With less than two weeks until the start of the 2021-22 NBA playoffs, the Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies, and Golden State Warriors rest as the top three teams in the Western Conference.
What do those three teams have in common? They’re all led by someone short in stature – a point guard.
The Grizzlies may be unbelievably good without him, but Ja Morant is their out-and-out best player. The same can be said for Stephen Curry, with the Warriors looking unrecognizable as he recovers from a foot injury. We can debate who out of Chris Paul or Devin Booker is the Suns’ best player, but the fact remains that this team didn’t elevate to championship contender (or anything near it) until Paul came along.
Can Ja Morant, Stephen Curry, or Chris Paul defy NBA history?
As the Suns, Grizzlies, and Warriors begin to embark on their quest toward the NBA championship, they’ll do so knowing that history is well and truly against them.
It can be acknowledged that, throughout NBA history, the winner of the Finals MVP is usually awarded to the best player on the championship team (not just for the series but in general). Giannis Antetokounmpo last season, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, the list goes on. Of course, there’s always the odd outlier like Andre Iguodala in 2015, who won despite Curry being the best Warrior that season.
So, if the Warriors or Grizzlies were to win the championship this season, it’s fair to expect that Curry or Morant would end up being the Finals MVP. The same could be said for Paul, although Booker could foreseeably win it, should he put up an incredible performance in the Finals.
There’s only one problem. Since Laker legend Jerry West won the inaugural Finals MVP in 1969, only five players 6’3″ or below have won the award. That’s Jo Jo White for the Boston Celtics in 1971, the backcourt duo of Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas on the ‘bad boy’ Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990, Chauncey Billups for Detroit’s 2004 championship team, and most recently, Tony Parker for the Spurs in 2007.
So, can the Grizzlies, Warriors, and to a lesser extent the Suns, buck the trend that suggests undersized guards cannot be the best player on a championship team? Many believe that Curry was robbed of the award in 2015, with an elusive Finals MVP sure to confirm his status as a top-two point guard of all time.
A championship for the Grizzlies would be a story for the ages, with a Finals MVP for Morant elevating him into exclusive company just three years into his career. At the other end of his career, the award would cap a remarkable career for Paul who, like Curry, will go down as one of the best point guards of all time.
In a league recently dominated by wings (James, Durant, Leonard) and now with the re-invention of the modern-day big (Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Joeld Embiid), can the undersized guard topple them all to defy NBA history?