It’s popular around NBA circles to characterize a ranking of players inside of a season as a “ladder”. The NBA.com does their popular “Rookie Ladder” and other sites layout MVPs, Most Improved, and even teams on a “ladder” to rank them.
That doesn’t make any sense. Ladders don’t take much effort to climb, and it’s virtually impossible to pass someone on a ladder. Unless you’re a fireman, your ladder probably holds two or three people at most. And are these players just chilling out on a ladder all season, occasionally trying to awkwardly switch spots?
Here at Hoops Habit, we are instead presenting the “MVP Mountain.” In addition to providing pleasant alliteration, framing the fight for the MVP as climbing a mountain makes much more sense.
It’s difficult work, as it takes a long time to scale, and the entire league can reasonably be pictured climbing this mountain. Being the star player closest to the peak at any given point in the season is impressive, not simply the precursor to a lightbulb change.
We are unveiling the NBA MVP Mountain. Roughly three weeks into the NBA season which players have climbed the highest?
Early in the season, we have more volatility in the race for the top than we will later on, as each individual game matters more now than it will at midseason. A reasonable case could have been made for any of eight or nine different players at various times over the past three weeks. Things are starting to level out a bit, so it’s time to start recognizing who is having an elite season.
You won’t find LeBron James here, whose team looks bad and who has missed half the season due to injury. Luka Doncic has had some highlight moments, but his efficiency is bad. Similar reasoning keeps Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, and James Harden further down the slope. Joel Embiid’s 76ers are playing extremely well, but he hasn’t always been in the lineup for it.
That left eight stars in consideration for the MVP Mountain Top 5 this week. You could make a case for any of them, but right now the player at the top seems pretty clear. The former two-time MVP, last year’s leading scorer, and the centerpiece of a team with two fewer losses than anyone else. The baby-faced assassin himself, Wardell Stephen Curry II.