I'm comfortable believing Nowitzki, Howard, and Stoudemire are the three strongest candidates. Toss out Ginobili, just because he's underpublicized and plays along Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, two guys who could also steal votes. This leaves us with Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Howard, Manu Ginobili, and Amar'e Stoudemire. Let's toss out LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant (because of Westbrook), and Paul Pierce (thanks Kevin Garnett and Rondo). Then we have a bunch of guys who are clearly going to steal votes from one another. Thus, for argument's sake, let's toss out Paul, Williams, Rose and Westbrook. Now, we know it's tough for little guys to win the award.

You can disagree all you want, but the reality is Rose barely has a case for most valuable point guard, let alone most valuable player. Furthermore, he's single-handedly carrying a broke franchise, one that is facing possible contraction, to a 6th seed in the Western Conference. He's 3rd in assists per game and 5th in three-point percentage. Paul is leading the league in both PER and Win Shares, not to mention steals per game, and assist-turnover ratio. Again, I ask, what makes Rose stick out among his peers? Rose ranks in the top five among point guards in PER and Win Shares, which is great, but right there with him are Paul, Nash, Williams and Westbrook. In Rose's case, the numbers just don't stand out enough. Of course, he won the scoring title, scored 40 or more points in a game 17 times, and his team won 56 games despite him missing 11 with injuries.

In 2001, Iverson ranked 7th in PER and 10th in Win Shares. However, in both seasons, he led the league in assists per game, posted phenomenal shooting percentages, and his team averaged 58 wins. In 2005, he ranked 15th in PER and 15th in Win Shares.

In 2006, Nash ranked 12th in PER and 10th in Win Shares. Kobe Bryant, who in 2008 finished 4th in Win Shares but only 8th in PER, and-you guessed it-Steve Nash and Allen Iverson. Of the past 20 MVP winners, only three didn't finish in the top five in both PER and Win Shares. The two categories in which he ranks best, 5th and 6th, respectively, are field goal attempts and turnovers.Īs for the statistics that truly correlate to serious MVP consideration, PER (Player Efficiency Rating) and Win Shares, Rose ranks 18th and 15th. 34 games into the season, Rose is posting some impressive numbers, mainly points per game (23.8) and assists per game (8.3), but both just barely rank within the top ten in each category (9th in ppg, 8th in apg).

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