Can Steph be MVP candidate after Olympics heroics? It’s complicated

Can Steph be MVP candidate after Olympics heroics? It’s complicated originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

There wasn’t a more valuable basketball player on the planet this summer than Steph Curry for his legendary performance to first propel Team USA to the gold medal game of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics in staving off an upset of epic proportions, and then to capture gold on the game’s greatest heat check of all time.

Curry’s value to the Warriors and basketball as a whole at 36 years old couldn’t be more evident.

What he did wearing a No. 4 Team USA jersey also doesn’t have him recognized as an NBA MVP candidate back in his No. 30 Golden State jersey at all as the offseason wraps up. Let’s first make a clear distinction: There’s a major difference between being seen as a top-10 player in the NBA and a top-10 MVP candidate. Curry undoubtedly still is a top-10 player in the least. This is a regular-season award, and there are a handful of factors in Curry’s way.

Age is the most obvious. The oldest player to win the award was Karl Malone at 35 in 1999, and he only had to play 49 games because of the lockout. Only one player 30 or older since the turn of the millennium has been named MVP. That was Steve Nash at 30 and 31 when he captured the hardware in consecutive years all the way back in 2005 and 2006.

Discounting Curry as a MVP candidate isn’t so much a slight to him, but more so how the outside world sees the Warriors after falling down to the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference and failing to make the playoffs. In the chance the Warriors are a top-four team in the West, or possibly even a top-six team to avoid the play-in tournament, Curry will find himself right back in the MVP race.

Until then, these players – a list that doesn’t include the reigning Finals MVP, the ascension of Victor Wembanyama, the return of Ja Morant and more – could get in his way.

Tier 1: Last Season’s Finalists

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steph-mvp-candidate-olympics-heroics-164433615.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-09-18 16:44:33

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