2020 Most Valuable Player
Jul 5, 2020 10:54:54 GMT
Walt Frazier, Mike Krzyzewski, and 7 more like this
Post by Ian Noble on Jul 5, 2020 10:54:54 GMT
DYNASTY FIVE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER 2020
LEBRON JAMES
Boston Celtics
With his fourth Dynasty Five Most Valuable Player Award, and his sixth MVP for his entire career, Lebron James officially joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar today for the most MVPs in a single player's career!
This season The King joined the Boston Celtics after a short stint in Charlotte, giving the Celtics the highest rated starting lineup in the league, and immediately led the Celtics to a 33W-7L (0.825) record during the second half of the year. Lebron improved Boston's record from 32W-10L (0.762) to an eventual top-of-the-league 65W-17L (0.793) for the first time in the D5 Celtics history!
Lebron's legacy may be even greater in the D5 Universe, but his track record does seem to be tinged with more pain and defeat despite owning more silverwear; having amassed the same number of championships as real-life (3), first with Miami* and then in Golden State**, but tallying an extra two MVPs along the way and never having left a team in a controversial free agency decision, it's a wonder where D5 fans would place him in all their GOAT discussions! In 2012 his Heat lost to Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, but Lebron vanquished those demons the following year when an ageing Garnett/Pierce/Allen were soundly beaten in the Semi-Finals en route to Lebron's first ever championship. The next two years Lebron would lose to both Portland* and Golden State*, and the next year he was not only traded to the Warriors but lost to Kevin Durant's Thunder in the Conference Finals, giving Durant some legitimate bragging rights in terms of legacy, and then Russell Westbrook went on to win his first D5 championship for Charlotte! Fast-forward to 2020 and Russell Westbrook's Hornets not only traded Lebron away to Boston after only half a season, but Boston lost to Charlotte in the Eastern Conference Finals as the team who spurned him defied all the odds and won it all again! Lebron's Celtics deposited a huge chunk of their youth and prospects to go into win-now mode but they came up short when it mattered, and the legacy of The King could maybe be seen to have a few more blemishes here at D5 than in real life.
Regardless though - in Lebron we are witness to the greatest force of a generation, an almost guaranteed one way ticket to the Finals, or at least Conference Finals for the better part of the last decade! Even now as he approaches the later stages of his dominant career, Lebron continues to lead his team in real life as well as here at Dynasty Five, showing a longevity only matched by some of the greatest names to ever play the game. He came up just one game shy of a Finals appearance this year, but without him the Celtics would not have been in the same discussion with Milwaukee, Charlotte, Denver and Sacramento. In real life Lebron's all-star pairing with Anthony Davis make the Lakers championship favourites, here at D5 he's got two all-stars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, with Jamal Murray and Jaylen Brown similarly outclassing the rest of the real-life Lakers roster, and you can't help but get the feeling that a championship can't be too far off for Boston so long as that core holds together.
This season's MVP race was especially tough to call, not least because it's the first time I've ever given a D5 Award to myself (!), but there were so many players with a case to be made this year! The mid-season GM Survey tipped Denver's James Harden to pick up his second straight MVP Award, but from the time of the results being published until the end of the regular season the Nuggets were a disappointing 13W-8L, dropping to fifth in the overall standings, whilst Lebron's Celtics went 18W-4L and finished out on top, even above Anthony Davis and the mighty Bucks. Despite the D5 Hornets now being synonymous with Russell Westbrook's two championships and storied leadership, Paul George asserted himself as the dominant force for Charlotte and made a case for himself as well. The Kings packed roster was led by DeMar DeRozan's brilliance to the top of the West, and credit should also go to Lebron's teammate, Joel Embiid, who made Boston a fearsome force even before The King's arrival. In the end though, the dominance of Lebron and what he lent to the regular season Celtics was impossible to ignore as the single most valuable player contribution to any team in the league.
Congratulations, for the sixth time, to Lebron James and the Boston Celtics.
2019/20 Stats - 25.5ppg | 8.7rpg | 7.0apg | 1.5bpg | 1.9spg
LEBRON JAMES
Boston Celtics
GM: Ian Noble
With his fourth Dynasty Five Most Valuable Player Award, and his sixth MVP for his entire career, Lebron James officially joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar today for the most MVPs in a single player's career!
