth in the league

2.2 Steals a game is good for second in the league

4.4 Turnovers unfortunately is league leading

11 Triple Doubles
65 games played
Second in the NBA with a 28.83 P.E.R
1 dent in the side of his face!!!!

Those are amazing numbers! You could argue that just from a purely statistical point of view he is the best player in the game...Id be happy to put up numbers like that on 2k!! He has been criticised in the past for being reckless, out of control and not being a quote unquote "true point guard". If your name happens to be Skip Bayless you will still argue that last part to the death, but there is no doubt he is an elite player, regardless of position. 

Its a pretty well known fact that the Thunder line up has been absolutely decimated by injury this season! The one that gets the most attention is obviously Kevin Durant playing in just 27 games due to a foot problem (I feel your pain KD) but Serge Ibaka has also missed a lot of time with a knee injury and Kiwi hero Steven Adams also missed a month with a broken bone in his hand, just to name a few. They picked up some nice players in Enes Kanter, DJ Augustin, Kyle Singler and Dion Waiters along the way but that doesn't make up for who they have lost this season. When you consider all those injuries to key players its amazing that this team is still very much in the hunt for the 8th seed in a ridiculously deep western conference, the 43-37 win/loss would be good for a sixth seed and guaranteed playoff spot in the east. Ultimately I don't think he will win the award but he definitely deserves consideration for the way he has carried this team and almost willed them to a playoff spot in the western conference which, according to many NBA experts, is the deepest its ever been.

Just slightly off the MVP discussion I wanna mention its amazing (to me at least) that after multiple knee surgeries he is arguably the most athletic/explosive player in the league!! Mind Boggling

AP