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Lots of thoughts on the NBA MVP race— what better place to get them off than a good ole’ fashion Hot 16?!

1) The Contenders, the Second Tier and Everybody Else- We basically have four legitimate MVP candidates. As of this weekend, everyone’s fake ballot has Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and James Harden in some order at the top. Beyond this foursome, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul and Marc Gasol probably deserve some consideration. The rest of the NBA’s 393 some odd players are pretty much tied for eighth place.

2) The Case For Westbrook- In the spirit of keeping our readers informed with HHSR’s streak of hot fiya predictions, we did call Russell Westbrook a dark horse MVP candidate at the start of the year. With Kevin Durant being sidelined due to injury, the stage was set for Westbrook to, well, be Westbrook. More importantly, to be Westbrook without fear of retribution. With KD out, Westbrook has been astounding. After posting a comical 31.2 points, 9.1 rebounds and 10.3 assists per contest over 12 games and winning the All-Star Game MVP (for what that’s worth), the NAACP should consider renaming February “Russell Westbrook History Month”.

3) The Case For Westbrook Pt 2- The league’s leading scorer has continued that blistering pace, dropping a minimum of 39 points and or a triple-double in each game during the month of March. Most importantly, Westbrook (aka “No Chill”— we’ve retired the nickname “YOLO”) kept the Thunder in the playoff picture in the West. With each passing day Durant rests, he must go to work every night knowing OKC’s season is literally hinging on his performance. To produce like this under that type of pressure is his greatest accomplishment.

Well that, and missing only one game after having A DENT IN HIS FACE!

3) The Case Against Westbrook- The Thunder are currently clinging to the eight seed in the Western Conference due to Durant’s and Westbrook’s various injuries this season. MVP voters don’t like players who have only played in 47 of 62 games. They also don’t like players whose team is barley above .500. If he were 100% all year, we’d be having a very different discussion.

4) The Case For LeBron- Pretty simple, really. He’s still the best basketball player walking the earth— he proved it against the Warriors two weeks ago.

There also seems to be a growing segment of the basketball community that despises looking back on history and seeing guys who weren’t the best player in the league win MVP.

5) The Case For LeBron Pt 2- Since returning from his two week sabbatical in early January — yes sabbatical, that’s exactly what it was — the Cavs have a league best record of 21-5 with LBJ leading the way. In all games with James, the Cavaliers are 38-16, which would be the fourth best win percentage in the league. And he’s doing it all under the perpetual scrutiny of being LeBron James — something NOBODY else deals with — while serving as the maestro for a completely new cast and a relatively inexperienced head coach.

6) The Case Against LeBron- November and December matter too. James wasn’t quite himself in the early part of the season, which cost his team wins, and consequently, cost himself MVP votes.

7) The Case Against LeBron Pt 2- Also, James has been incredibly careless with the basketball this season. Geno Smith thinks LeBron James is turning the ball over too much. As superb as they actually are, James’ numbers are down this year across the board; when you’ve already won MVP four times, you’re not competing against the field.

James also played his most selfish game in years last week against James Harden and the Rockets. He’s actively trying to force his way into the MVP debate— something that strangely seems beneath him.

8) The Case For Curry- His jumper is H2O and his team has had the best record in the West from jump. He’s unselfish and improved defensively, as evidenced by his assist and steal numbers. He also does stuff like this…

9) The Case Against Curry- He’s got a damn good team around him. In fact, the dude that plays opposite him in the backcourt scored 37 points in a quarter! ’06 Kobe never even pulled that off and he was a super hero!

10) The Case Against Curry Pt 2- To take it a step further, Curry isn’t exactly having a career year. He’s not averaging a career-high in points, assists, rebounds, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, three-point percentage — and for you super stat nerds — assist rate, WAR or win shares. There are some career bests, such as the aforementioned steals per game, true shooting percentage and PER. But the only significant change in Curry this season from years past is his team’s win percentage, which if the numbers tell us anything, is likely more a byproduct of Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green all having career years.

Shouldn’t a guy who’s never won MVP be having a significantly better campaign than in seasons when he didn’t win it?

11) The Case For Harden- He’s been without Dwight Howard for so long, you probably forgot Dwight played for the Rockets. James Harden has had to carry Houston’s offensive scoring load from the start of the season, a Houston team that has made several moves during the season. Have you looked at the Rockets roster? Corey Brewer, Pablo Prigioni, K.J. McDaniels and Josh Smith have all come to town and Houston still looks wack on paper. Not to mention this is the same Josh Smith that seems to make every team he’s on worse, yet somehow Harden has his team 23 games over .500 in the West! When he’s not Liu Kanging LeBron James in the junk, The Beard has meant the most to his team on a game-to-game basis than any player in the NBA. Plus he’s money in crunch time.

12) The Case Against Harden- The Rockets don’t have the record the Warriors do and he isn’t the player LeBron is, regardless of what Houston’s twitter account will tell you. Harden’s effectiveness is centered around throwing his body into anyone who stands in front of him— more often than not he gets the call, which is maddening for anyone who didn’t grow up rooting for Clutch City. While his defense has improved (that’s not saying much), he still is prone to flopping and he never gets called for the offensive fouls he seems to commit every third time down the court. So to recap, The Beard gets calls he shouldn’t, he commits fouls that don’t get called, he cheap shots opponents and he flops— add it up and he may be the least likable superstar in the league. Even the way the Rockets organization unapologetically campaigns for Harden as MVP is off-putting.

Is that guy really supposed to be MVP?

How does one make heads or tails of all this?

13) The MVP Is About The Here and Now- You can’t just give the award to the guy who is arbitrarily considered the best player in the league. Did Michael Jordan get robbed by Karl Malone in 1997? Absolutely. Did he get robbed by Charles Barkley in 1993? Not in this writer’s opinion. Was Jordan the best player both years? Sure, but he still had to go out and earn it. By that logic, Jordan probably should’ve won MVP every year he played from 1987 to 1998. Not gonna happen.

As of now, this knocks LeBron out of contention.

14) Ability And Availability- You must have both to win this award. If Westbrook only missed a handful of games and was doing what he’s doing now all season, he’s be running away with this award like Bo Jackson on Tecmo Super Bowl. Unfortunately, he’s missed too many games to be the front runner at this point. If he keeps up these Oscar Robertson-like numbers through mid-April and OKC makes the playoffs, come back and talk to me.

15) Sorry, Not Sorry- In a race as competitive as this one, is it weird to factor in the pure belief that one player is better at basketball than another when filing a fictitious MVP ballot, largely ignoring the actual credentials at hand?

16) Who Gets The Vote?- Curry is the MVP as of today, in part because I just feel he’s a better basketball player than James Harden.

It’s just how I feel.

It should be noted this obviously isn’t set in stone. But in spite of Harden maybe actually having a better case, Curry has taken the league by storm on a nightly basis from an excitement standpoint not seen since 2000 Vince Carter (apologies to the axe murderer in a basketball jersey named “post-Durant injury Russell Westbrook”). This should count for something when considering the winner of the most prestigious individual award in basketball.

Coming into tonight’s play, the Warriors are winning .803 of their games with an average point differential of 10.1. That means on most nights, some poor team is getting smoked by Dub Nation. The Warriors are doing boarderline historical stuff— Steph’s sharp shooting is the catalyst, with his ball handling and play-making being almost as exciting as the wicked release he uses to cook up the competition.

They don’t call him “Chef Curry” for nothing.