So who will be the mvp? Mr. Triple double, the one man crew from Houston or the all around guy from San Antonio
1. Harden
He's been as efficient as LeBron, even factoring in his stratospheric turnover rate. He's still bad defensively, but he's put up a token effort at times, and he's played the second most minutes in the NBA.
2. Kawhi
He's the best defensive player on the best defensive team in the NBA, and he's the most efficient and also the highest usage player on the 5th best offense in the NBA. He's the best player in the NBA for the regular season as of right now, but his volume is dwarfed by Harden. They will finish the season with a gap of near 600 minutes between them. Kawhi would need to turn in a peak LeBron or MJ season to overcome that amount of volume.
3. Russ
His triple double is inflated; he's averaging over a rebound per game on free throw misses, and the next nearest PG has fewer than 10 such rebounds. He also leads the NBA in uncontested rebounds. Additionally, his shooting numbers are horrendous (sans FT%).
However, he shows up on D. Oscar Robertson, in his triple double season, was on the court for about 115 possessions a game. Here are Westbrook's per 100 possession triple double stats:
44.4 PTS
14.8 REB
14.6 AST
The amount of volume evident in his season is hilarious, and deserves recognition. He's just not MVP.
4. LeBron
Take Kawhi's main flaw, and add high turnover rate (highest of career), poor FT shooting, and remove any semblance of defense. The most defense he plays is barking at his teammates for not covering his missed rotations. He did swallow Kawhi alive on a couple possessions late in one game, but that's a far cry from the D he played in previous MVP campaigns. If he were averaging 3 turnovers a game and 80% shooting from the free throw line, he'd win MVP in a landslide, even with the non-existent D. But he's not.
I love LeBron, he's the 3rd greatest player of all time right now, has a 7 year peak that is nearly indistinguishable from MJ's, and has a real chance to have a crazy peak and Kareem-like longevity. In essence, he might go down as the GOAT. But he's not MVP this season.
5. Pick one from Gobert, Giannis, or Butler