This season The King joined the Boston Celtics after a short stint in Charlotte, giving the Celtics the highest rated starting lineup in the league, and immediately led the Celtics to a 33W-7L (0.825) record during the second half of the year. Lebron improved Boston's record from 32W-10L (0.762) to an eventual top-of-the-league 65W-17L (0.793) for the first time in the D5 Celtics history!
Lebron's legacy may be even greater in the D5 Universe, but his track record does seem to be tinged with more pain and defeat despite owning more silverwear; having amassed the same number of championships as real-life (3), first with Miami* and then in Golden State**, but tallying an extra two MVPs along the way and never having left a team in a controversial free agency decision, it's a wonder where D5 fans would place him in all their GOAT discussions! In 2012 his Heat lost to Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, but Lebron vanquished those demons the following year when an ageing Garnett/Pierce/Allen were soundly beaten in the Semi-Finals en route to Lebron's first ever championship. The next two years Lebron would lose to both Portland* and Golden State*, and the next year he was not only traded to the Warriors but lost to Kevin Durant's Thunder in the Conference Finals, giving Durant some legitimate bragging rights in terms of legacy, and then Russell Westbrook went on to win his first D5 championship for Charlotte! Fast-forward to 2020 and Russell Westbrook's Hornets not only traded Lebron away to Boston after only half a season, but Boston lost to Charlotte in the Eastern Conference Finals as the team who spurned him defied all the odds and won it all again! Lebron's Celtics deposited a huge chunk of their youth and prospects to go into win-now mode but they came up short when it mattered, and the legacy of The King could maybe be seen to have a few more blemishes here at D5 than in real life.
Regardless though - in Lebron we are witness to the greatest force of a generation, an almost guaranteed one way ticket to the Finals, or at least Conference Finals for the better part of the last decade! Even now as he approaches the later stages of his dominant career, Lebron continues to lead his team in real life as well as here at Dynasty Five, showing a longevity only matched by some of the greatest names to ever play the game. He came up just one game shy of a Finals appearance this year, but without him the Celtics would not have been in the same discussion with Milwaukee, Charlotte, Denver and Sacramento. In real life Lebron's all-star pairing with Anthony Davis make the Lakers championship favourites, here at D5 he's got two all-stars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, with Jamal Murray and Jaylen Brown similarly outclassing the rest of the real-life Lakers roster, and you can't help but get the feeling that a championship can't be too far off for Boston so long as that core holds together.
This season's MVP race was especially tough to call, not least because it's the first time I've ever given a D5 Award to myself (!), but there were so many players with a case to be made this year! The mid-season GM Survey tipped Denver's James Harden to pick up his second straight MVP Award, but from the time of the results being published until the end of the regular season the Nuggets were a disappointing 13W-8L, dropping to fifth in the overall standings, whilst Lebron's Celtics went 18W-4L and finished out on top, even above Anthony Davis and the mighty Bucks. Despite the D5 Hornets now being synonymous with Russell Westbrook's two championships and storied leadership, Paul George asserted himself as the dominant force for Charlotte and made a case for himself as well. The Kings packed roster was led by DeMar DeRozan's brilliance to the top of the West, and credit should also go to Lebron's teammate, Joel Embiid, who made Boston a fearsome force even before The King's arrival. In the end though, the dominance of Lebron and what he lent to the regular season Celtics was impossible to ignore as the single most valuable player contribution to any team in the league.
Congratulations, for the sixth time, to Lebron James and the Boston Celtics.
2019/20 Stats - 25.5ppg | 8.7rpg | 7.0apg | 1.5bpg | 1.9spg
Also in contention:
Milwaukee Bucks - Anthony Davis - 23.7ppg | 11.3rpg | 3.5apg | 2.2bpg | 2.1spg
Denver Nuggets - James Harden - 27.2ppg | 5.0rpg | 10.2apg | 0.7bpg | 2.6spg
Sacramento Kings - DeMar DeRozan - 20.7ppg | 7.0rpg | 5.9apg | 0.9bpg | 1.7spg
Charlotte Hornets - Paul George - 25.7ppg | 8.8rpg | 4.2apg | 1.4bpg | 2.0spg
Boston Celtics - Joel Embiid - 25.6ppg | 12.0rpg | 3.6apg | 2.6bpg | 1.4spg