Race to the MVP Mailbag: Playing Holiday Catchup

R2MVP's Rob Peterson has awakened from a slight turkey-induced coma to answer your questions. Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty Images

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Race to the MVP (R2MVP) mailbag. With the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States, I've been away from the mailbox for a while. Let's quickly recap the issues covered in the past two R2MVP rankings: what makes an MVP and what gift you would get the players in the top 10 for the holidays.

The response to the first was far more overwhelming than the latter. As a matter of fact, I received one response to what the players should receive for the holidays. And to Brian in New York City, I thank you. I particularly enjoyed the following:

Kobe - "Boston Site Seeing Guide: 2009 Summer Edition"
Paul Pierce - "Los Angeles Site Seeing Guide: 2009 Summer Edition"
Wade - Back Brace; for all that extra weight he's been carrying on his back

Also, I liked the line about an extra ingredient for Chris Paul's championship soufflé, but, c'mon they're in Nawlins. It should have been championship etouffee.

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As for the "What Makes an MVP" whether it be art, science or a combination thereof, we'll get to those in a moment because I want to address the ton of e-mail about specific players not in the Top 10 or not in the Outside Looking In (For Now) section. When that happens, I'll more than likely reply to you with a short comment:

Name --

Interesting. I agree ... to a point.

Thanks for reading.

Rob

If you've received an e-mail response from me like that, you probably won't see your e-mail live on in the R2MVP Mailbag. And because I receive so many e-mails asking about specific players, I need to answer them on the site in bulk. With that in mind, here goes.

"Where's Brandon Roy and why isn't he in Top 10?"

R2MVP Rob: I saw Brandon at Madison Square Garden this Tuesday. It was the first time I had seen him in a regular season game in person and it's clear he has star quality. As Joel Przybilla said, "he's the key to this team." He's a key to a 14-6 team. I think you may be seeing more of Roy in R2MVP in the near future.

"Shouldn't Devin Harris be at least in the Outside Looking In?"

R2MVP Rob: Yes, he should have and that was an oversight on my part. John Schuhmann and myself were in the house when he dropped 38 on the Pistons, a performance which included 20-fo-24 from the charity stripe. He's been a revelation and a possible personnel millstone around the necks of the Mavericks' front office. Like Roy, I think you may be seeing more of Harris in and around the Top 10.

"What about VC? Shouldn't he be considered for OLI?"

R2MVP Rob: Again, same mistake made as I made with Harris. Vince is finally healthy and playing like the VC of old and not old VC. He too will hang around for a while.

"You're nuts for not having T-Mac in the Top 10."

R2MVP Rob: No, no I'm not. I think T-Mac is an incredible talent. Unfortunately, one of those talents is wearing a sartorially splendid suit on the sidelines. Right now, his health affects his game and in turn will affect his ranking. You can't be MVP if you don't play. Sorry, T-Maniacs.

Of course, we'll always have the debate about who's at the top and in the top five. For all of those who asked about Dwyane Wade's superlative season, I recognize:

For every Raptors fan who complained about Bosh being too low at No. 6, let the Raptors get accustomed to their new coach. Also, let the Raptors get accustomed to being above .500 again.

Here's an intriguing query from Josh:

I am repeating my question from last week and that is: If the Lakers win 60-plus games, where would Kobe be in the Rankings? If the Lakers won 65+ games where would he be in the rankings? And would Kobe Bryant win MVP if the Lakers won 70-plus games this season?

PLEASE RESPOND

That would be awesome.

R2MVP Rob: Josh, allow me to grace you with an answer: I think if the Lakers won 65-plus or 70-plus games, it would be very difficult for the writers to deny Kobe a second consecutive MVP award. Those win totals are hard to deny. Though I could see some precedence for Kobe NOT winning it this year and that precedence comes from his own franchise. The 1971-72 Lakers, which set a then-NBA record by winning 69 games, were a great team anchored by Wilt Chamberlain in the middle and Jerry West on the perimeter. But neither won MVP. Milwaukee's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won it.

I wouldn't say it was right and I don't think it would occur, but it has happened before.

As for "What Makes an MVP" here are some of the more intriguing non-formula based responses.

Dan from Philly writes:

Hi. I read your column every week, and I'd like to say that I think the definition of the MVP should be very simple: if all the players in the NBA were lined up along a wall, as we did as kids back in school so team captains could pick their teams, the MVP would be the one chosen first. Ha! I got'cha. Not bad. But that begs another question: who would be the team captains?

Michal, who has PhD in Geology and is on the faculty at the University of Warsaw had a rock-solid (get it?) e-mail which ended thusly:

"[The] Importance of personal stats decreases during the season and overall rating [of the team] is increases. You should think about that when you will create next week list and. You can put it into your 'E=mc2' for MVP.

R2MVP Rob: Michal, thanks for that. I think you do see that as the season goes on because as you have more games, huge changes in the averages are rare. You probably have writers placing more of an emphasis on how a team finishes (as we noted, the last 20 MVPs have been on either the team with the league's best record or been on a team that won a division). So, I can see that happening.

And finally, an e-mail from Ryan from the land down under. Here's his criteria for MVP:

Sup' Rob? I'm from Canberra, Australia (home town of St Mary's College' star from down under Patrick Mills - remember the name). Anywho, just wanted to say that I think you are pretty spot on when it comes to rating the top ten players in the league in any given week. Great job. Its tough, and people don't really realise that. I mean, they can only make their mind up while considering who their favourite player is. I'm sure you have a favourite player too, but the difference is that you're a professional.

I'm a mad Kobe fan, but I can understand why he is second (maybe he should be lower, but I'm happy right where he is thanks). You have to consider a lot of factors. Kobe's numbers are down, so he isn't number one, but his Lakers have the best record in the league, and he is an integral part, so he's in the top three. For real, to me it makes perfect sense.

I've been thinking about this "what makes an MVP argument" and I figure this:

A player in the top ten for Race to the MVP should be:

• In the top 10 in at least 3 out of 7 categories (ppg, rpg, apg, spg, bpg, fg% and ft% (I also think that turnovers should be added to the list and then some how subtracted from an overall rating, but that's another discussion);

• be a leader of at least one category on their team; -- be in the top three in at least 3-5 out of the seven categories on their team; and last

• his team needs to be over .500 wins/losses. Forgive me if the stats don't quite add up, I didn't have time to look at the stats of the current top ten before writing, and I'm not sure if this formula would be too lenient or too tough (I'm writing while on a break at work). But you get the idea, perhaps a formula could be made based on this type of model?

Peace, Ryan

R2MVP Rob: Thanks, Ryan. We'll try it, but without even crunching the numbers, you can pretty much take an educated guess that NBA MVPs and MVP candidates fit your criteria.

Again, I just wanted to thank everyone for their e-mail. We'll discuss more of "What Makes an MVP?" in upcoming R2MVP columns and mailbags.

As usual, if you have a comment, complaint or great basketball anecdote, drop us a line at RacetotheMVP@gmail.com.