KD MVP

PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - With about 80 percent of the NBA regular season behind us, I think we can get a pretty good idea of who should be MVP and I agree with Derrick Rose - it should be Kevin Durant!

Up to the All-Star break I would have voted for LeBron James with his brillant all-around stats and Miami's domination of the league up to that point. But since the break it's been all OKC, especially in the last 10 days right up to yesterday evening's games where the Thunder sent a message to the whole league by crushing Chicago while Miami fell apart in Boston!

With Durant and Russell Westbrook leading the way, OKC has beaten handily Miami, the Lakers in LA and now Chicago during their string of six wins in a row. There is not a better time to take a stand with only 12 games left in the regular season while all the ambitious squads are gearing up for the playoffs.

The Thunder is a young team which is key during this accelerated season concerning fatigue but they play with the seriousness of a veteran team sharing the ball on offence and playing hard defence together.

Their top trio of scorers has nothing to envy compared to Miami's Big Three and I feel OKC is stronger on the inside and on the bench compared to the Heat. Both teams love to play small ball and scurrying defence to fuel their uptempo game but right now OKC is doing it better!

At only 23, Durant is the true leader of this wonderful winning machine having career stats in rebounds and assists and also playing much improved defence notably when matched up with... LeBron!

For a player who was supposed to be physically frail when he came into the league, KD plays at a very high level almost 40 minutes a contest without missing a game and has his share of Dunkorama highlights to boot.

He wants to and appears to be a lot more of a clutch player in the money time than James and we can only dream that they match up in the NBA Finals to settle all these questions once and for all.

Both players have worked arduously on improving their enormous god-given talent but somehow you get the impression that Durant has more killer instinct than LeBron despite being less dominating physically similar to the way Bill Russell had a more steely mentality than Wilt Chamberlain despite being less imposing athletically.

We know that KD wants that damn ball at the end of a close game but we are not sure that LeBron does. Durant is a player that can play all five positions and has the height of a center but the technique, shooting range and first step of a guard. He can shoot over anybody from anywhere and drive left or right.

Despite being obliged to force up a lot of tough shots at the end of possessions, Durant is shooting an incredible 50 percent from the field (38% on threes). Compare that to the actual NBA leading scorer, Kobe Bryant, who takes a lot more shots than anyone this season and who is shooting only 42 percent with 28 percent on three-point shots!

You might say that I am forgetting the reigning MVP, Rose and his Chicago team, that is at the top of the league. Yes, what they are accomplishing is extraordinary because their best player has missed 20 games and this fact alone sort of excludes him from the MVP debate but if he comes back healthy for the playoffs, we won't be able to exclude the Bulls from the debate about who will be champs!

George Eddy

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